How to Clear Phlegm (mucus) from the Lungs after COVID-19

Overview:

As lung congestion is the major symptom of COVID-19, most patients experience a cough with phlegm (mucus). Phlegm develops during infection and it can continue even after the treatment.
Phlegm is a particular type of mucus (sputum) that build up in the throat and lungs. Typically it is slightly thicker than the mucus that’s fabricated in your sinuses and nose. Most of the time, the excretion of phlegm during coughing is not a matter of concern instead it helps to clear infections and irritants from the lungs.   
As Bollyky said, “Gummy and thicker respiratory secretions are the heart of serious COVID-19”. COVID-19 patients’ blood samples, people have not looked much at severely sick COVID-19 patients’ sputum samples after so many studies have analyzed, not least because they are so difficult to get”
When you come in contact with a virus like COVID-19, your airways and lungs may begin to produce extra phlegm. This mucus production occurs in response to cough to ease in expel it, which means, phlegm helps get rid of the infection of the throat and lungs.
A rattling sound or feeling when you breathe and feeling heaviness in the chest or chest pressure may come with the gummy mucus that you cough up.

You can clear this mucus with home remedies and breathing exercises with medication, but mucus production with coughing after COVID-19 is common. There is no need to worry.

 A cough with mucus or sputum is also known as

• Productive cough
• Wet cough
• Chest congestion
• Chesty cough 

Symptoms of COVID-19 that directly impact the lungs:   

As COVID-19 is caused by SARS COV-2 virus, it is primarily a respiratory illness. It affects the lungs by causing inflammation in lung tissues. This is due to the coronavirus’s damage to the lung tissues, which leads to respiratory health risks and you feel difficulty in breathing. That’s why health experts firmly suggest that patients get plenty of rest after that so the respiratory system can restore adequately. 

• Lung-related symptoms of COVID-19 are:
• Chest congestion
• A wet or dry cough
• Feeling difficulty in breathing

Most patients have a dry cough (approximately 50-70%) than a cough with phlegm. A dry cough may convert into a wet cough with time in the later stages of the sickness.

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Severe COVID-19 cases:

Depending on the patient, mucus can cause more serious COVID-19 cases, such as secondary bacterial infection and damaged lung tissue. According to researchers, this severity of infection is associated with the weak immune response outside the respiratory tract to less competent virus clearance in organs outside the pulmonary system.

Severe COVID-19 condition may lead to pneumonia (an infection in one or both lungs of a person infected), which causes trouble breathing due to the swelling and fluid formation in the lungs. This condition may need treatment in the hospital with oxygen or a ventilator to facilitate breathing. These severe cases may take months to recover from, due to long-term damage and trouble in breathing or persistent cough. 

Common symptoms of COVID-19:

Other common symptoms of COVID-19 comprise:

• Runny nose
• Losing the ability to smell and taste
• Chills or a fever
• Digestive problems, including nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea

Symptoms of different variants:

COVID-19 symptoms vary from patient to patient. These variations of symptoms give you an idea about a patient who is infected with a different variant compared to the original strain. For instance, Omicron and Delta variants may cause more cold-like symptoms with a sore throat, runny nose, and headache. 

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How COVID-19 impacts the lungs?

COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) virus infects the cells of the lined airways, particularly, the mucus membrane. These membranes create mucus that entraps irritants present in the airways and facilitates the body to expel them through coughing.
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus after entering the body infects the lung tissues, including the tissues where the carbondioxide (CO2), and oxygen (O) pass between the air and blood.  Your lungs have trouble doing their job (removing waste and getting oxygen to the body) due to the swelling and filling with the fluid of these tissues (the alveoli).   

When to see my healthcare provider? 

If you had a persistent cough (dry or wet) for more than 3-4 weeks, you should evaluate your cough by a health expert who may ask you to take a lung function test or chest X-ray.  
When you feel trouble breathing, you should take a check from your health expert
Some other cough-associated symptoms that should be evaluated quickly include

• A high fever as 104F
• Coughing up blood
• Blue, pale, or gray lips, nail awake, skin   
• Consistent pressure or pain in the chest
• Extremely inability to stay awake and sleepiness

When should I take my kid to a healthcare  provider for a cough?

The same suggestions relate to kids. So it is somehow problematic as children get panic due to coughing and irritation, parents should linger 3-4 weeks before visiting the pediatrician (child specialist doctor), as long as the kid is sleeping and eating well and they have not a high fever.

Whooping Cough Symptoms:

Initially, the infection has a comparable outcome to a normal cold, causing a stuffy nose, coughing, and body aches. After a few days, however, these symptoms may get worse, adding up nausea, persistent fever, cough, and vomiting so strong it might be difficult to take your breath and sleep.

If you experience these worsened symptoms and persistent cough, it is a good approach to see your health expert right away.

A greatly contagious whooping cough called pertussis caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis may easily spread through droplets by sneezing and coughing.

