Coughing as a Sign of Heart Disease

Coughing is an essential body's defense against diseases. It expels microbes, mucus and foreign particles from the respiratory tract, thus protecting the lungs from infection and inflammation.

When a person coughs for several minutes, he may think that 'something's gone down the wrong pipe'. When coughing for several days, a person may think he has caught a cold or flu. However, if coughing persists for several weeks, allergy or bronchitis comes to mind. The majority of people associate coughing with an airway or lung problem, but not with the heart. Although a cough that won't quit, can be a sign of heart disease.

A long-lasting cough, that may become worse at night, can be a sign of heart failure. This happens when the heart fails to pump enough blood to the body organs, causing blood to back up to the lungs. When fluid stays in the lungs or is cleared out too slowly, it becomes difficult to breath. This fluid build up is the reason for the heart disease term 'congestive heart failure'.

Cough that is caused by heart failure can be of several forms:

wet coughing fits with white or frothy pink mucus - which is quite common with heart failure;

coughing spells accompanied with heavy wheezing and difficult breathing, along with bubbling breathing and whistling sounds in the lungs - which can be a sign that the disease has become substantially worse;

severe coughing, accompanied by dyspnea, paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea, edema and orthopnea - which is a severe form of heart failure.

Sometimes cough can take less severe forms, such as chronic, dry cough with very small amount of mucus, which is oftentimes written off as being related to some other problem. In such cases people often fail to seek medical help and later on develop more serious symptoms.

Coughing as a symptom of heart failure responds to an adjustment of heart failure treatment. Therefore, heart failure patients should never ignore the onset of cough, especially if it is persistent or gradually worsening. And every person with chronic cough mustn't delay seeing a doctor, even if he considers his cough pretty mild. Only doctor will be able to check what is causing it.