Why does a cough appear in heart failure and how to cure it?

1. Cardiac reasons
2. Non-cardiological causes
3. First aid for heart pain accompanied by cough
4. Diagnostics

If a person has pain in the heart when coughing, it is worth seeking qualified help at a clinic. The reasons for this symptom complex may lie not only in heart disease, but also in other pathological disorders, since around the heart there are other internal organs and systems that are closely interconnected with each other.

Why does my heart hurt when I cough?

Pain in the heart area when coughing depends on various factors. Almost diseases of all organs located in the chest can be expressed as pain in the heart. The pain is localized behind the sternum or to the left of it and can radiate to the left arm, shoulder, neck or shoulder blade. Sometimes a cough is not associated with heart disease and is provoked by other reasons:

• dust or smoke;
• the presence of an allergen;
• reaction to taking certain medications;
• neoplasms in the body;
• with constant irritation of the cough center.

Pain in the heart area when coughing appears with the following diseases:

• heart failure;
• arrhythmia;
• pericarditis;
• ischemic disease;
• heart attack;
• myocarditis;
• heart disease;
• hypertension;
• pulmonary infarction;
• pathology of heart valves.

The cough, which is accompanied by pain in the heart, is dry. A productive cough is observed during inflammatory processes in the bronchi. When your heart hurts when you cough, there is a risk of developing a disease that is in no way related to the heart:

• pneumonia;
• oncology;
• tuberculosis;
• pleurisy;
• osteochondrosis;
• neuralgia;
• injuries.

It is important to understand in time what type of cough bothers the patient. For example, in case of heart failure, possible discharge of blood clots and shortness of breath. A cardiac cough also begins to bother you at the slightest physical exertion. The heartbeat also accelerates, blood pressure rises, and the body weakens to the point of fainting. The cough worsens in the evening and at night when the patient is in a lying position.

Pain in the heart area - causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, complications and prevention

If you have pain in the left side of your chest, your first thought may be that the pain is related to your heart. While chest pain can indeed be a symptom of heart disease or a heart attack, this is not always the case. Most chest pain is not caused by a heart attack. Only a doctor can accurately determine the cause of chest pain and make a diagnosis.

You may experience pain in the area from your neck to your upper abdomen. Pain in the heart area can be:

• sharp;
• blunt;
• with a feeling of burning;
• with a feeling of compression.

It is not always possible to independently diagnose the causes based on symptoms alone. Chest pain is more likely to be related to the heart if a person has:

• there are risk factors for cardiovascular disease;
• have heart disease;
• dyspnea;
• pain that does not improve with medication or massage;
• pain that gets worse over time;

Is there a relationship between heart pain and cough?

Diseases of all organs located in the chest can manifest themselves as heart pain. The most common of these diseases:

• bronchitis and pneumonia, accompanied by cough;
• enlargement of the lymph nodes of the chest cavity due to cancer;
• osteochondrosis of the thoracic spine.

First you need to understand what comes first: cough or pain? A cough may be a manifestation of a disease not related to the heart and develop under the influence of the following provoking factors:

• smoke, dust, small particles from the air;
• sputum;
• mucus from the nasal cavity;
• allergens;
• medicines;
• tumors;
• reflux of gastric contents into the esophagus causes a reflex cough.

When coughing, pain in the heart area develops as a result of reflex irritation of the nerve endings located in the chest. But in the presence of even latent serious heart diseases, coughing can increase the pain in this area.

Types of cough in heart disease

Cardiac cough can be divided into several types:

1. Short, dry and harsh cough . May be accompanied by sharp pain across the entire surface of the chest. Identified in pericarditis, rheumatism.
2. Dry, paroxysmal and associated with breathing problems . Sometimes combined with hemoptysis, low-grade fever, weakness and sweating. This type of symptom is observed with mitral valve stenosis and with enlarged heart chambers.
3. Dry and irritating . Such a cough may indicate that pulmonary congestion is occurring, but the systemic circulation is not yet affected. The sputum has brown spots.
4. Loud, debilitating cough that occurs in the evening . It subsides only when standing or sitting, and can appear several times throughout the night. A person may wake up from suffocation, cough up phlegm for a long time, but after the attack relief comes. This symptom often indicates left ventricular failure.
5. Hemoptysis . Strong severity of the symptom indicates heart failure, atrial fibrillation or thromboembolic syndrome.

