Pain in the Abdomen While Coughing:Causes|Symptoms|investigations|Home Remedies

Pain in the Abdomen While Coughing

Does your stomach ache while cough. You must be suffering from the same when you took a big yawn or hiccups.
You must be wondering what’s wrong with you.

Pain in the stomach while coughing may be due to the tension or contraction of the abdominal muscles. It may be caused by other similar action, such as hiccups and yawning.

When a cough becomes repetitive it leads to giving away of muscle. In case coughing continues for some time it may also cause tearing of the muscle. So it is better to get cough treatment immediately.

Abdominal pain while coughing may be an indication that there is something wrong inside your tummy that needs attention and treatment. Let’s acknowledge details about abdominal pain while coughing.

What is the Reason of Pain in Abdomen While Coughing

When you are coughing we use the muscles of the stomach and ribs a lot. The stomach muscles are not used to do so much of the work. In the case of repetitive and intense coughing due to overuse muscles of stomach sore.

Usually, this condition is short lived. Once cough subsides muscle soreness eases. Intense coughing may exert pressure on the muscles causing straining which again increases the abdominal pain while coughing.

What is the Character of Abdominal Pain While Coughing?

A pain in the abdomen caused due to coughing is usually aching and mild in character. It may be localized or generalized spreading all over the stomach.

What are the Common Causes of Abdominal Pain While Coughing

Pain in the abdomen is a very common ailment. Few causes of it are constipation, appendicitis, gallbladder diseases, peptic ulcers, mild menstruation and other gastrointestinal infection as well as diseases of the female reproductive system. Other causes may include diseases of kidney, liver, heart, infection, rupture of abdominal muscles and respiratory diseases.

Abdominal Pain While Coughing May get Worse Due to Following Reasons:

1. Conditions in abdominal wall such as:

• Diseases of stomach wall
• Trauma or strain
• Diabetes or herpes where stomach wall nerves are involved
• Congenital defects of the abdominal wall.
• Surgery

Character of pain:

• Aching
• Constant
• Sharp at the beginning and then becomes dull
• Besides coughing, sneezing, standing for long, lifting the weight, hiccups may also worsen the condition.

2. Hernia- It is pushing off part or whole of the organ through a muscle or tissue opening that holds it. Most a common hernia is a hiatus hernia where part of the stomach is pushed out up through the diagram. Another common hernia is an umbilical hernia and incisional hernia.
It causes pain in the abdomen while coughing and other similar movements or crying and weight lifting.
3. Involvement of the abdominal organs.
Disorders of visceral organs may also cause abdominal pain while coughing.
In such conditions, the location of the pain helps in identification of the involved affected organ. For example, if pain is on a right upper side it may be due to diseases of the gall bladder or liver.

What are the Investigations Performed

Abdominal pain while coughing may be short lived or may be an indication of diseases of the visceral organ. Following

Investigations May be Done:

1. Physical examination is done to note:

• Fever
• Blood pressure
• Pulse rate
• Bowel sounds
• Pulsations of abdomen
• Abdominal distension

2. Assessment is done To determine:

• Tenderness
• Infection

3. Lab tests done include:

• X-rays
• Ultrasound
• CT scans

4. Other investigations include:

• Barium studies
• Endoscopy of gastrointestinal
• Laparoscopy
• Colonoscopy

How to Treat Abdominal Pain While Coughing:

• If there no serious underlying disease, abdominal pain eases after sometime cough is relieved.
• If you are suffering from a chronic cough, then proper treatment to control the bout of coughing is important.
• In the case of weak abdominal muscles and muscle wall, you may meet physiotherapist to guide with exercises to strengthen your muscles.
• In the case of other underlying disorders such as a hernia, trauma etc.. Proper treatment of underlying diseases may help.

Home Treatment for Abdominal Pain While Coughing:

1. Take a half teaspoon of ginger juice and mix it with a teaspoon of honey. Drink this concoction four times in a day. This will loosen a cough and will make it easy to cough the phlegm out.
2. Drink ginger tea three times a day. This cures a cough, but and also provides relief from abdominal pain caused by relaxing the tensed muscles.
3. Massage your abdominal area with essential oils to relieve pain.
4. You can have an aromatherapy.
5. Keep your palm pressed on the spot where the pain occurs,

While coughing, and foment the place with a towel dipped in hot water
If above home remedies do not work, please consult your doctor to prevent your symptoms getting worse.