What is cough?

Coughing is an important way to keep your throat and airways free, but excessive coughing may be because of an underlying disease or disorder. Some coughs are dry and others are mucus productive.

Acute coughs are sudden, caused by cold, flu or sinus infection and may last two to three weeks and chronic cough lasts longer than this.

The other sources of coughs include:

• Cigarette smoking
• Passive smoking
• Exposure to environmental pollution
• ACE inhibitors (drugs used to control blood pressure)
• Asthma
• Allergies
• Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease
• Lung infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia
• Lung tumours
• Sinusitis
• Dust
• Environmental air pollution
• Side effects of drugs

Children may develop coughs from diseases or causes which usually do not affect adults, such as croup, bronchiolitis, infection of the lower respiratory system caused by respiratory syncytial virus. Passive smoking, blockage of the airway with food or small toy or balloons and emotional or psychological problems can also cause cough in children.

Croup is a common respiratory problem seen in children between 1 and 3 years old, the symptoms are hoarseness, barking cough, striedon, a high pitched sound heard when breathing in and difficulty in breathing and is caused by a virus which affects the throat and upper airways. It can recur till the children become 5 or 6 years old and it could be avoided by humidifying the room where the children used to stay. If the symptoms are severe, go to your doctor, he may give medicines and if necessary oxygen also.

Bronchiolitis is the infection of small air passages and is also caused by a virus and it affects the children below 2 years. The symptoms include difficulty in breathing, rapid breathing and wheezing and it is better to go to the doctor if the breathing frequency increases considerably.

Remember, a cough is a symptom, but not a disease, a right diagnose must find out the real reason and the treatment with antibiotics could also be very carefully done only if pneumonia is diagnosed. Otherwise, aspirin, Paracetamol or ibuprofen is used to reduce fever and pains and headaches and children below 16 years should not take aspirin. Children could also be treated in the same way. If you use over-the-counter drugs, note always the content so that the patient, for example, should not get double the dose of Paracetamol because most of the over-the-counter drugs may also contain Paracetamol.

Codeine and dihydrocodeine can also be used in cough treatment.

If cough is a side effect of a drug contact your doctor immediately. I have seen persons who have coughed 10 years or more unnecessarily.

For common cold or cough you can also use grandmother’s mixtures which will help in most of the cases.

Can you tell me about the tension headache?

There are more than 300 types of headaches and the most common one is tension headache. If you are under stress this headache comes again and again. This is not very serious, but it can be very painful.

The causes of tension headache are not known. Now it is thought that a change in brain chemicals may be a cause. Otherwise tension or spasms in the muscles of your neck face and head may be the usual causes.

The tension headache symptoms include:

• There is constant pain, but not throbbing. The pain or pressure is felt on both sides of your head
• Pressure which makes you feel like your head in a vise
• Pain at the back of your head, neck or temples

Tension headache comes back if you have stress. They can last 30 minutes to several days. Normally the pain is not severe and does not affect your day-to-day life. If the pain is severe and lasts long go to your doctor.

To prevent tension headache you must learn how to handle your stress. Sleep enough and regular physical activity is important. Eat healthy food on a regular schedule. Whatever you do, try to avoid straining of your eyes. So to say a healthy lifestyle is important.

Tension headache is treated with painkillers like paracetamol or aspirin and these are mostly prescription-free. If you take often painkillers there may be the possibility of getting rebound headaches which are different from tension headache. This type of headache starts when the effect of the painkiller is gone. It is possible that you get headache whenever you stop taking the medicine. For the chronic tension headache you must take stronger painkillers and consult your doctor for that.

Even with medicines you may have headache, but may have it less often. Here every individual is different.

Write a diary about the time, date and the happenings on that day so that later it is useful for your doctor to treat you.

