Chronic coughing
With the COVID-19 pandemic, we have become even more careful when we hear someone coughing around us, and if we happen to cough ourselves, we rush to check if it is something else. Despite this, the newest variants of coronavirus don’t have the same coughing symptoms, and if we are not positive, we end up thinking it is just a cold or respiratory infection.
Santosh Kesari, MD, is a board-certified neuro-oncologist and neurologist at the John Wayne Cancer Institute. He warns that chronic coughing is often the first cancer symptom when talking about lung cancer. Any persistent cough should be investigated, and if you know yourself to have a chronic cough, you should pay attention to it.
If you are a heavy smoker, you might be accustomed to coughing as it is a side effect of smoking, but you should be careful if there are any changes in the way you cough—a more hoarse or deep cough should start to ring a bell that it’s high time you visit a pneumologist.
A good course of action would be to schedule a doctor’s appointment if you have had a persistent cough for more than three weeks, and immediately if you happen to cough blood, as it is a severe symptom of multiple diseases, not only cancer.
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People with asthma, COPD or GERD (acid reflux) can also have a chronic cough. But I agree if you cough up blood, or if the cough changes and get a lot worse, something is definitely up and you should see a doctor.