What disease does coughing a lot at night warn about?

I often have an itchy throat, cough, and difficulty breathing from midnight to early morning. I take cough medicine but it doesn't get better. What disease is this a sign of? (Quyen, 29 years old, Hanoi)

Reply:

Coughing is the body's natural mechanism to expel irritants or obstructions in the airways. Nighttime and early morning coughs can be caused by environmental conditions, medical conditions, or both.

Many factors in the bedroom can lead to coughing such as cold air, dust from air conditioning, fans or mattresses; pollen, animal hair or mold. If these are the causes of coughing, you just need to clean the room, wash the mattress to remove dust, mold, animal hair; clean the cooling equipment.

Some diseases can also cause coughing at night, early in the morning, the most common of which are chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The reason is that when sleeping, the airways are often narrower than normal, making asthma easier to develop, especially in people who are overweight, have a short neck, or have sleep apnea syndrome.

At night, the body produces less epinephrine, a hormone that relaxes the airways and reduces shortness of breath, than at other times of the day. In some people with both asthma and GERD, sleeping in a lying position can make GERD worse, leading to increased coughing and asthma attacks.

Nighttime coughs can also be related to whooping cough, pneumonia, bronchitis. In general, these diseases have quite similar symptoms. Therefore, to make an accurate differential diagnosis, you need to see a respiratory specialist and perform additional respiratory function tests, chest X-rays, depending on the doctor's instructions. Do not overuse cough medicine because it can hinder the body's self-cleaning mechanism of the airways.

For people with asthma, a nighttime cough can trigger an acute attack of the disease, which is very dangerous. Patients should prepare asthma-relief medication when sleeping to use immediately when an asthma attack occurs. The way to use the medication is to spray 1-2 puffs, after 15-20 minutes if difficulty breathing continues, continue to spray 2-3 more puffs. If the difficulty breathing is still not controlled, the patient should go to a medical facility for timely treatment.

Smokers should quit as soon as possible, maintaining a reasonable weight helps reduce nighttime coughing. The indoor environment should be kept clean, dust-free, ensuring the best room temperature between 26-32 degrees Celsius, humidity 30-60%. People with respiratory problems, especially asthma, should avoid keeping animals such as dogs, cats, and birds in the house.

Master, Doctor La Quy Huong
Respiratory Department, Tam Anh General Hospital, Hanoi

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