About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Causes
By Mayo Clinic staffAn occasional cough is normal — it helps clear foreign substances and secretions from your lungs and prevents infection. But a cough that persists for long periods of time may signal an underlying problem. Some causes of coughs include:
- Acute sinusitis
- Allergies
- Asthma
- Bronchiectasis
- Bronchiolitis (especially in young children)
- Bronchitis
- Childhood asthma
- Choking: First aid (especially in children)
- Chronic sinusitis
- Common cold
- COPD
- Croup (especially in young children)
- Cystic fibrosis
- Emphysema
- GERD
- Hay fever
- Heart failure (congestive)
- Influenza (flu)
- Laryngitis
- Lung cancer
- Medications called angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors
- Pneumonia
- Postnasal drip
- Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) (especially in young children)
- Tuberculosis
- Whooping cough
Causes shown here are commonly associated with this symptom. Work with your doctor or other health care professional for an accurate diagnosis.
- Cough. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. National Institutes of Health. http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/cough/cough_all.html. Accessed July 1, 2010.
- Information for patients complaining of cough. American College of Chest Physicians. http://accpstorage.org/newOrganization/patients/cough/adult.pdf. Accessed July 1, 2010.
- Cough symptoms chart. American Academy of Family Physicians. http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/tools/symptom/516.html. Accessed July 1, 2010.
- Seller RH. Cough. In: Seller RH. Differential Diagnosis of Common Complaints. 5th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007:93.
- Moreno MA. Advice for parents: Bronchiolitis and Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. 2009;163:1072.
- Bronchiolitis and your child. American Academy of Family Physicians. http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/children/parents/common/common/020.html. Accessed July 1, 2010.
- Patient information for parents of a child with cough. American College of Chest Physicians. http://accpstorage.org/newOrganization/patients/cough/pediatric.pdf. Accessed July 1, 2010.
- Rosenow EC (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. July 6, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on