This is one of the common problem that is unfortunately tackled by pharmacists more than the doctors on the initial stages. It comes under the most common problem that everyone in his or her life must have faced this at least once. The cough troubles not only the human beings but some animals like dog, horses are also affected badly.
Ayurveda believes that the cough (known as kaasa) is considered to be most troublesome to throat and so to an individual. This can be with thick and thin mucus or phlegm. In some type of cough like smoker’s cough, it is characterized by dry cough and the persistency is comparatively high. Cough troubles person in his or her daily routine like speaking, eating, sleeping and sometimes even breathing.
To define cough, it is nothing but an action of the body to get rid of any foreign substance or own creation (like mucus) that irritates or impediments the airway or windpipe. When certain special cells along with the air pathway gets irritated and trigger the chain of events, the whole procedure is called as cough and the act of it is called as coughing.
There is expelling of an air from the lungs suddenly with noise from mouth. Ayurveda defines kaasa meaning the sound, which is produced when you crash two stones with each other.
There are many causes from the small ones to danger ones. This can also be physiological event if something irritating goes into the windpipe including some food particles while swallowing. Some illness like pneumonia, heart failure or a clot in the blood vessels of the lung (called as pulmonary embolism) also produces the cough.
Smoking and asthma also give rise to coughing. Some condition like gastro-esophageal reflux where the stomach content comes back into the mouth may also produce the cough. Cough could be the side effect of some allopathic drug like angiotensin converting enzymes (ACE) inhibitors. Infections like bacteria, virus also produce the irritation to the lungs, bronchial tree or the windpipe itself and produce cough.
Environmental substances that irritate the lungs, air passage or the throat cause coughing. Cigarette smoking, pipe smoke, low environmental humidity, pollution, dist, dirt, grimes and congested place also create cough in an individual. The profession also plays an important role in producing the cough. Like a person working in woolen factory or chemical factory or pharmaceutical factory where there are particles of the materials irritating the respiratory tract is most common cause producing the cough.
Ayurveda believes that Kapha Dosha dominating disease. Those foods and other deeds that aggravate the Kapha Dosha also give rise to the cough. Ayurveda also favors some chronic disease as described above as a causative factor for producing the kaasa or cough.
Signs and symptoms which revile the infections are fever, body aches, sore throats, sinus pressure, chills, post nasal drip, malaise, nausea, vomiting etc are there if the cough is infectious. There are many symptoms but broadly, it can be classified under two categories; productive and non-productive.
Non-productive cough
This is also called as dry-cough. There won’t be any mucus or purulent discharge from the respiratory tract along with the cough. In this, whenever a person coughs, he or she finds difficult in breathing. The dry cough produces more noise as compare to the productive cough i.e. cough with discharge.
Productive cough
As the name suggests, the cough with some discharge whether purulent or non purulent or phlegm is considered to be productive cough. The color of the product may vary from person to person and condition to condition. It could be white, yellow or bloody, which is dangerous indicating some serious problem. All the time, a person feels that the throat is getting irritated and needs something expelling out, which will not give any good results though.
Ayurveda describes five types of cough i.e. kaasa. This includes Vataja kaasa (produced by Vata Dosha), Pittaja (by Pitta Dosha), kaphaja (by Kapha Dosha), kshayaja and kshataja. Vataja features pain in flanks, lungs and in chest. It has mainly dry cough. Pittaja has purulent discharge (generally foul smelling and having yellow color). There may be fever associated with the pittaja kaasa. Sour taste feeling in the mouth is very common.
The kaphaja kaasa is having white discharge and sweet taste all time in mouth. The tongue is quoted and heaviness in the chest is felt. The person with this type of kaasa may have headache. Kshayaja kaasa come from sever infections. If someone does excessive intercourse, suppression of natural urges like urine, feces etc invite this type of cough. All the bodily doshas are affected. Kshataja kaasa is developed by over exertion of anything. This may include excessive traveling in open air, carrying or lifting the load which is out of your capacity.
Diet control and control over the roaming is to be kept in mind. One should not go to the dusty place or out there in heavy pollution. As this could be an airborne infection, keep yourself away from public places especially dense areas. Avoid those places also where the cleaning is going on as on road or in house. Stay out of the allergens that trigger up the cough. Try to avoid the clothes, brooms and dustbins nearby you, which produce the cough.
Give up dry food items like grams etc. Cold drinks, ice creams, cold water, smoking, stimulant beverages etc are harmful and produce the cough. Hot spicy and oily foods are best to be avoided.
There are many Ayurvedic herbs that can give relief in cough. They are either available in combination or available as single drug. These include vaasa, aardraka, tulasi, yashtimadhu, kaasani, kantakari, pushkarmool etc. There are lot many herbal cough syrups available in the market. One can go for the combination having above mentioned drugs. Some of the formulas like Eladi vati, Sitopaladi Churnam, Haridra Khanda, Vyoshadi vati, Chyavanprashavleha etc are also practiced in treating the cough since centuries.
