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Symptoms, Their Causes & Cures: Sputum Discoloration

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Sputum Discoloration

WHEN TO SEE YOUR DOCTOR

* Your phlegm is yellow, green, brown or rust-colored for more than a week.

* You also have a fever, chills, shortness of breath or pain when you inhale deeply.

What Your Symptom Is Telling You

Coughing up a lot of gunk?

No exact color key exists to match mucus to malady, but if your sputum is anything other than clear or white, it means you have a viral or bacterial infection somewhere in your respiratory tract or an inflammation in your lungs, says Sally E. Wenzel, M.D., an assistant professor of medicine at the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine in Denver. The infection could be as mundane as a cold or as serious as bronchitis or pneumonia.

While yellowish, puslike phlegm usually means some sort of mild to moderate infection, any severe irritant, such as smoking or an allergen, can also be responsible, according to Anne L. Davis, M.D., associate professor of clinical medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at New York University Medical Center and assistant to the director of chest service at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City.

Some infections also can color sputum green. A brown or rusty hue to your mucus may mean an infection, or it could be old, dried blood that lingered down in your lungs for some reason, Dr. Davis says.

Symptom Relief

If your phlegm is an abnormal color, chances are you've noticed other symptoms that are a bit more bothersome—a nasty cough, difficulty in breathing, chest congestion, a fever or an overall lousy feeling. Depending on the severity of your sickness, you'll either tough it out or you'll go to the doctor, who probably will give you a prescription for some antibiotics. A simple respiratory infection in an elderly person or someone with a chronic lung disease is more serious. As for that spectrum of sputum, there are a couple of points to keep in mind.

Make it a double. Double the amount of liquid you normally drink, Dr. Wenzel says. "In addition to the discoloration, your mucus may be thicker, and liquids will thin it out and loosen it." (See Congestion on page 103 for more suggestions on fighting phlegm.)

Cough it up. Don't take cough suppressants, says Dr. Wenzel. Your cough has a purpose: to get rid of mucus, whatever its color.

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