A study that was conducted by five authors in 2018 reports an association between chronic cough and increased risks of hypertension or high blood pressure. The following study argues that people with chronic coughs are at great risk of hypertension than others; however, the usual risk factors associated with high blood pressure are unknown. In addition, if you are seeking effective treatments from the best medical specialists, then Healthwire is the best platform for you.
Table of Contents
Data Collection Method
Sixty-eight patients from MFT Wythenshawe (Manchester, UK) who were experiencing chronic cough were recruited. Gender and age for the following study were the control subjects and they were selected from hospital staff and individuals visiting their patients and from other local social groups.
Additionally, smokers with cardiovascular problems except for high blood pressure, and people with respiratory problems other than a cough in the patient group were removed from the participants. Patients with high blood pressure had consumed their antihypertensive medications before the testing. Seated blood pressure, demographic information, heart rate along with hypertensive status were measured with the help of a data collection tool.
Usually, T-tests (in statistics and SPSS) are applied to compare the groups of the participants. Similarly, T-tests with the help of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences were applied to compare blood pressure, age, and heart rate between the groups.
Results
The results of this study (conducted by five authors) show that there is no significant difference in gender split, age, seated blood pressure, and heart rate between the groups of the participants. The results further indicate that twenty-five percent of patients with chronic cough were experiencing high blood pressure and they were compared to 4.4% of the control subjects. The prevalence of high blood pressure was lower than expected in the control group because of the eligibility criteria of the study.
Conclusion
This study shortly concluded that chronic coughs are potentially associated with increased risks of high blood pressure. The exact cause is not known, however, according to the researchers, this may be the result of the cardiovascular consequences of coughing repeatedly.
Here we need to know what is chronic cough and high blood pressure?
Chronic Coughing
Normal coughing is beneficial for everyone unless you experience coughing over a period of time. Coughing helps you because it helps you spit out phlegm and mucus that can irritate your lungs, and this irritation can be mild to moderate. Usually, coughing, most of the time is short-lived. You can catch a cough for a few days due to several reasons and after that, you will feel better.
However, when you experience coughing for more than eight weeks is known as chronic cough. Even many types of chronic coughing have appropriate treatments if they are the results of allergies and postnasal drip. In addition, the coughing caused by cancer or life-threatening can be a dangerous problem.
Chronic coughs can affect your whole life, they can cause you to wake up all night and also keep you away from your social life.
Chronic Coughing Causes
The most common causes associated with chronic coughing are:
- Antihypertensive medications that are also known as ACE inhibitors
- Asthma
- Acute bronchitis
- Pneumonia
- Smoking
- Gastroesophageal reflux disease that is also known as GERD (a short form)
- Chronic bronchitis
However, heart failure, lung cancer, cystic fibrosis, and several bacterial infections are the less common causes of chronic coughing.
Symptoms of Chronic Cough
When you catch a chronic cough, there are chances that you will experience several other symptoms that are:
- Shortness of breath
- Liquid dripping from your throat
- Runny along with stuffy nose
- Wheezing
- Sore throat
- Weight loss
- Coughing up blood
- Sleeping problems, especially insomnia
- Headaches
There are no increased risks of chronic coughing for everyone; however, if you are a smoker, then you may be at a high risk of experiencing a chronic cough because smoking causes severe (most of the time) damage to the lungs and also weaken your immune system which may even lead to deadly conditions such as high blood pressure.
High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure, is perhaps the most common problem, which affects for a long time and there is a high force of the blood against the artery walls which may lead to severe health problems such as heart disease and even lead to death.
If your arteries become narrow over a period of time and your heart pumps blood, then there are high chances of high blood pressure.
High blood pressure or hypertension is categorized (divided) into two types primary hypertension and secondary hypertension. Your race, family history, genetic problems, obesity, or being overweight, along with high consumption of sodium intake are the high risks of hypertension.
Conclusion
It is important to get effective treatment for chronic coughing because it may lead to high blood pressure. In addition, it is also important for you to know the relationship between chronic coughing and hypertension.