Now you know that a dry cough can occur due to heart problems, let's talk further about the specific symptoms of a cough from the heart.

Non-cardiac causes

The main non-cardiac causes of heart pain when coughing include the following groups of diseases:

• pleurisy;
• pneumonia;
• pneumothorax;
• pulmonary tuberculosis;
• cancer;
• intercostal neuralgia;
• osteochondrosis of the thoracic spine;
• injuries to organs located in the chest.

Pleurisy

Pleurisy is not an independent disease, but a symptom of inflammatory and non-infectious processes in the chest cavity. For example, periodically pleurisy is the only manifestation of chronic heart failure.

Characteristics of pain syndrome:

• pain is always felt in the chest;
• associated with breathing, always worsens with a cough;
• there is a dependence on body position;
• as a rule, has a stabbing character;
• accompanied by an increase in body temperature, the magnitude of which depends on the cause of pleurisy.

If pleurisy is caused by mediastinitis against the background of rheumatism, then the cough causes very severe pain in the heart area. In this case, the heart always hurts when coughing. The pain is not only associated with breathing, but also intensifies with an increase in heart rate.

Pleurisy of the left pleural cavity must be differentiated from angina pectoris or heart attack. Damage to the pleural cavity on the right side must be distinguished from appendicitis, peritonitis, cholecystitis.

Causes of pain in the heart area

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is a serious infectious disease that is characterized by damage to the respiratory parts of the lungs by a wide variety of bacteria, viruses, and fungi.

Symptoms of pneumonia:

• fever;
• cough;
• sputum production;
• if the pneumonia is left-sided, then when you cough it hurts on the left side in the area of ​​the heart;
• dyspnea.

Pneumothorax

Pneumothorax is always a complication of any disease of the chest organs:

• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease;
• bronchial asthma;
• sarcoidosis;
• lymphogranulomatosis;
• pneumonia;
• bronchiectasis;
• systemic connective tissue diseases.

Symptoms of pneumothorax:

• dyspnea;
• persistent dry cough;
• When coughing, pain in the heart is observed with left-sided pneumothorax.

Also, pain in the heart can be observed with large pneumothoraxes, leading to displacement of the mediastinal organs.

Additional diagnostic methods for suspected spontaneous pneumothorax are necessary, since this disease is difficult to diagnose with an erased or hidden clinical picture.

Therefore, it is necessary to consult a doctor if you have any complaints of pain in the heart or chest, or a slight cough.

Pulmonary tuberculosis

Pulmonary tuberculosis can be suspected if the patient has complaints:

• cough for more than 3 weeks;
• slight increase in body temperature for 2 weeks;
• increased fatigue;
• weakness;
• night sweats.

The clinical picture of tuberculosis in patients, especially in older age groups, is often atypical; there is a feeling that the heart hurts from coughing.

Intercostal neuralgia

Intercostal neuralgia is an independent neurological disease that develops with colds and hypothermia or a symptom of osteochondrosis, spondylosis of the thoracic spine.

Pain in the chest occurs, often of a constant nature, which intensifies with movement, twisting, and turning.

When palpating the intercostal spaces, pain is determined. Cough is not a symptom of intercostal neuralgia. But when there is pain in the heart and cough, the relationship is due to a cold in the body.

Osteochondrosis of the thoracic spine is a chronic degenerative-dystrophic lesion in which the nerve roots at the level of the thoracic spine can be pinched. These formations innervate organs located in the chest cavity. When pinched, the following symptoms develop:

• pain in the thoracic spine, shooting along the intercostal spaces;
• tension in the interscapular muscles, a feeling of “a hammered stake between the shoulder blades”;
• interruptions in heart function;
• sore throat and periodic cough, depending on body position, for example, lying down;
• feeling of lack of air.

These symptoms are associated with a violation of adequate innervation and can cause incorrect diagnosis and treatment due to the fact that there is a feeling that the heart hurts when I cough.

