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Lungs & Breathing
Symptoms of the airways and lungs: cough in its many forms, breathlessness, wheezing, chest tightness and coughing up blood. These pages describe how each symptom behaves, what it is commonly associated with, and when breathing difficulty becomes an emergency.
This page lists all 11 of them in the guide. Open any symptom for its possible causes, red-flag list and frequently asked questions.
BreathlessnessLungs & Breathing
Bringing up phlegmLungs & Breathing
Chest infections that keep coming backLungs & Breathing
CoughLungs & Breathing
Coughing up bloodLungs & Breathing
Noisy breathingLungs & Breathing
Pain when breathing inLungs & BreathingPersistent coughLungs & Breathing
Persistent hiccupsLungs & Breathing
Waking up breathlessLungs & Breathing
WheezingLungs & Breathing| Symptom | Category | What it can feel like |
|---|---|---|
| Breathlessness | Lungs & Breathing | Breathlessness is the uncomfortable feeling of not being able to get enough air — breathing faster, shallower or with more effort than the moment calls for. Everyone is… |
| Bringing up phlegm | Lungs & Breathing | Bringing up phlegm means coughing up mucus from the chest — clear, white, yellow, green or blood-streaked. Some phlegm with a chest infection is normal; producing phlegm… |
| Chest infections that keep coming back | Lungs & Breathing | Chest infections that keep coming back means repeated episodes of bronchitis or pneumonia — several a year, infections that take weeks to clear, or infection returning… |
| Cough | Lungs & Breathing | A cough is a reflex that clears the airways of mucus, irritants and infection. It is one of the most common symptoms of all — most coughs are caused by viral infections… |
| Coughing up blood | Lungs & Breathing | Coughing up blood — anything from blood-streaked phlegm to larger amounts of fresh blood — is always a symptom to have assessed promptly. Most causes are treatable chest… |
| Noisy breathing | Lungs & Breathing | Noisy breathing means breathing you can hear without a stethoscope — whistling, rattling, snoring-like or harsh crowing sounds. A harsh sound mainly on breathing in… |
| Pain when breathing in | Lungs & Breathing | Pain when breathing in — pleuritic pain — is a sharp, stabbing pain, usually on one side of the chest, that catches as you take a deep breath, cough or laugh. It comes… |
| Persistent cough | Lungs & Breathing | A persistent cough is one that lasts more than eight weeks in an adult (four in a child) or keeps returning. By this stage it is unlikely to be a simple passing… |
| Persistent hiccups | Lungs & Breathing | Hiccups are sudden, involuntary contractions of the diaphragm followed by a snap shut of the vocal cords — the familiar 'hic'. Most attacks pass in minutes. Hiccups… |
| Waking up breathless | Lungs & Breathing | Waking up breathless means being woken from sleep by a feeling of suffocation or air hunger, often needing to sit up or stand, or dangle your legs over the bed, before… |
| Wheezing | Lungs & Breathing | Wheezing is a high-pitched whistling sound made when breathing, most often breathing out, through narrowed airways. It is a sound doctors listen for with a stethoscope… |
Please note: This page is educational information about a symptom. A symptom alone cannot diagnose any condition, and the causes listed here are possibilities, not a diagnosis. If you are worried about a symptom — especially one that is new, severe, getting worse or not going away — please see your own clinician, who can examine you and arrange tests. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.