The Cough

You cough, and I cough! And rarely does either of us pay this cough any special attention, unless it is accompanied by fever, or a sharp pain in the throat. The fact is that there are important truths which every cultured person would do well to know. So here they are.

— Does a cough always call for consulting the doctor?

— No. Most kinds of cough are superficial and call for no concern or anxiety — such as the one that accompanies the common cold, or the cough of those addicted to smoking. In these two cases there is rarely any danger or cause for fear, and there is no pressing need to consult the doctor unless the cough drags on; in that case the matter must not be taken lightly.

— Is a chronic cough always a sign of consumption, or pulmonary tuberculosis?

— No. One of the chief causes of chronic cough is the inflammation of the facial passages called "sinusitis." It is best not to neglect yourself unless you are certain that sinusitis is the cause of your cough — and consulting the doctor is better than anything.

— Is the appearance of blood in the sputum always a sign of pulmonary tuberculosis?

— Certainly the first thing that comes to mind in this case is the presence of tuberculosis. But blood may also appear in the sputum of persons suffering from cancer of the lung, or cancer of the stomach, when the lungs and the chest passages are irritated and some of the blood vessels rupture as a result of the sharp coughing.

4 — And if I come down with a chronic cough, and am suffering from neither pulmonary tuberculosis nor the common cold, then to what else can this cough be traced?!

— High blood pressure, and diseases of the heart in all their variety, may be accompanied by a chronic cough. And your doctor may reassure you that the cause of the cough is a chronic "bronchitis," for this too is one of its usual causes.

— May a cough be a natural companion of certain healthy persons?

— Some nervous people resort, in awkward situations, to a light cough or a "clearing of the throat," and this may develop into a chronic cough. But this case is very rare,

and we must not always apply it to ourselves.
And the person addicted to smoking usually acquires a chronic cough; this is a simple matter that does not call for the attention of a specialist, but it very often has grave consequences for the future and causes numerous harms. Be that as it may, a chronic cough is a serious matter, and in all cases it calls for consulting the doctor.

— May we consider the cough, in itself, a disease?

— No. The cough is not a disease, but one of the signs of disease, and the doctor searches for its cause. He does not treat the cough itself, but the ailment that gives rise to it.

— For how long may a chronic cough be treated at home without consulting the doctor?

— That depends on the severity of the cough. If it comes along with a common cold, then the utmost limit for treating it at home is two weeks. If the two weeks pass and the cough persists, the doctor must be consulted at once to make certain there are no complications, or the beginnings of other diseases.