Read about pain in the heart area when you inhale here.

Characteristic symptoms and signs

Diagnosing the cause of heart pain when coughing is quite difficult. Sometimes they have nothing to do with the cardiovascular system. Strenuous exercise or common food allergies are some of the causes. First you need to determine what type of cough is bothering the patient:

1. Short-term, sharp and unproductive, which is accompanied by sharp pain in the chest. It is a sign of inflammatory processes in the heart (pericarditis) or rheumatism.
2. Coughing attacks are accompanied by shortness of breath. Slight fever, sweating, weakness and hemoptysis may occur. Indicate an enlargement of the heart chambers or mitral valve stenosis.
3. A nonproductive cough with brown discharge is a sign of congestion in the lungs.
4. Loud, evening cough. Worsens when lying down. Indicates problems with the left ventricle.
5. Coughing up blood is a symptom of heart failure or thromboembolism.

In addition to coughing, there are other signs indicating heart problems:

• cyanosis of the skin and mucous membranes;
• swelling;
• frequent fainting;
• tachycardia
• swelling of the veins in the neck.

First, coughing attacks appear after physical exertion. Over time they become more frequent. The main thing is not to confuse a cardiac cough with one that accompanies colds. The main sign of a cardiac cough is the absence of sputum. Sputum or blood appears when the disease is advanced. When your heart hurts when you cough, you may experience hoarse breathing and shortness of breath. Sometimes there are attacks of lack of air and suffocation.

Differences between cardiac cough and allergies and infections

Very often, people misinterpret the symptom and explain the cough as frequent colds, chronic diseases of the respiratory system, allergies, etc. And yet, with problems with the cardiovascular system, cough has a number of characteristic features. Among them:

• Just a dry cough. Very often, infectious diseases also begin with it, but over time the patient still begins to cough up mucus. This does not happen with cardiac diseases.
• Chronic course. Regardless of how severe the attacks are, they bother the patient constantly. If we are talking about acute respiratory infections, the cough goes away in 1-3 weeks.
• Additional symptoms. Patients also complain of difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, dizziness, and heart pain. The veins in their neck may dilate and their skin may turn blue.
• Increased coughing at night, attacks that develop when a person is lying down. This is due to the fact that in this position of the body, a weak heart cannot pump out a sufficient amount of blood from the lungs. Hemoptysis and pulmonary edema most often develop at night, during sleep. As soon as a person gets up, the blood drains from the upper body and the condition improves.

With respiratory tract infections, the cough will be accompanied by pain or sore throat, general weakness, fever, redness of the mucous membranes, and rhinitis. If it is caused by an allergy, then the person will additionally experience lacrimation, sneezing, profuse runny nose, pain in the eyes, and in severe cases, swelling. In diseases of the cardiovascular system, such additional symptoms are not observed.

Diagnosis of the disease

To establish the exact cause of pain in the heart when coughing, you need the help of a doctor. This is either a therapist or a cardiologist. First you need to take a chest x-ray. The doctor must also order the necessary tests, do a general examination of the patient, measure blood pressure and take the pulse. What diagnostic methods are used to determine the patient’s condition:

• Electrocardiography (ECG) will help identify heart pathologies and myocardial ischemia.
• Echocardiography (Echo CG) is an ultrasound examination that will allow the doctor to see the condition of the walls and valves of the heart, and evaluate the heart muscle itself.
• An X-ray will help assess the condition of the respiratory system and eliminate the possibility of congestion in the lungs.
• Tomography provides clearer and more detailed images of a person's internal organs, including the heart.

The sooner a patient seeks medical help, the faster he will stop the progression of the disease and speed up recovery.

Non-cardiac causes and their elimination

There are several types of disease, the development and progression of which can be similar to problems with the cardiovascular system. The main ones include:

1. Pleurisy.
2. Pneumonia.
3. Pneumothorax.
4. Pulmonary tuberculosis.
5. Cancer.
6. Intercostal neuralgia.
7. Osteochondrosis of the thoracic spine.
8. Injuries to organs located behind the sternum.

