Chronic Cough: Causes and Natural Treatment (90% Success Rate)
What is chronic coughing?
The cough is the body's natural reflex to irritation in the throat. It is
mediated by urge-to-cough receptors located in airways. We need oxygen 24/7 for
body cells and this involuntary reaction is essential to clear airways and
ensure our survival. However, chronic coughing has a different mechanism because
it depletes your body cells and the brain of vital oxygen. This is the reason
why you feel miserable after coughing attacks.
What causes coughing?
Minute ventilation rates (chronic diseases)
| Condition | Minute ventilation |
Number of people |
All
references or click below for abstracts |
| Normal breathing | 6 l/min | - | Medical textbooks |
| Healthy Subjects | 6-7 l/min | >400 | Results of 14 studies |
| COPD | 14 (±2) l/min | 12 | Palange et al, 2001 |
| COPD | 12 (±2) l/min | 10 | Sinderby et al, 2001 |
| COPD | 14 l/min | 3 | Stulbarg et al, 2001 |
| Asthma | 13 (±2) l/min | 16 | Chalupa et al, 2004 |
| Asthma | 15 l/min | 8 | Johnson et al, 1995 |
| Asthma | 14 (±6) l/min | 39 | Bowler et al, 1998 |
| Asthma | 13 (±4) l/min | 17 | Kassabian et al, 1982 |
| Asthma | 12 l/min | 101 | McFadden & Lyons, 1968 |
| Cystic fibrosis | 15 L/min | 15 | Fauroux et al, 2006 |
| Cystic fibrosis | 10 L/min | 11 | Browning et al, 1990 |
| Cystic fibrosis* | 10 L/min | 10 | Ward et al, 1999 |
| CF and diabetes* | 10 L/min | 7 | Ward et al, 1999 |
| Cystic fibrosis | 16 L/min | 7 | Dodd et al, 2006 |
| Cystic fibrosis | 18 L/min | 9 | McKone et al, 2005 |
| Cystic fibrosis* | 13 (±2) l/min | 10 | Bell et al, 1996 |
| Cystic fibrosis | 11-14 l/min | 6 | Tepper et al, 1983 |
Chronic coughing is a very common feature for all these conditions. Why do you cough? During bouts of coughing, these people breathe even more. Hyperventilation reduces body oxygen levels and causes innumerable negative effects (see the links below).
Chronic coughing causes numerous health problems (see the chart on the right). Each arrow on this graph has supporting medical evidence that is provided on other pages of this website - see the links with medical studies below.
Natural chronic cough treatment
Chronic cough can be stopped with a simple and easy breathing exercise. It is part of a 100% natural cough treatment (the Buteyko breathing technique) taught by more than 170 Russian MDs to thousands of their patients with asthma, bronchitis, COPD, cystic fibrosis and many other conditions. The exercise works well in children (over 5 years old) and adults, even at night and even for dry cough.
Remedy No. 1. Learn how to cough only through your nose. This means that your mouth should be closed all the time.
Remedy No. 2. After you have mastered Remedy No. 1 (it may take 1-2 days), learn how to cough with the mouth and nose closed. You simply need to keep the mouth closed and the nose pinched. This will further decrease irritation (because there are no air movements) and increase your body O2 level.
|
Remedy No. 3. Sit down in a comfortable position, preferably at an ordinary table, on a straight chair. While having the bout of coughing, try your best to relax and learn how to breathe less air. Detailed instructions are provided in the video on the right side ("How
to Stop Coughing Naturally"). This video: |
The required breathing pattern is shown on the graph below (the blue line).
If you breathe less for only 1-2 minutes, you should have a greatly reduced urge-to-cough and your dry cough will disappear.
Permanent remedy for persistent cough
After testing their patients,
over 150 Russian medical doctors (who
developed this exercise) found that
persistent cough is possible only in those patients who have less than 20 seconds
for the body O2 test. As a result, the permanent chronic-cough remedy is
to slow down the unconscious- or automatic-breathing pattern closer to the
medical norm in order to get more than 20 seconds for the body O2 test all the
time.
