In early January 2024 I caught a cold, developed a cough and as has been the case over the previous ten years, settled in to wait for the six weeks it would take to get rid of it. Six weeks later that cough was still going strong, dry, tickly and persistent. I tried cough medicines, Strepsils and other throat lozenges and gargling with anti-bacterial mouthwashes. Nothing helped. One of my sinuses was always blocked so I figured I must still have had a cold. No cold symptoms, just a blocked sinus and that darn cough. I coughed and snored all night too, so was sleeping on the sofa as my partner wasn’t getting enough sleep to be able to go to work. In March 2024 I saw my GP, who sent me to the EN&T dept. who forwarded me to the Sleep Analysis people. They diagnosed me with sleep apnea after monitoring me for a night, and gave me a PAP-machine. The snoring stopped, the coughing didn’t. I lost a lot of weight, around 17kgs, which I hoped would also help. It didn’t. In November 2024, I caught the flu and the coughing got worse. By this time, I had high blood pressure and a high cholesterol count and my GP felt the coughing must be part of some unknown heart issue and referred me to a Cardiologist, who after a recent angiogram disagrees. I’m not bringing anything up, there’s no sputum at all. I am left gasping for breath after a severe attack, but the more normal coughing attacks don’t affect my breathing, and taking sips of water does seem to stop the tickle in my throat temporarily. I cough more when I sit hunched and when I lie down. It doesn’t hurt to cough, there’s no pain in my ribs or throat. It’s an unexplained cough that despite medicines and lozenges just will not go away.
Late-onset or adult-onset asthma develops for the first time in adulthood, presenting symptoms such as coughing, wheezing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath, often with triggers like respiratory infections, hormonal changes, allergies, or exposure to irritants and pollutants….. I have this and a Salbutamol inhaler helps me so much.
Hello
Do you take Omeprazole?
I’ve been in the same situation for ages, I was diagnosed with late onset asthma 18 months ago.
I decided to stop Omeprazole 4 weeks ago and haven’t coughed since.
Any other comments would be gratefully received!
Good luck
Checking for asthma is good idea. Another thing that could be driving these attacks is stress. Chronic stress can produce all kinds of physical symptoms due to high levels of cortisol stress hormone in the brain. Would try deep breathing and meditation. I tend to think it’s worth looking at everything. Worth testing is doing a full thyroid panel, hormone testing (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone & cortisol) and testing for nutrient deficiences. I would also look at side effects of all medications and diet. Coffee is aptly described “stress in a cup” due to its ability to raise cortisol levels keeping the brain hyperalert which also robs sleep. Caffeine stays in the body for 8 - 10 hrs; longer if you are on hormone therapy. Sugar causes inflammation throughout the body so reducing sugar and processed foods high in sugar and foods that rapidly release sugar (baked goods, cereal, pasta, crackers, bread) helps to reduce inflammation. I would also test for insulin resistance (fasting insulin and the glucose test (ie. how fast insulin returns to normal after drinking pure glucose)). You can reverse Insulin resistance through diet (See Dr. Jason Fung “The Diabetes Code”). Insulin resistance underlies every chronic disease so think of it as catching a problem early. Chronic infections of tonsils is another possibility.