# Post viral cough -- why more pronounced when lying down? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 6, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082 "2009-01-06T14:00:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/21 "2009-01-07T21:09:55Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Objectively speaking, enemas do just as much for a viral infection as antibiotics. I’ll start ordering those for my patients who insist on getting ‘something’ for their colds instead. Good God I’m glad your not my Doc today. 😉 😃 p.s. Mrs. P and I discussed my decision to seek the anti-biotics last night over dinner. She read this thread and said very candidly - _should have straightdoped it first huh honey_… 😃 I feel alot better, but that is probably the simple natural progression of the virus. I did sleep last night though! ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/22 "2009-01-07T21:24:50Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Why do they do it, then?.. Look again at the OP. He \*requested \*the meds. Not to criticize an individual Doper, but out here in the non-clinical world, the language of health conversations often include what medicines people are going to ask their docs for. As to why? How many ads by pharmaceutical companies have you seen in the last, say, three days, that said, “Ask your doctor if \_\_\_ is right for you.” Enough of these ads and people get the idea that it’s a patient’s obligation to suggest medications for conditions that they may not have even had diagnosed! ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/23 "2009-01-07T21:34:27Z")
> [@DogMom](#): > > Because Doctors are _magic_, that’s why. The patients feel like crap, so they go to Doctor, who listens to their chest with his **Magic Stethoscope** , takes their blood pressure with his **Magic Sphygmomanometer** , and looks in their ears with his **Magic…um…EarOScope**. > All of these things combined are supposed to make them feel Much Better Now. When that doesn’t happen, because of course even the hospitals have to cut back and evidently don’t hand out as much Pixie FixIt Dust to the docs as they used to, then people want Magic Pills (since the Magic Doctor Tools didn’t work). > And those Magic Pills are **Antibiotics** (insert sparkly text and angel choruses). I know you meant this in jest, but there’s a pretty strong argument to be made that our doctors (at least at the general practitioner level) are not all that different from the Medicine Men _ahem_ and Shamans of other cultures. We even have our Magical White Labcoats and Magical Titles and Rituals (undressing, donning the Magical Blue Paper Supplicant’s Robe), Cleansing Rites we go through to be Healed and Initiation and Hazing Rituals for new doctors. (Yeah, my husband writes about this sort of thing for a living. It’s contagious.) ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/24 "2009-01-07T21:43:04Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > This is going to seem like a weird fact to insert here, but even in the children’s book [The Berenstain Bears go to the Doctor](http://www.amazon.com/Berenstain-Bears-Doctor-First-Books/dp/0394848357), Papa Bear is denying that he’s sick but he ends up having a nasty cold…for which the Dr gives him “goopy, pink medicine”. After reading the book, I end up reminding my kids that cold don’t require or benefit from medicine. Like they care. But I think it’s pretty careless to have a misrepresentation like that in a kids’ book. This also reminds me of “Peter Pan,” there’s that scene where Mr. Darling is telling Michael he needs to take his medicine. And then Mr. Darling wusses out and doesn’t take his. Some kind of tonic, I guess–but none of them were sick. And then in Never Never Land, Wendy is playing at being mother and part of being mother is making her little babies take medicine every night, like it or not. Medicine=good? ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/25 "2009-01-07T21:44:38Z")
Along these lines, Terra Ziporyn has written a book called _Nameless Diseases,_ in which she points out how comforting it is to know “what we have.” A person who presents a series of unnatural conditions, i.e. they feel or look different from normal, is greatly comforted by having a medical doctor pronounce a name for the condition. And conversely, that person may be very upset by a doctor who cannot name their situation. I’m happy to invest an MD with the trust that s/he has the knowledge to diagnose and treat me, even knowing that some of that trust and confidence is illusory. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2009, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/26 "2009-01-07T23:15:07Z")
> [@Phlosphr](#): > > Good God I’m glad your not my Doc today. 😉 😃 OK, Neti pots then. They’ve been shown to effectively relieve symptoms. When used in the nose, anyway. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/27 "2009-01-08T09:44:13Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > OK, Neti pots then. They’ve been shown to effectively relieve symptoms. > > When used in the nose, anyway. > > 🆒 Had to google to find out what those were: [Nasal irrigation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasal_irrigation) I do wonder how nasal irrigation differs from waterboarding… As to the OP, when I have a cold, I try to lay down so that my nose and mouth are lower than my throat. That way the stuff coming out of the sinuses ends up going out the nose rather than down the throat. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/28 "2009-01-08T13:29:37Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I do wonder how nasal irrigation differs from waterboarding… You’ll take my Neti pot from me when you pry it from my cold, dead hands: [Mr. brown caves and uses neti pot - and he loves it - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=496152) ---