Reference pages: Breathing norms and medical facts:
-
Breathing
norms: Parameters, graph, and description of the normal
breathing pattern
- 6 breathing myths: Myths and superstitions about breathing
and body oxygenation (prevalence: over 90%)
- Hyperventilation: Definitions of
hyperventilation: their advantages and weak points
- Hyperventilation syndrome:
Western scientific evidence about prevalence of chronic hyperventilation in patients with chronic conditions
(37 medical studies)
- Normal minute ventilation: Small and
slow
breathing at rest is enjoyed by healthy subjects (14 studies)
- Hyperventilation prevalence: Present in
over 90% of
normal people (24 medical studies)
- HV and hypoxia:
How and why deep breathing reduces oxygenation of cells and tissues of
all vital organs
- Body-oxygen test (CP test)
: How to measure your own breathing and body oxygenation (two in one) using a simple DIY test
- Body oxygen in healthy:
Results for the body-oxygen test for healthy people (27 medical
studies)
- Body oxygen in sick
: Results for the body-oxygen test for sick people (14 medical studies)
- Buteyko
Table of Health Zones: Clinical description and ranges for breathing zones:
from the critically ill (severely sick) up to super healthy people
with maximum possible body oxygenation
- Morning hyperventilation: Why people feel
worse and critically ill people are most
likely to die during early morning hours
References: pages about CO2 effect:
- Vasodilation: CO2 expands arteries and arterioles facilitating perfusion
(or blood supply) to all vital organs
- The Bohr effect:
How and why oxygen is released by red blood cells in tissues
- Cell oxygen levels: How alveolar CO2 influences
oxygen transport
- Oxygen transport: O2 transport is controlled by
vasoconstriction-vasodilation and the Bohr effects, both of which rely on CO2
- Free radical generation:
Reactive oxygen species are produced within cells due to anaerobic cell respiration caused by cell hypoxia
- Inflammatory response: Chronic inflammation
in fueled by the hypoxia-inducible factor 1, while normal breathing reduces
and eliminates inflammation
- Nerve stabilization: People remain calm due to calmative or
sedative effects of carbon dioxide in neurons or nerve cells
- Muscle relaxation: Relaxation of muscle cells
is normal at high CO2, while hypocapnia causes muscular tension, poor posture
and, sometimes, aggression and violence
- Bronchodilation: Dilation of
airways (bronchi and bronchioles) is caused by carbon dioxide, and their constriction
by hypocapnia (low CO2)
- Blood
pH: Regulation of blood pH due to breathing and regulation of other bodily fluids
- CO2: lung damage: Elevated carbon
dioxide prevents lung injury and promotes healing of lung tissues
- CO2: Topical carbon dioxide can heal skin and tissues
- Synthesis of glutamine
in the brain, CO2 fixation, and other chemical reactions
- Deep breathing myth:
Ignorant and naive people promote the idea that deep breathing and breathing
more air at rest is beneficial for health
- Breathing control: How is our
breathing regulated? Why hypocapnia makes breathing uneven, irregular and erratic.
References
J Assoc Physicians India. 2000 Mar;48(3):343-5.
The role of cough and hyperventilation in perpetuating airway
inflammation in asthma.
Singh V, Chowdhary R, Chowdhary N.
Department of Pulmonary Medicine, SMS Medical College, Jaipur-302 016,
India.
Air flowing through a pipe exerts frictional stress on the walls of the
pipe. Frictional stress of more than 40 N/m2 (velocity equivalent of
air 113 m/s) is known to cause acute endothelial damage in blood
vessels. The frictional stress in airways during coughing may be much
greater, however, since the velocity of air may be as high as speed of
sound in air. We suggest that high levels of frictional stress
perpetuate airway inflammation in airways which are already inflamed
and vulnerable to frictional stress-induced trauma in patients with
asthma. Activities associated with rapid ventilation and higher
frictional stress (e.g. exercise, hyperventilation, coughing, sneezing
and laughing) cause asthma to worsen whilst activities that reduce
frictional stress (Yoga 'Pranayama', breathing a helium-oxygen mixture
and nasal continuous positive airway pressure) are beneficial. Therefore
control of cough may have anti-inflammatory benefits in patients with
asthma.
Jpn J Physiol. 1991;41(6):879-91.
Influence of central respiratory activity on the cough response in
anesthetized dogs.
Suzuki H, Kondo T, Yamabayashi H, Kobayashi I, Ohta Y.
Department of Medicine, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara,
Japan.
Cough responses evoked by mechanical stimulation of the
tracheobronchial mucosa in anesthetized and tracheostomized dogs were studied...
Coughing could be
evoked when the dog was made apneic either by hyperventilation or by
the Hering-Breuer reflex...
Handb Exp Pharmacol. 2009;(187):263-76.
Clinical cough I: the urge-to-cough: a respiratory sensation.
Davenport PW.
Department of Physiological Sciences, Box 100144, HSC, University of
Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA.
Cough is generated by a brainstem neural network. Chemical and
mechanical stimulation of the airway can elicit a reflex cough and can
elicit a cognitive sensation, the urge-to-cough. The sensation of an
urge-to-cough is a respiratory-related sensation. The role of the
respiratory sensation of an urge-to-cough is to engage behavioral
modulation of cough motor action. Respiratory sensations are
elicited by a combination of modalities: central neural, chemical, and
mechanical. Stimulation of respiratory afferents or changes in
respiratory pattern resulting in a cognitive awareness of breathing are
mediated by central neural processes that are the cognitive neural
basis for respiratory sensations, including the urge-to-cough. It is
proposed that the urge-to-cough is a component of the cough
motivation-to-action system. The urge-to-cough is induced by stimuli
that motivate subjects to protect their airway by coughing...
Or go to Hyperventilation Symptoms
Your social engagement and comments are appreciated. Thanks.
| Disclaimer | Copyright 2013 Artour Rakhimov | Contact details | About Artour Rakhimov (Google profile) |