Why does coughing occur with allergies?

In humans, coughing is an unconditional reflex that ensures the survival of the organism. Coughing appears as a response to irritation of the lung tissue, mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract, coughing during allergies is also a response to irritation.

Unfortunately, an allergic cough is not protective in the true sense of the word - it does not remove foreign bodies from the respiratory tract. Very often, a cough due to allergies indicates the onset of such a disorder as bronchial asthma. Such a cough is caused not only by external irritants that come with inhalation, but also by substances that have entered the bloodstream and caused the development of an allergic reaction.

Read also: Cough in asthma

Allergy in the form of cough is quite easily distinguished from cough of infectious and other nature by the absence of temperature, absence of viscous sputum with a putrid odor. Cough is a complication of an allergic reaction of the body. As a rule, a dry, exhausting, tearful, roaring allergic cough does not bring relief and does not stop for a long time. Cough can be accompanied by other allergic manifestations in the form of rhinitis, lacrimation, sneezing. This reaction often appears when inhaling allergens - smoke, dust particles, pollen, fluff, chemicals. When the mechanism of an allergic reaction is triggered, histamine is released, which causes vasodilation and blood stagnation in the capillaries (microcirculation is disrupted), this process causes swelling of the mucous membranes and irritates the receptors, irritation of the receptors on the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract leads to a protective reaction - cough.

The allergic edema process starts especially quickly in a young organism and coughing with allergies in children can be accompanied by a feeling of suffocation, pressure in the chest, even vomiting. In children, the allergic nature of cough is established if there are no signs of acute respiratory viral infections and acute respiratory infections, if the cough intensifies in the presence of those substances (objects) that are suspected of being allergens, if the cough is seasonal, if there is a positive dynamic after taking antihistamines. In children, an allergic reaction in the form of cough can manifest itself in food, medicines, insect bites, if the allergen is often in contact with the body, then there is a high probability of developing an asthmatic complication of the immune response.

Types of cough due to allergies

So, one of the main differences between a cough with a hyperimmune response and attacks with ARI and ARVI is a dry cough with allergies. It is the dryness and the practical absence of other symptoms that can lead to the idea of an allergic nature of the cough. This cough suddenly appears and can just as suddenly go away on its own. Sometimes it is combined with rashes of an allergic nature, sometimes it leads to a persistent feeling of suffocation. Very rarely, after long, straining attacks, due to mechanical damage to the mucous membranes during coughing attacks, sputum with streaks of blood can be released from the bronchi, which gets into the sputum from damaged vessels. This situation requires careful examination by specialists to exclude serious diseases that lead to internal bleeding.

Sometimes a cough occurs not even as a reaction to the presence of any substances, but as a reaction to the difference in ambient temperatures, for example, a cough with an allergy to cold occurs when moving from a warm room to a cold one. The bronchospastic reflex protects our respiratory tract from sudden hypothermia and is protective in nature, however, with hyperreactivity of the smooth muscles of the bronchi, a spasm of the respiratory tract may occur, which will be accompanied by coughing fits, a feeling of suffocation and indicates a tendency to bronchial asthma. Help in this case consists in smoothing out the difference in the temperature of inhaled and exhaled air, completely abandoning breathing through the mouth, taking antispasmodics and examination by a pulmonologist and allergist.

As with cold allergy, cough with food allergy loses its original protective purpose - to remove a foreign body from the respiratory tract. It occurs as a response to irritation of receptors during swelling of the mucous membranes due to impaired microcirculation as a consequence of the reaction to released histamines during food allergy. Naturally, when the food allergen is eliminated, the cough also goes away, and the condition can also be alleviated by taking enterosorbents (reduce the amount of allergens from food entering the bloodstream using enterosorb, polysorb, enterosgel, activated carbon). Since food allergies most often occur in children, gel forms should be preferred when choosing sorbents (children often refuse to take activated carbon due to its mechanical properties).

It should be remembered that coughing always indicates the onset of edema! For this reason, a strong cough due to allergies requires increased attention (due to the risk of its development into Quincke's edema). If the allergic nature of the cough is established, it is necessary to eliminate the allergen as soon as possible and take antihistamines, since a reaction in the form of a persistent cough of high intensity threatens to transform the cough from a series of complications in allergies into a cough in asthmatic bronchitis. A strong cough due to allergies can occur in response to allergenic food components, as a reaction to the presence of allergens in the environment (dust, fluff, pollen), to temperature fluctuations, and can also have a psychological nature (an allergic cough in response to strong emotional stress as an allergic reaction to the release of hormones).