**Author:** ![rainy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rainy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rainy)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/29 "2009-01-08T14:57:15Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I do wonder how nasal irrigation differs from waterboarding… If you had asked me when I was eight years old, I would have said one is a horrific torture method, the other, water boarding. Gawd how I hated it when Mom made me “sniff warm salty water.” But yeah, as you are gasping for air / choking on phlem, it does seem to relocate a lot of mucus. ---
**Author:** ![alfabettezoupe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@alfabettezoupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alfabettezoupe)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/30 "2012-12-25T17:01:57Z")
just my two cents, i go to the doctor when i have a cold… for antivirals. i do this because i have a huge amounts of problems with my respiratory system and a cold that’s untreated in me usually goes to bronchitis and/or pneumonia. not everyone who goes to a doctor for a cold is a total idiot. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/31 "2012-12-25T17:22:05Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Objectively speaking, enemas do just as much for a viral infection as antibiotics. I’ll start ordering those for my patients who insist on getting ‘something’ for their colds instead. But decongestants and Tylenol may make a person _feel_ better, not just because of having something to take, but because it may relieve some of the symptoms. Hell, I wouldn’t mind having a cold if I didn’t feel like shit. I don’t think - and I don’t want to experiment - that enemas would make me feel any better, so I wouldn’t take that. If something could relieve my symptoms, however, I’d be up for that. Maybe docs can start moving people in that direction. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/32 "2012-12-25T18:18:25Z")
> [@alfabettezoupe](#): > > just my two cents, i go to the doctor when i have a cold… for antivirals. i do this because i have a huge amounts of problems with my respiratory system and a cold that’s untreated in me usually goes to bronchitis and/or pneumonia. > > not everyone who goes to a doctor for a cold is a total idiot. People with chronic lung disease and/or immunosupression (like CF, severe emphysema, AIDS, and other diseases) may need early intervention for viral infections, of course. What antivirals are you getting? I’m unaware of any that are actually helpful for the common cold viruses. ---
**Author:** ![alfabettezoupe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@alfabettezoupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alfabettezoupe)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/33 "2012-12-25T19:07:13Z")
i get mavirex aka coldmaris. i don’t have any immunosuppression (i rarely actually get colds, never had the flu, never had any form of herpes including cold sores or chicken pox. i’m somehow still cmv negative at almost 40.) and i don’t have chronic lung disease. i just have a susceptibility for colds to go straight from my head into my chest and stay there. every single time they do, i end up with pneumonia or bronchitis and get a trip to the doctor for ventolin and cipro (i’m allergic to all forms of penicillins and sulfa drugs, as well as erythromycin). ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/34 "2012-12-25T19:35:24Z")
> [@alfabettezoupe](#): > > i get mavirex aka coldmaris. Having reviewed the literature on that drug, I think I’ll wait for more evidence to accumulate before I decide as to whether it’s both safe and effective as an antiviral agent. Hope it works well for you. ---
**Author:** ![Skypist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skypist/32/169_2.png) [@Skypist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skypist)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/35 "2012-12-25T19:41:28Z")
I tend to have a lingering cough after every cold. It can last for a month or more. Just a dry, non-productive, persistent tickle in my throat that WILL. NOT. GO. AWAY. Hate. Sometimes I go to the doc with a cold because my cough is so bad that I’m hoping s/he can give me something for relief. Also, my nose gets extremely congested during the worst of the cold and I’m always hoping there’ll be some magic new and effective decongestant available (there never is). ---
**Author:** ![alfabettezoupe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@alfabettezoupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alfabettezoupe)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/36 "2012-12-26T00:05:20Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Having reviewed the literature on that drug, I think I’ll wait for more evidence to accumulate before I decide as to whether it’s both safe and effective as an antiviral agent. > > Hope it works well for you. works great for me. knocks my colds out in days and they don’t travel to my lungs. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2012, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082/37 "2012-12-26T03:49:23Z")
People go to doctors, even for viral colds and sniffles, because they _feel crappy_ and want some relief. Demanding antibiotics is one response to the problem that doctors commonly don’t have much else to offer, or don’t seem interested in offering much else. Dammit, maybe all we really want is some serious symptomatic relief here! My sad story: When I get a cold, it often “gets down into my lungs” and becomes a lingering cough that lasts for weeks. Okay, so far, so bad. My problem is, that on more than one occasion, these “lingering cough” have become so severe that I seriously needed some massive symptomatic relief, and doctors have never seemed to take that very seriously. Even more to the point: On at least two occasions, I believed that the cough and bronchial congestion were severe enough to be _life threatening._ One episode, in particular, led to repeated instances where I _literally could not breathe_ for brief periods of time (like 30 seconds or so) because the tubes were completely blocked and I was unable to cough the crud out. (Each time I did manage to cough the crud out after a while, but not before having a beet-red-face, sweat-streaming, bug-eyed experience.) Dammit, when I have a cold, I want at least for the doc to offer some industrial-strength anti-congestant or something _before I actually need it_ so that won’t happen again. Instead, all I can get from most docs is the proverbial advice “take two aspirin, and if you’re still alive in the morning, you don’t need to call again.” Fuck doctors on HMO plans. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-viral-cough-why-more-pronounced-when-lying-down/480082.md?page=1)