Coughing from time to time helps clear particles and secretions from the lungs and helps to prevent infection.

Although coughing is not usually a sign of a serious problem, it can be annoying. Coughing frequently is embarrassing, can make you physically tired, make it hard to sleep, and cause you to be dizzy, hoarse, and leak urine

It is normal for people to cough once in a while. But sometimes, cough is a symptom of an illness

You should call your doctor right away if:

    - You have trouble breathing or noisy breathing (wheezing)

    - You have a fever or chest pain

    - You cough up blood, or yellow or green mucus

    - You cough so hard that it makes you vomit or near fainting

    - Your cough gets worse or lasts longer than 10 days

    - You have cough and have lost weight without trying

Breathlessness is the subjective sensation of difficult, laboured or uncomfortable breathing.

We are all aware of breathlessness when we exercise beyond our normal tolerance but it is not normal when occur with little or no exertion.

Approximately two thirds of cases of breathlessness in adults are due to lung or heart disorder.

Serial of tests can be carried out such as ECG, lung function test etc to identify the underlying cause of breathlessness and treat accordingly.

Asthma is a common condition that affects the airways. The typical symptoms are wheeze, cough, chest tightness, and shortness of breath.

Asthma can start at any age, but it most commonly starts in childhood.

Asthma runs in some families, but many people with asthma have no other family members affected.

Treatment is usually with inhalers.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a general term which includes the conditions of chronic bronchitis and emphysema.

With COPD the airflow to the lungs is restricted (obstructed).

COPD is usually caused by smoking.

Symptoms include cough and breathlessness.

COPD should be considered as a possible diagnosis in anyone aged over 35 years old who smokes, or has ever smoked and has persistent problems such as cough with lots of phlegm, breathlessness or wheeze, and recurrent chest infections.

The most important treatment is to stop smoking.

Inhalers are commonly used to ease symptoms.

Other treatments such as steroids, antibiotics, oxygen, and mucolytic (mucus-thinning) medicines are sometimes prescribed in more severe cases, or during a flare-up (exacerbation) of symptoms.

Pneumonia is an inflammation of the lung tissue. It is usually due to infection by a bacterium or virus.

Bronchitis is an inflammation or infection of the large airways.

Pneumonia tends to be more serious than bronchitis. Sometimes bronchitis and  pneumonia occur together which is called  bronchopneumonia.

You may breathe in some bacteria, viruses, or other germs. If you are normally healthy, a small number of germs usually don’t matter. They will be trapped in your sputum and killed by your immune system. Sometimes the germs multiply and cause lung infections. This is more likely to happen if you are already in poor health.

Typical symptoms are cough, fever, sweats, shivers, being off your food and feeling generally unwell. Headaches and aches and pains are common. You usually make more sputum. This may become yellow/green coloured and is sometimes bloodstained.

You may become breathless, breathe fast and develop a tight chest. A sharp pain in the side of the chest may develop if the infection involves the pleura. (This is the membrane between the lung and the chest wall.)

Treatment at home may be fine, if you are normally well and the pneumonia is not severe.

An antibiotic is prescribed when pneumonia is suspected. Antibiotic treatment is usually effective and you can expect to recover fully. Symptoms should improve after 3 days if the treatment is working.

Hospital admission may be advised if you have severe pneumonia, or if symptoms do not quickly improve after you have started antibiotic treatment.

Lung cancer (cancer of the lung) is common worldwide. Around 8 in 10 cases develop in people over the age of 60, usually in smokers.

Non-smokers have a low risk of developing lung cancer. However, people who are regularly exposed to other people's smoke (passive smokers) have a small increased risk.

A family history of lung cancer in a first-degree relative (mother, father, brother, sister) slightly increases the risk of lung cancer. But note: most cases of lung cancer do not run in families.

The symptoms of lung cancer can vary between different people. Many people do not have symptoms in the early stages and lung cancer may be diagnosed when a chest X-ray is performed for a different reason.

 Symptoms of lung cancer may include one or more of the following:

• Persistent cough.

• Coughing up blood or bloodstained sputum.

• Chest and/or shoulder pains.

• Tiredness and loss of energy.

• Weight loss.

• Shortness of breath or wheezing - especially if a tumour is growing in a main airway and is partially blocking the airflow.

• Hoarse voice.

• Pneumonia (lung infection) which may develop in a part of a lung blocked off by a growing tumour. The infection may not improve with antibiotics.

• Fluid which may accumulate between the lung and chest wall (pleural effusion). This can cause worsening shortness of breath.

• Swelling of the face (face oedema) which may develop if a tumour presses on a main vein coming towards the heart from the head.

If a doctor suspects that you may have lung cancer, the common initial test is a chest X-ray.

You may be offered a computerised tomography (CT) scan which will help to confirm the diagnosis of lung cancer.

Treatment options which may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The treatment advised for each case depends on various factors, such the site of the primary tumour in the lung, the type of cancer, the stage of the cancer (how large the cancer is and whether it has spread) and also your general health.

A pleural effusion (water in the lung) is a collection of fluid next to the lung. There are various causes. The effusion may cause you to become breathless. You may feel some chest pain but a pleural effusion is often painless.

The fluid can be drained if necessary. Treatment is mainly aimed at the underlying cause.

If the underlying cause can be successfully treated then there is a good chance that the pleural effusion will go away for good.

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a condition where your breathing stops for short spells when you are asleep. The word apnoea means without breath - that is, the breathing stops.

The breathing stops because of an obstruction to the flow of air down your airway.

You may also have episodes where your breathing becomes abnormally slow and shallow. This is called hypopnoea. Because there can also be these episodes of hypopnoea, doctors sometimes use the term obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome.

When we sleep, the throat muscles relax and become floppy (like other muscles). In most people, this does not affect breathing. If you have OSA, the throat muscles become so relaxed and floppy during sleep that they cause a narrowing or even a complete blockage of the airway.

When your airway is narrowed and the airflow is restricted, at first this causes snoring. If there is a complete blockage then your breathing actually stops (apnoea) for around 10 seconds. Your blood oxygen level then goes down and this is detected by your brain. Your brain then tells you to wake up and you make an extra effort to breathe. Then, you start to breathe again with a few deep breaths. You will normally go back off to sleep again quickly and will not even be aware that you have woken up.

If someone watches you, he or she will notice that you stop breathing for a short time, and then make a loud snore and a snort, perhaps even sound as if you are briefly choking, briefly wake up, and then get straight back off to sleep.

If you have OSA, you wake up many times during the night. You will not remember most of these times but your sleep will have been greatly disturbed. As a consequence, you will usually feel sleepy during the day. Daytime sleepiness in someone who is a loud snorer at night is the classic hallmark of someone who has OSA.

OSA can occur at any age, including in children. However, it most commonly develops in middle-aged men who are overweight.

If you have symptoms that suggestive OSA, you should refer to specialist for further testing. A sleep study can be done whilst you sleep either at home or hospital to confirm or rule out OSA.

Rhinitis refers to inflammation of the nasal passages. This inflammation can cause a variety of annoying symptoms, including sneezing, nasal congestion, runny nose, and post-nasal drip (the sensation that mucus is draining from the sinuses down the back of the throat).

Allergic rhinitis, also known as hay fever, affects approximately 20 percent of people of all ages. The risk of developing allergic rhinitis is much higher in people with asthma or eczema and in people who have a family history of asthma or rhinitis.

There appear to be both genetic and environmental factors contributing to the development of allergic rhinitis. The most common allergen is the house dust mite, followed by cats and dogs.

The treatment of allergic rhinitis includes reducing exposure to allergens and other triggers, in combination with medication therapy.