How to Clear Phlegm while you are 

having  COVID-19

Removing phlegm will not make your infection vanish, but it may help you breathe easily and elevates your health status.
While you are combating COVID-19, for a purpose your body makes mucus, you should

• Try to keep standing as much as possible.
• Try to keep active and do light physical activities
• Drink water as much as possible

Treatment:

Here are some ways to treat phlegm in the lungs: 

1. Medicine prescription:

If you have a COVID-19 infection, and you are experiencing a wet, productive cough and difficulty in breathing, your health expert will prescribe you drugs known as mucolytics. These drugs make you cough easier and thin the mucus in your lungs.
Bromhexine: According to studies it may decline the severity of the symptoms in patients who are admitted to the hospital.
N-acetylcysteine: is frequently prescribed to disintegrate mucus in the lungs.
Both drugs make the mucus thin and facilitate you cough it up, but obviously, they do this work with different means than over-the-counter (OTC) expectorants including guaifenesin, if there is a condition in which OTC is not helpful these drugs might be supportive
You may require physical therapy to progress your lung strength and health if your COVID-19-associated cough is long-lasting or your chest congestion turns into a breathing problem. 

2. Over-the-counter treatments:

Any expectorant such as Mucinex or anything with the active ingredient guaifenesin makes the mucus thinner and facilitates coughing up. An expectorant does not make your cough decline, but it will make the more cough productive and easy to clear the airways.
Decongestants such as Sudafed or anything with pseudoephedrine make the blood vessel contract in the mucus membranes, especially in the sinuses, making mucus production slower. Against nasal congestion, they work best.
When you have a wet cough you don’t require a cough suppressant, as the cough is significant to moving mucus out of your lungs, where it is intrusive to breathing.
If you have a wet cough and you are taking a cough suppressant it may elevate the risks of developing pneumonia because a wet cough keeps the polluted mucus in your lungs and airways.

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Home remedies to cure congestion:

After infection with COVID-19, you may experience that you are still coughing up mucus. This indicates that your lungs and airways keep clearing themselves which is quite normal.
Other than the medication, there are several home remedies by that you can clear up your lungs and airways. Because keeping clear the phlegm from your lungs reduces the chance of lung congestion and improves your lung condition.   
Following remedies, you can try to improve your health status and clear the phlegm

• Use vaporizer, face steamer, or humidifier
• Take plenty of water, as phlegm contains 90% of water and can get thicker if you don’t drink enough water
• Use nasal sprays to rinse your sinuses
• Try positional exercise and deep breathing
• Soothe your face with a moist, warm clean cloth, or you can simply breathe in with your face over a hot water bowl 
• Sustain yourself when lying down or sleeping

1. Postural exercise:

With the help of postural exercises, you can move mucus out of your lungs. These positioning exercises clear the mucus with the concept of gravity. The most common are side lying and back lying often recommended.
The effectiveness of these exercises depends on the stickiness and thickness of your mucus or phlegm. Thicker mucus may be difficult to clear. So, sticky and thick phlegm may not clear by these exercises.

This is suggested that wait for at least an hour after taking a meal before beginning these exercises. If you experience feeling sick or heartburn, just stop an exercise.

a. Back Lying exercise: 

With your head flat and knees bent, lie down on your back

• Set pillows, under your knees and hips, so that your hips set position higher than your chest level.
• Try to stay in this position for at least five to 10 minutes and take a deep breath

b. Side lying exercise:

For this exercise what will you have to do,

• Lie down on one of your sides (left or right) with your head flat
• Set a pillow under your hip in order to elevate it above the chest level. You can set your hands under your head for ease.
• Try to stay in this position for at least 5-10 minutes and try to take a deep breath
• Repeat this exercise on your other side

After doing these exercises you can lightly clear the phlegm by gasping.

2. Breathing exercises:

Breathing exercises help you to expel the phlegm and strengthen your lungs. Following are some breathing exercises you can try

a. Breathing stacking exercise:

This type of breathing exercise helps you to keep your muscle flexible and to move, and expand your lungs so that your cough gets strengthened to remove phlegm.
You should start this exercise after an hour of taking meals and drinking, and if you feel any pain just stop it and consult your health expert.

• Exhale all your breath out of your body
• Take in a little breath and try to hold for a maximum time until you require more air.
• Take one more small breath but without breathing out
• Try to hold this breath for at least 5 minutes
• Forcefully, breathe all of the air out from your lungs.

b. Deep breathing:

Deep breathing will expand your lungs and facilitate mucus clearance from the lungs.

• Set one hand on the chest and the other one on the upper belly, to feel your breathing movement.
• Take a breath in deeply with your nose and feel your belly get bidder outward.
• Through tightened lips breathe out slowly, unfilled your lungs and suck in the belly.
• Repeat this 3 to 5 times

You can do this exercise multiple times a day.