Is coughing up green phlegm a good or bad thing?

Many people will have a lot of phlegm and cough frequently when their trachea or throat is infected by bacteria or viruses. People with more serious coughs generally need to take medicine or other methods of treatment. If they keep delaying treatment, the condition will become more and more serious. For example, some people cough up green phlegm. Let's see if this is getting better or worse.

When there is phlegm in the throat, you always want to cough it out. When coughing up phlegm, you might as well look at the color of the phlegm. Maybe you will find this disgusting, but it is helpful for doctors to diagnose the disease. Different colors of phlegm can indicate different problems. Let's take a look at how to diagnose diseases from the color of phlegm.

The color of sputum indicates the disease

1. White sticky phlegm

It indicates mild inflammation of the respiratory tract, often in patients with colds. Because this kind of sputum contains a large number of viruses and the corpses of macrophages (a type of immune cell). Under an electron microscope, many white blood cells and various types of cold viruses can be found.

2. Thick yellow or green sputum

It indicates that there is purulent inflammation in the body, which may be a serious respiratory tract infection, such as tracheitis or bronchitis. This is very different from lobar pneumonia caused by pneumococcus. It is a purulent bacteria (common ones include Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, etc.) that infects the human body and causes suppuration. The pus is dead white blood cells and necrotic tissue.

3. Gray or black phlegm

It is the deposition of iron dust, carbon dust or dust, indicating the impact of environmental pollution on people. People who spit out such phlegm are often patients with occupational diseases. For example, we often hear about silicosis, or fibrosis of the lung that textile workers often suffer from.

4. Red sputum: bleeding requires emergency treatment

There is no doubt that red sputum contains blood. Doctors remind: Any hemorrhagic cough is a symptom that requires emergency treatment. Although coughing hard and violently can cause the capillaries in the back of the throat to rupture and cause bleeding, it is not a very serious matter. However, if you encounter a hemorrhagic cough, it is best to ask a professional doctor for diagnosis.

5. Pink sputum with bubbles indicates pulmonary edema

A cough that brings up bubbling, pink-tinged phlegm and is accompanied by shortness of breath and a feeling like you are drowning could be a sign of pulmonary edema, which occurs when heart failure causes the lungs to fill with fluid.

6. Bloody sputum

If it is not caused by oral trauma, it is most likely tuberculosis. Because Mycobacterium tuberculosis can invade the human lungs, especially causing serious damage to the alveoli.

We all know that the human body inhales oxygen through the respiratory system, and then through the pulmonary circulation of the blood, the red blood cells in the blood vessels carry the oxygen stored in the alveoli to complete the oxygen supply to the whole body. Therefore, blood vessels must be combined with alveoli to complete breathing. Once the alveoli are destroyed, blood vessels will naturally penetrate into the lungs, and the patient will then desperately cough out the blood that has flowed into the lungs as if he had choked on water.

In the early stage of tuberculosis, patients cough up sputum tinged with blood. In the middle stage, they will directly cough up blood. In the late stage, the entire lungs have been destroyed by the tuberculosis bacteria, and they will vomit a lot of blood, or even vomit blood, which can fill up half a spittoon.