What makes sputum green

How to get rid of phlegm Phlegm that occurs with mild symptoms can be treated at home. What questions will your doctor ask? Hear what 1 other is saying. Submit story. Request sent successfully. An error occurred, please try again later. Not ladylike to spit! Posted June 16, by J. I was a cigarette smoker of over 10 years; I also smoked marijuana for over 10 years.

When I had that chest feeling of a cold or similar to bronchitis coming along I didn't think much of it at first.

So I would never spit it out ever since I was little. So a few weeks of mild chest congestion passes when I got hit with bronchitis from what the doctor said. So the doctors told me this was similar to a wet sponge being left in the sink. It's a breeding ground for bacteria. That's exactly what happened. I thought I was all cleared up when I got hit even worse than the first time.

I was trying so hard to spit out anything I could get to make it up through the narrow airways. I thought I might actually die—I couldn't walk up the stairs without losing my breath completely. So freaked out I went to the ER again. This time they admitted me for 5 days where I quit smoking completely. They gave me antibiotics, steroids, and breathing treatments every 4 hours.

I hacked up first a very thin mucus again, almost watery. I was so thrown back to hear him tell me this, especially because both my grandparents have COPD.

From what the doctor explained to me, it is because I waited weeks to come into the ER. It had sat in my lungs so long and I had run out of my preventative inhaler a few months later for a week or two.

The result has so far been even worse on my lungs. I finally got antibiotics again and breathing treatments, but I am still going back and forth between thick green mucus to a clear or light yellow super-watery mucus. My lungs have been forever damaged from not clearing them out when it happened. Half the time I didn't even realize that I was missing as much lung capacity as I actually had been. I am still trying to figure out what's a good sign to go off of that my lungs are completely clear of all things they should be since I now have asthma and it seems like my lungs are constantly creating an excessive amount of mucus.

I feel that makes it harder to get the thicker stuff from the bottom of my lungs out too. The dark green mucus, as gross as it sounds, gave me a nasty taste in the back of my throat when I would have a deep cough. This can be extremely dangerous, so it's better to just go to the doctor to be safe. Copied to clipboard Close Icon. In addition to pulmonology and c Read full bio. Was this article helpful? Read this next. Slide 1 of 4. Coughing up black or brown mucus can occur when from environmental conditions like pollution or smoking.

Other causes of brown phlegm include small amounts of blood located in the throat or further down in the airway. Read more. Your cough can be caused by viruses, bacterial infections, COVID, allergies, and a number of other conditions. Learn what your cough symptoms mean, how to get the right diagnosis, and what treatments actually help. Flu Season. Clear sputum is considered as normal, however, there are many conditions that may cause excessive sputum production.

A profuse amount of clear sputum should therefore be considered as abnormal. Yellow colored sputum is due to the presence of white blood cells, particularly neutrophils and eosinphils.

These cells are often present in chronic inflammation, allergic and infectious causes. With infections, it is often in the acute setting that yellow sputum is evident due to the presence of live neutrophils. With allergic conditions, particularly airway hypersensitivity, the yellowish sputum is due to the presence of eosinophils.

Green mucus is indicative of a long-standing, possibly chronic, infection. It may also be seen in long standing non-infectious inflammatory conditions. With infections, the green sputum will be more purulent large amounts of pus while in non-infectious inflammatory conditions, the green sputum will be more mucoid large amounts of mucus. Certain organic and non-organic dusts may also cause a brown to black discoloration of the sputum.

Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. It's common for mucus to change from clear to white, yellow, or green during a single illness.

Many people believe the color of your mucus indicates how sick you are and whether your infection is bacterial or viral, but that's not the case. Changes in mucus color are a normal part of the natural course of an illness. When germs make you sick, one of the first ways your body fights the infection is by creating extra mucus to try to flush out the invading pathogen. This early mucus is typically clear. A few days later, your body has sent in immune cells to join the fight.

They can turn the mucus to white or yellow. If bacteria are mixed in as well, the mucus could turn green. But it's important to remember that bacteria are present in your body all the time.

Some make you sick and some don't. Just because they're in your mucus doesn't necessarily mean they're problematic—or that you need antibiotics to get better. For example, bacterial infection only occurs in between 0. Though less common, it's also possible for your mucus to turn pink, red, brown, orange, or black.

Read on to learn what the color of your mucus means, and when it's important to seek help. Healthy, normal mucus is clear and made up of water, salt, proteins, and antibodies. Your body makes it night and day to protect your nasal passages, putting out about 1.

You may have an especially runny nose with clear mucus:. Rarely, watery nasal discharge can result from a leak of cerebrospinal fluid , the fluid that surrounds and cushions the brain, usually due to trauma or certain medical conditions. Get emergency medical help if you have watery discharge along with:. White mucus is often associated with a cold or other infection that causes a stuffy nose. When you're congested, inflammation in your nose makes it harder for the snot to flow out, and it starts to dry.

This makes it cloudy and thick. It may also turn white due to the presence of immune cells that your body sends to battle the illness. When your snot turns yellow, it means your illness is progressing normally. White blood cells and other cells from the immune system have come to fight the germs making you sick.

Some of them are now exhausted and being washed away by mucus. The texture is likely drier and thicker than it used to be as well. Green, thick snot means your body is fighting a hard battle. Even more depleted immune cells and waste products are being flushed out.

Green mucus isn't reason for immediate concern. But if you're still sick after about 12 days, you could have a bacterial infection and might need antibiotics. Especially if you have a fever or nausea, it's time to see a healthcare provider. When you have pink or red mucus, it means there's blood in your nose.