Please follow the instructions of the Federal Office of Health if you have a cough and fever!

Cough

Cough - pain of the lungs

Cough applies in Western medicine as "pain of the lungs." The airways want to get rid of pollutants. Type and duration of the cough help physicians to find the cause. Cough with yellowish expectoration, for example, indicates a bacterial infection of the bronchia (airways in the lungs).

A common cause of cough is the common cold (flu). Adults get it once or twice a year. Typical symptoms include sneezing with runny nose, cough, body aches and a slight fever. The reason for the common cold are usually viruses which like to settle in the nasal mucosa and cause inflammation.

Most colds disappear after seven to ten days alone. Treatment with medication is usually unnecessary. Sometimes it may happen that bacteria are added to the viral infection. This creates in sometimes bronchitis (inflammation of the airways in the lungs) or pneumonia what requires an antibiotic treatment.

Rising Lung Qi makes patients cough

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) cough has to do with the lungs. Cough (Ke Sou) indicates a failure of the functional circle "lung". An impairment of the lung function circuit causes that the lung qi does not descend anymore but that it will rise. This causes the cough.

Outer causes for a cough are especially wind, cold and dryness. There are also internal causes: phlegm and dampness or heat in the lungs. The internal causes are often at the bottom of a chronic damage of the lung function circle. These include smoking, frequent colds and errors in the diet.

The causes of a cough are mostly seen due to changes in tongue and pulse. To diagnose as well the type of cough is important (dry, wet). Ideal treatment of disorders of the lung function circuit are concoctions of herbs and acupuncture. The herbs are mixed individually for each type of cough.