Since January my family has battled a number of illnesses. We’ve dealt with the Norovirus twice, Bronchitis, other stomach bugs and we’re now back to coughing again. Like many other families, we’ve been waiting (impatiently) for Spring. It seems like this past season has put many of us under the weather.
Robitussin shared with me their new tool recently, the CoughCast, which I thought was pretty smart! We always check the weather before we wander outside so it makes sense to check to see if there is a cough bug going around in the area in order to bring along extra sanitizer. Genius.
CoughCast is powered by IMS Health, which is an analytics service for health communities. Their information comes from the leading healthcare data resources, which is how they can “forecast” the coughing.
- Cold and flu are among the main contributors to cough. Coughing is the body’s way of keeping the airways clear of mucus and irritants such as dust or smoke.
- When you get sick, your body often produces more mucus, which can get thick and stuck in your lungs and airways, causing a cough. This makes it hard to breathe and easy to get infections. Toward the end of a cold, a dry, hacking cough may develop. A prolonged cough can also cause unpleasant side effects, such as chest pain, difficulty sleeping and lightheadedness.
- A non-prescription cough medicine with an expectorant and cough suppressant, such as certain Robitussin? products, will help by keeping the mucus secretions easily expelled while the cough suppressant helps you bring your cough under greater control.
It is also really easy to use. You just put in your area code and it will give tell you the levels of the CoughCast in your area.
Currently our CoughCast is Low, which means that once I get over this cough I’ve had for three weeks I should be in the clear – area wise. Currently I am just living off of Robitussin and coffee.
The nice thing about having the CoughCast is that you can prepare for things in advance. I know if things are getting higher that I need to make sure to have cough/cold supplies on hand. My tot catches EVERYTHING, so I like the idea of having a pre-warning system.
You can find out more information on the CoughCast on the Robitussin website as well as information on beating cough and cold season in their Cough & Cold Center!
