There is a saying in China: yellow phlegm is light, black phlegm is heavy, spitting white phlegm is fatal!
This saying is catchy and closely related to people's health, so the circulation is also very high. However, from the perspective of these few words alone, it is too alarmist, after all, everyone is more afraid of life.
However, it cannot be denied that sputum is indeed the most intuitive respiratory symptom, and to a certain extent, it can indeed reflect the priority of the disease.
The so-called sputum, in fact, is the liquid secreted by the stimulation of the human respiratory tract, and it is necessary to know that the respiratory tract has the ability to protect itself and clean. In the process of breathing air, people are easily exposed to microorganisms such as dust, impurities, bacteria and viruses in the air.
In order to prevent these dust and microorganisms from entering the body and causing danger, the respiratory mucosa will secrete a small amount of mucus, so that these substances adhere to and stay in the respiratory tract, and then excrete them through the cough reflex, and the excreted substance is sputum.
That is to say, sputum is actually the secretion of the trachea and bronchi, or the exudate in the alveoli mixed with various substances, including mucus, foreign bodies, pathogenic microorganisms, a variety of inflammatory cells, necrotic and shedding mucosal epithelial cells and so on. Usually, healthy people produce and excrete very little mucus every day.
However, if a respiratory disease occurs, the respiratory mucosa is stimulated by various factors, which can cause an increase in sputum. Since there may be bacteria and tumor cells in sputum that are equal to disease-related criteria, sputum examination also has certain value for the diagnosis of some respiratory diseases and the observation of efficacy.
So the question is, yellow phlegm, black phlegm, white phlegm, in the end, what factors are related?
1. Yellow sputum, yellow-green phlegm
This situation is mostly in patients with respiratory inflammation, especially due to the inflammation induced by pathogen infection, patients are prone to cough up yellow sputum, and the texture of sputum is very thick, and sputum contains certain bacterial substances. For example, if you suffer from pneumonia, acute and chronic bronchitis, bronchiectasis, lung abscess, etc., you may cough up yellow sputum;
2. Black sputum
Black phlegm can be divided into two situations to consider, the first is the real black sputum, which in most cases, are related to environmental factors, such as coal miners, boiler workers, etc., they have long been in this environment, the respiratory tract adsorbed a large amount of coal ash, naturally coughed up black sputum.
There is also a case where the color of sputum is darker, but it is actually dark red or reddish brown, because the blood has accumulated in the respiratory tract for too long, so the color is darker, which may be a manifestation of the arrival of serious diseases, such as lung cancer, tuberculosis, bronchiectasis and so on.
If tan sputum is discharged, it may be related to problems such as amoebic lung abscess and lung fluke disease;
3. White sputum
White sputum can also be understood from two aspects, the first is that respiratory tract infections cause acute inflammation, leukocyte phagocytosis bacteria, sputum has macrophages of white blood cells and germs, sputum color has changed, such as interstitial pneumonia is one of the common cases.
The second is that the patient spits white foam in the mouth, which is often a manifestation of organophosphorus poisoning, which is formed due to the patient's tracheal contraction and excessive saliva secretion. In addition, during seizures, patients may also experience symptoms of foaming.
In a word, sputum is indeed a barometer of human respiratory health, but there is also an expansion component in the colloquialism, so we cannot judge the severity of the disease by relying on a common saying.
Sputum in the clinical view, only points out the direction of examination and diagnosis, really want to confirm the disease, but also need to carry out the next step of accurate examination.