Chesty cough white flem

[phil600]

Hi folks I'm 46 and I'd say at least over the last 8 years I get a chesty cough the produces white flem I've asked my doctor if it's asthma she said no I've had a chest x Ray and showed nothing. Doctors have listened to my chest and not picked anything up but this damm white flem cough just won't go away. I know I have dust and grass allergies and any pollutants can make it worse. Does anyone who suffers ashma get these symptoms?

[twinkly29]

A chest x-ray would show bacterial infection I think, not asthma. White mucous can be asthma but it can also be all sorts of other things including allergies (not necessarily asthma related) and also reflux which definitely also causes coughing.

[lakelover]

I have asthma & at the moment I've got a fair bit of white phlegm & I'm having to take extra inhaler (as per instructions) to stop coughing. I'm putting it down to high pollen levels as that affects my asthma although I don't have hay fever as such. Do you take antihistamines for your allergies?

[phil600 in reply to lakelover]

Not all the while no but I do suffer with indigestion and wonder if its related to that.

[MindfulBreathing]

Hi. My lung specialist used to say white phlegm was not an infection, and yellow phlegm was due to an infection, green phlegm is a bacterial infection. If you are coughing up any phlegm at all it's a sign that your body is ejecting what might otherwise block your air passages. It could mean your body is being efficient. But unlesthere is a reason, you wouldn't be needing to cough up phlegm. It might well be the allergies and hay fever, which often lead to asthma too. That's how mine started as a child. Please go and see another doctor.

[twinkly29 in reply to MindfulBreathing]

Green phlegm isn't always bacterial infection - or even infection at all. Though it definitely can be.

[Gerardt]

54 have asthma 10 years getting worse every year but not too nad at the minute cough up white phlems daily sticky glugger things on symbicort 400 and sleep apnea machine