Cough

During cold and flu season, you may find yourself coughing up phlegm, and it may look yellow or green. That’s your body’s way of dealing with an infection. But you may have a virus that will go away on its own or you may have a bacterial infection that needs medication.

Coughing up black or brown mucus can occur when from environmental conditions like pollution or smoking. Other causes of brown phlegm include small amounts of blood located in the throat or further down in the airway.

A persistent dry cough can be caused from a upper respiratory infection or bronchitis. Other common causes for a dry throat cough include asthma, smoking, or viral throat infection. Viral pneumonia and COPD are less common causes of dry cough.

Pneumonia is an infection in the lungs, causing the air sacs in one or both of your lungs to become inflamed. This causes a cough, chest pain, and a fever. It can be bacterial or viral.

Croup is caused by several common viral infections that cause the upper airways to swell. Its hallmark symptom is a barky cough. Croup is generally not serious and can be treated at home, but severe cases need immediate medical attention.

Read what a doctor thinks about when you walk in with acute or chronic cough

Experiencing a bad taste in your mouth after coughing could simply be bad breath. However, it could also point to an underlying condition. Causes for bad taste from coughing range in severity.

Traces of blood in your saliva may be due to minor infection or trauma, like a nosebleed. But if you regularly cough up blood—called hemoptysis—or you’re coughing up large amounts of blood, you may need medical attention.

This article will discuss the respiratory illness whooping cough that can occur in children, adolescents, and adults. Symptoms include fatigue and malaise, a low-grade fever, excessive tearing, red eyes, severe coughing, a “whooping” sound on inspiration, and vomiting after coughing.

Your cough can be caused by viruses, bacterial infections, COVID-19, allergies, and a number of other conditions. Learn what your cough symptoms mean, how to get the right diagnosis, and what treatments actually help.

When mucus irritates your airways or lungs, it makes you cough up phlegm. Most of the time, a virus or bacteria has caused the mucus production. Or a history of cigarette smoking. Sometimes it’s contagious.

Uncontrollable coughing fits may signify a serious underlying problem, and causes include chronic respiratory disease and infectious, environmental, and mechanical causes.