(HealthDay News) -- Coughing serves an important purpose -- to help you expel mucus, microbes and other foreign particles from your respiratory tract.
This helps protect the lungs from infection and inflammation, Harvard Medical School says. A cough becomes chronic if it lingers for at least three to eight weeks, the school adds.
Its list of reasons for a chronic cough includes:
How To Fight Common Wintertime Respiratory Viruses
Sleepy Nurses Vulnerable To Common Cold, Other Infectious Diseases
Severe Infections Double Risk of Heart Failure
CDC Reports Potentially Troublesome Mutations in Bird Flu Found in Louisiana Patient
Heart Patients Urged To Seek Vaccination For Common Infectious Diseases
U.S. Sees Most Child Flu Deaths Since 2009
Patient Hospitalized in Louisiana With First U.S. Case of Severe Bird Flu