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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Speech pathologist and swallowing specialist here!
Coughing and swallowing go hand in hand. Swallowing is a prophylactic measure of defense against things from going down the wrong tube, coughing is a REACTIONARY defense when that happens.
The first commenter really only mentions coughing to remove solid items from our airway in case of obstruction, but actually aspirating (things going down the wrong way) liquids is much more likely and is much more frequent in both healthy and sick adults. In reality a solid somebody would choke on doesn’t make it THAT far down our airway. In healthy adults the respiratory system is actually very good at getting rid of liquids by both moving the liquid up but also breaking down into particulates so that it definitely leaves the airway. There are some awesome studies on that specifically.
This is important for us because the liquid itself isn’t necessarily bad but the bacteria it brings into the respiratory system can cause pneumonia and other respiratory infections.
That is why pneumonia is the leading cause of death in diseases like stroke (when somebody survives the initial stroke), Parkinson’s Disease, and Alzheimer’s. I’m these diseases patients lose their ability to swallow, but they ALSO lose their ability to cough out anything they didn’t swallow right. Immediate recipe for pneumonia. It’s VERY interesting because studies have shown an impaired cough is more of a contributed to pneumonia than impaired swallowing! We see this clinically in head and neck cancer patients who difficulties swallowing but have a good cough.
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