Treatment of heart pain when coughing

After making a diagnosis, the doctor prescribes medications that treat the cause of the cough, and not just the symptoms. Heart diseases are very dangerous, so only a cardiologist prescribes a course of therapy. There are several types of drugs for treatment:

1. Tablets are diuretics. They have a diuretic effect. They relieve excess stress on the heart by removing excess fluid from the body. Help relieve swelling.
2. Drugs with antitussive and expectorant effects.
3. Medicines that expand and relax the muscle layer of the vascular wall are vasodilators.

The duration of treatment and the correct dosage can only be prescribed by a doctor. Self-medication is too dangerous. You can use traditional medicine recipes only with the permission of a cardiologist. Herbal components are not safe for the cardiovascular system and can cause unpredictable effects. If an accurate diagnosis is made and the cardiologist does not object to traditional medicine, the following methods can be used:

1. Mix 50 grams of knotweed, cumin, horsetail, fucus and nettle and pour boiling water. For 2 tablespoons of the mixture you need to take 700 ml of water. Leave for 15-20 minutes. Take half a glass before meals.
2. Prepare lemon balm leaves, hawthorn, yarrow, valerian and broom. Each plant is 50 grams. Mix everything thoroughly. Take 1 tablespoon of the mixture per glass of boiling water. Leave for 30 minutes. Take three times a day.
3. Grind dill seeds and valerian root (1 cup) and mix with 2 tablespoons of honey. Pour a liter of boiling water and leave in a dark place for 2-3 days. Take one spoon before meals.

It is impossible to cure the disease using traditional medicine alone. It will only improve and strengthen the results of drug treatment.

Causes

In fact, it is not easy to find out what a cardiac cough is, since it is only the tip of the iceberg of another pathology. We are not talking here about the pathology of the bronchopulmonary system - the nature of this thumping is far from a viral or bacterial infection.

Dry heart cough, causes of its occurrence

• cardiac ischemia;
• congenital and acquired heart defects;
• congenital anomalies of the cardiovascular system;
• disruption of the valve system due to infectious diseases (leads to pathologies such as myocarditis, pericarditis, rheumatic heart disease);
• cardiomyopathy – congenital or acquired;
• high blood pressure - hypertension;
• heart rhythm disturbances - arrhythmias, blockades;
• cardiosclerosis as a consequence of myocardial infarction.

Interesting to know! There are drugs that can lead to pathological swelling. For example, drugs from the ATP inhibitor group. The instructions for these drugs state that one of the side effects is a dry cough. If the condition improves after stopping the medications, then the patient has nothing to worry about.

Chronic ischemic heart disease

HIBS is stagnation of blood, difficulty in its passage through the small circle. It is manifested not only by a prolonged dry cough and pain in the heart, but also by trembling hands, blue discoloration of the nasolabial triangle, changes in thermoregulation processes, increased blood pressure, and mental retardation. Treatment of such a disease involves a complex of complex medical manipulations and techniques to prevent channel stagnation, normalize blood pressure, and reduce the load on the heart muscle and bronchopulmonary tissue. Drug therapy for CHD helps maintain the patient’s normal condition and prevent further progression of the pathology.

Thromboembolism

Thrombosis of the main arteries occurs as a result of poor nutrition, bad habits, genetic predisposition to the formation of tumors and metabolic disorders, taking certain medications, and diseases of the vascular wall. Today, thrombosis can be successfully treated only if a person undergoes a medical examination in advance and does not ignore the first ailments, such as a severe dry cough, tension in the chest, periodic heart pain, and a feeling of lack of air.

Diagnosis and elimination of a foreign body - a blood clot - is carried out strictly in a hospital setting. To break them down at the formation stage, radio wave devices, micro-current stimulation, and mud therapy are used to ensure a successful outcome of the first stage of treatment. The pain syndrome completely subsides and the patient is recommended to engage in cardio training in order to prevent painful conditions and register with an endocrinologist. With further progression of the disease, surgery is prescribed using a special device that helps remove large foreign objects from the vessels. Advanced forms of thromboembolism are not amenable to surgical and drug treatment. The patient's condition is only being corrected.

The main thing you need to know is that if any symptoms appear, you should immediately consult a doctor.

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