Coughs

[aceduce0]

I have had a cough for years all day every day, but after a scan a chest xray, camera down my throat , twice and numerous sorts of medication, the specialist says she can't find anything at all. Has anyone any good remedies for a cough please. I am at my wits end and it drives my husband mad.

[andy-hughes]

If there is no medical reason why you are coughing, then it is probably a reflex action which has become a habit. have you consider hypnotherapy - which is usually successful in treatring unconcious reflex behaviour like this.

[4getmenot]

My mum has this and I think its actually due to stress, she has had all the tests the same as you. I can understand how it might drive people mad as it becomes a bit tedious. For some reason I think my doc is making my mum check her blood pressure on a regular basis. Think It has gone away for now, I shall ask her what she did about it.

[Paul22118]

I displayed the same symptoms and my GP could not find a problem. After seeing a specialist he diagnosed within minutes what the problem was - oesophagul reflux.

The brain is fooled into making you need to cough as it thinks you have phlegm or whatever, as in actual fact it is only a nerve response. No amount of Benylin would sort this out.

A prescription of a drug called Nexium has virtually eliminated the prob.

[WendyS]

Meet a fellow sufferer. It could well be acid reflux, i.e. acid coming up from your stomach and irritating your throat and vocal chords. Have you tried Gaviscon? It's an antacid which coats the lining of your throat and helps to prevent the acid irritation. There are also some tablets you can take for this but they may be prescription only, called Ritinidin (or something similar). I took a course and they did help reduce the problem (for a while).

[smurfchops]

A couple of people I know are on blood pressure tablets and one of the side effects is a dry cough. They changed their tablets and the cough went away. If you are on any prescribed medicine, look at the side effects in the slip of paper in the pack.

[4getmenot]

I asked my mum and she said - I take an anti-histamine every night and that has stopped the coughing. One doc said it was asthma and prescribed an inhaler but that didn't really work. It was my idea to take the anti-histamine and I get them from Morrisons so don't have to get prescription. When I told Dr. Skinner he said that was fine if it worked for me.

[4getmenot]

She also said that if you have a morrisons nears you they do a anti-histamine which has citrazene in it in a blue packet. 99p for 7 tablets. It has definately worked for her. Forget what I said about high blood pressure that has nothing to do with it. Mum actually thinks its maybe due to dust allergies.