My guest this evening was Dr Dipak Mukherjee, Consultant Chest Physician at Spire Hartswood Hospital. He was discussing breathlessness and coughing as symptoms of respiratory illness.

Most of us have suffered in some way with coughs and colds. There are two types of cough. Firstly the dry tickle in the throat, which means the upper airways are inflamed. The brain translates this as a foreign object inn the throat and tries to remove it by coughing.

Secondly, there is the chesty cough. This produces phlegm, and the cough helps to remove phlegm from the lung passages.

There are many different ways of catching a cough. It can be caused by a virus such as cold or flu. It may be as a result of an allergy. Asthma can often cause coughing. It could be reflux. Smoking will cause a cough. Less commonly it may be the first sign of a condition causing a long term cough such as lung cancer, heart failure, pulmonary embolism (clot on the lung), cystic fibrosis or tuberculosis.

Doctors often classify coughs according to how long they last. Less than 3 weeks is acute, 3-8 weeks is subacute and chronic is more than 8 weeks.

There’s no quick way of getting rid of a cough caused by viral infection, it just has to run its course. It will usually clear up after the immune system has fought it off.

Some cold and flu medicines have ingredients that may help treat symptoms associated with a cough, such as a blocked nose or fever.

Antibiotics are not used to treat coughs because they are only effective in killing bacteria, not viruses. The simplest way to treat a cough is to try some honey and lemon. Honey is a demulcent which means which means it coats the throat and relieves the irritation that causes coughing.

If you have a cough for more than 3 weeks you should visit your gp who will be able to do some tests to find the cause of the cough.

If your doctor advises further investigations and you get referred to Spire Hartswood, you can undergo a series of tests to determine the cause.

A chest x-ray is to see if you have a chest infection. A sample of your phlegm is taken for analysis to decide if antibiotics should be prescribed. A spirometry test is to see if the airways are blocked. Allergy testing or a bronchoscopy where a camera is inserted into the lungs.

If you have any worrying symptoms contact your gp. The sooner the cough is treated, the sooner it can be cleared up.