Probably a large misunderstanding of human anatomy but why does it seem that coughing is really inefficient at removing whatever the body is trying to expel from the lungs. As a comparison, vomiting, diarrhea, sneezing are all very forceful without really any effort on the part of us. However, coughs seem to barely expel anything without help from medication and continue WELL after the actual infection is resolved unlike those other body expulsion techniques mentioned above. I type this with a non-productive cough two weeks after a cold.
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There are two main factors that go into this:
1) Coughing is an attempt to expel solid matter with a system that has the primary purpose of moving gas.
In vomiting and diarhea you’re moving a mix of solids and liquids with a system that has the primary purpose of moving a mix of solids and liquids.
With sneezing you’re moving gas and particulates suspended in that gas, with a system that has the primary purpose of moving gas.
A system for moving gas has some obvious difficulties when moving solids – fortunately there are some backups specifically for that purpose, but they’re not as strong as something constantly in use for that purpose.
2) It’s less obvious when you succeed, because coughing isn’t about getting things out of your body.
Vomiting, Diarhea and Sneezing all aim to remove something from your body entirely. Coughing just wants to get it up to the point where your air tube and your food tube meet, so that it can be swallowed down your food tube.
So sometimes you will successfully cough something up and not realise you’ve done so, because it doesn’t reach your mouth.
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