Coughing is a natural reflex to quickly get rid of germs, harmful and foreign substances in the airways. A cough can last several weeks, but anyone who struggles with coughing for more than eight weeks has a chronic health problem.

The inflammation of upper airways in the lungs, the bronchial tubes, is called bronchitis.

According to the World Health Organization, bronchitis is chronic when the mucus cough appears on almost every day within three months and this for two consecutive years. Like acute bronchitis, chronic bronchitis is characterized by coughing with mucus (especially in the morning), but it lasts longer. Chronic bronchitis is often the result of regular smoking and can have serious consequences. The ingredients of cigarette smoke, such as nicotine, irritate the bronchial mucosa of our respiratory tract, which is equipped with many small cilia, which consequently become inflamed. Therefore, the body, to get rid of penetrating foreign bodies, has to loosen the stuck mucus through recurring coughing attacks.

Bronchial asthma is one of the most common widespread respiratory tract diseases. The bronchial tubes become constricted in attacks, caused by the contact to personal allergy triggers, resulting in a hypersensitive immune system reaction and symptoms include coughing and shortness of breath.