Coughing
Everyone knows what it is. If you are reading this article, sitting in front of your computer, you probably have a very good idea of what a cough is – or not.
For most people coughing is the uncontrollable expulsion of air from the lungs. That’s it. A few spoonfuls of cough syrup and you could forget you even had a cough. But that’s not all there is to it.
In medicine, coughing is the repetitive and often uncontrollable reflex of inhaling and sudden exhaling, with the violent release of air from the lungs through the opening of the glottis. This is followed by that distinct coughing sound.
Coughing, it’s a defensive reflex, mind you, so don’t get too worked up over it. This sudden and repetitive expulsion of air from the lungs help to clear the person’s breathing passages from microbes, foreign particles, irritants, and excess secretions. So coughing is cleaning our air passages. It’s a good thing. We know. It hurts sometimes, and that’s the signal that something foreign is sitting in our air passages and it needs to be cleaned out.
In cold countries like the UK, coughing is something that happens to everyone once in a while. But don’t worry too much about it. Take some cough syrup and you should be fine. It’s only when the coughing persists that you need to take the extra step and see a doctor.