Coughing is one of the most common symptoms of changing weather. When the trees start budding or the leaves start falling in preparation for autumn, you usually start getting all flu-like symptoms that force you to address the question of whether it’s happening because of a cold or an allergy. With the pandemic hitting us out of nowhere, anything like this becomes the center of major concern. As covid-19 does have symptoms like dry coughing. It forces us to investigate the true cause of our coughing.
Allergies are basically being in the presence of stimuli that tends to trigger an irritating response in your throat or nose, which leads to the secretion of a certain chemical. This chemical then forces your body to develop symptoms like coughing or sneezing. You can be allergic to many different things and can go on living your life without knowing about it. If that is the case here and you’re confused whether you actually have a cold or are just allergic, you definitely need to read our article and enlighten yourself on such an issue.
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Can Allergies Cause a Cough? Cold and Allergies
Since cold and allergies have been mistaken for each other every time someone starts coughing, then we certainly need to clear up what exactly cold and allergies are. The first thing we need to focus on is their causes. Both have different causes, you can only get a cold when a living organism such as a virus gets into your body. This way your body activates its immune system to counterattack which leads to you having cold-like symptoms such as a fever or stuffed up nose. Viruses that have the ability to give you a cold is contagious so you can get them from people who are infected through a cough or sneeze etc.
Allergies are a little different. People who are allergic to things have an overactive immune system. Your body keeps on mistaking things like dust or pollen as a virus. Due to this, they release a chemical called histamine that swells up your nose’s passageway resulting in you getting symptoms like sneezing or coughing.
Why Do We Cough?
Coughing is basically a response to irritation in your throat or airways. When you feel this irritation your receptors of the trachea, throat, and lungs quickly alert the cough center of your brain. Coughing is a defense mechanism against anything it might think has gotten stuck in your throat, trachea, or lungs. Things like pollen, mucus so can make way for air to easily travel through.
Dust Allergies and Coughing
Now that we’ve established why do we actually cough, it’s easier to judge whether we can cough during allergies or not. Its pretty easy to understand that if our body is constantly coughing then there’s definitely something wrong with our throat or lungs. It’s the first red sign. However, if we talk about allergies then yes allergies can cause coughing. Our immune system is basically using coughing as a defensive action against anything that might have wandered into our bodies. People who have dust allergies are usually the ones who start coughing when they get an allergic attack. Meaning if your body inhales pollen or dust particles, it would rebel against it by coughing it all out.
While all of this is happening your body will release chemicals like histamine that would produce cold-like symptoms such as a stuffed or runny nose, sore throat, etc.
How Can You Tell that You Have an Allergy Cough?
In order to tell whether you have an allergy cough, it’s important to check what type is it. Allergies trigger a dry or wet cough even though after nasal dripping, there’s usually a dry cough. There is also a third kind of cough which is the chronic cough that lasts at least 3 weeks. This is a major sign of an allergy. A cold cough never lasts more than 14 days so if your coughing exceeds this number, you definitely have an allergy cough. Another thing that sets it apart from a cold is the fever. If you have no fever then you definitely have been exposed to an allergen that’s caused this coughing symptom.
If you’re still confused about it then you should ask yourself questions like when did you start coughing? Do you feel any fever or aches in your body? How long have you been coughing? All of these will bring everything into perspective for you.
Conclusion:
Have you finally found the answer to your question? We certainly hope so. Coughing can be a very telling symptom of something being wrong with your body. With coronavirus spreading like wildfire at every corner, it’s important to get your facts straight and acknowledge the true extent of the problem. If you’re able to do that then you’ll very much be able to treat it accordingly. To treat something, it’s crucial to know its cause this is why we’ve got everything you’d want to know about coughing and its causes.
Danny is a passionate writer who loves to share his knowledge about air purifiers. He’s been writing for 10 years, and he’ll share all that experience with Very Well Home viewers to help you make the best decision when it’s time to buy an appliance!