A smoker’s cough is a persistent cough that develops in long-term smokers—”persistent” meaning that it’s present for more than 2 or 3 weeks.
The infamous smoker’s cough isn’t like what happens when you have a chest cold. It means that you’ll have a persistent cough all day long that just doesn’t ever go away. This isn’t the kind of cough where a cough drop or cough suppressing medicine can give you relief!
Your lungs have little hair-like structures called cilia. Normally these cilia help to move toxins through your lungs to protect them, but smoking paralyzes the cilia and makes them unable to do their job.
A smoker’s cough not only sounds unpleasant to listen to, it is also uncomfortable to experience. In addition to the cough itself being painful, the frequent deep coughing can cause a lot of chest pain as well.