Paracetamol, the painkiller

Paracetamol is the most commonly used painkiller in the world. Persons who are allergic or sensitive to aspirin could use paracetamol without any problem. Compared to aspirin or ibuprofen it is not effective against inflammation. It is primarily used to reduce fever and to relieve aches and pain associated with cold, flu, menstrual cramps, arthritis, body aches, toothaches and other pains. In right dose it is also tolerated by children.

The side effects of paracetamol include:

• Hives, skin rash and short breath. Stop taking the medicine and go to your doctor
• Nausea
• Prolonged and habitual use can lead to liver damage or failure

Persons with known liver diseases should not take paracetamol.

The combination of paracetamol and alcohol is deadly. It is caused by taking more than prescribed doses or by habitual or long term use of paracetamol. Every year more than 800,000 persons die because of this combination in USA.

If you take paracetamol the fever must go within three days and the pain within 10 days. If not, go to your doctor immediately.

If you are pregnant or breast feeding consult with your doctor before taking paracetamol.

Usage for a long period can damage kidneys

Painkillers can be taken if you have pain and stop it immediately if the pain is reduced. For each small pain do not take them and it is not good for our health in the long run. Sometimes fresh air is better than painkillers.

If you are taking any tablets drink enough water.

To know more about paracetamol and its combinations read Dr. K. Padmanaban's "Side Effects of Medicines". For further details visit www.aaronverlag.com

Drinking Water

Drinking water is an essential food to live. 50% to 70% is the water content of the body and blood contains 95%, liver 90%, bone 22% and fat has 14% water. Women have 5% less water than men.

Water helps to get rid of wastes, regulates temperature and provides a medium for biological reactions in the body. If one doesn’t drink enough water, he could become dehydrated. The symptoms of dehydration include confusion, restless behaviour, absence of tears, dry and warm skin, dark yellow urine, weakness, cramping in the arms and legs and headache. The symptoms of moderate to severe dehydration includes low blood pressure, dry eyes, convulsions, severe muscle contractions in the arms, legs, stomach and back, bloating, rapid or weak pulse and heart failure. 5% drop in body fluids will cause 25 to 30% energy loss and 15% drop causes death. 80% of world’s population suffers energy loss because of mild dehydration.

Healthy adults need between 3 l to 4 l water in a day. Hot weather and physical activity increases the need for more water, 4 l to 6 l. If the colour of the urine is pale straw the fluid intake is normally fine. If it is dark yellow, one has to drink more. Coffee, tea and fruit juices intake could be counted with water intake. Vitamin B2 makes the urine dark yellow.

Health risks can arise from drinking of water contaminated with bacteria, virus, toxic chemicals including environmental poisons and radioactive compounds. It contributes diseases in developing and in developed countries. Water helps to metabolize fat and helps weight reduction. Boiling water can kill most of the bacteria and virus. Chlorine can react with chemicals to form toxic substances.

Recent studies in USA and UK show that a number of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, anti-epileptics, mood stabilizers and female sex hormones are found in drinking water. The found concentrations are very low – in parts per billion or trillion – which are far below the dose of medical dose. The water industry says that their water is safe. But the presence of so many drugs, prescription as well as over-the-counter medicines may have cumulative negative effects of long-term consequences to human health. We have to think of the mostly used drugs like paracetamol and ibuprofen. These can come from human excretions like urine or faeces and do not forget many throw the medicines in the toilets also. From the recycled or ground water these residues come to our drinking water.

The problems with hormones from the oral contraceptives are well known in Western countries.

The filters what we buy to purify our tap water are useless to filter these residues. Two things could help – the purifiers with reverse osmosis technique and the other one is simply distilling water. Rain water after 30 minutes of rain beginning is the most pure water if there is no industrial chimney in that area. The easiest, best and cheap method of purifying water from drugs and medicines is the distillation of water. Young scientists! Develop cheap distilling system which could be used in every house in this world. The cost of this should be distributed in such a way that the industry must subsidise this water distilling units to every home in our world.

If you have kidney problems or undergoing dialysis ask your doctor to know the amount of water to drink.