Coughing Blood And Mucus. Suffer From Anxiety, Have Panic Attacks, Smoker. Can You Help?

Posted on Thu, 1 Dec 2011

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Thu, 1 Dec 2011 Answered on

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 Last reviewed on

Question : Hi. I'm a 40 year old female smoker. This afternoon I started coughing up specks of blood sometimes in conjunction with mucus. The blood is bright red. I suffer from anxiety and this has caused me to have panic attacks. Can you help?

Answered by Dr. Gowri Kulkarni (21 minutes later)

Hi,

Thank you for posting in your query

Cough with blood stained sputum is an ominous sign. I suggest that you see your tuberculosis, lung cancer amongst other reasons. You will require to get blood tests and X XXXXXXX chest done to find the exact cause.

Just to add to your knowledge, chronic smoking can cause many ill effects on the body which includes chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, neuropathy, coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular accidents, immunodeficiency and cancers, particularly lung cancer, cancers of the larynx and mouth, gastointestinal cancers and pancreatic cancer
It is important that you quit smoking as soon as possible. Your primary care physician will be able to assist you in doing the same.
I request you to visit your doctor at the earliest

Hope I have answered your query

Regards,

Dr Gowri

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Aparna Kohli