Cough - Clearing Throat

[Iron Man]

Argh...

It looks like I am at my yearly situation where I get this cough and the urge to clear my throat.

It isn't in my head, because I cough to sooth an itch in my throat and the clearing of the throat is me moving the mucous. At night it is the worst... I think I have a bit of a minor cold at the moment and it is making my regular throat clearing a whole lot worse. Last night I had such a constant bad cough it woke me up and prevented me from getting a good sleep. Out of desperation, I drank some apple cider vinegar and that seemed to fix things up enough for me to get back to bed.

I am not sure what is going on, but would sure love to fix this once and for all. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[GAF]

CO2 loss from hyperventilation (overbreathing) at night is a primary cause of mucous. A "cold" may force you to mouth breathe leading to the hyperventilation and consequent CO2 loss and resulting mucous and cough as the body tries to eliminate the mucous.

The most targeted technique for dealing with this problem is taping your mouth shut all night long as well as anytime you sense you are mouth breathing be sure to apply some tape until you calm down.

Coughing has a cascading effect causing more coughing, more CO2 loss that causes more mucous that causes more coughing.

I have 8 years of daily experience and it was only in the last 6 mos thanks to finding RP did I find out about CO2 loss as the source of my mucous nightmare.

Also, longer term, it appears your immune system needs a boost to keep the yearly cold away. That is covered elsewhere in this forum I am sure.

Try it, you'll like it!

 

[Iron Man]

Thanks for the post, much appreciated!

I don't seem to have a blocked nose and I didn't think I was breathing through my mouth too much? Maybe I am and don't realize?

I seem to get hit with this "thing"once a year. It is worse at night. As soon as sun goes down, it get's worse.

I have to cough and then I clear the throat. Some have said it is in my head, but I know it is something going on with my respiratory system. I am certain that I tense up at night, because I am worried my cough/throat clear is annoying others (which it does).

I feel it in my chest when I cough, but would not say that I am overly sick or have the flu or anything.

Would be great if I could change something or take something to dry it all up. It must be a drip going on down in my throat?

 

[GAF]

I had those exact same thoughts thousands of times and my thoughts were wrong in my case, it turns out. I use the blue sensitive skin tape at Walgreens. I refused to try taping for months thinking it was going to be uncomfortable and just bizarre. Once again i was wrong. Taping has a nice calming effect and takes away the tickle and throat clearing. I still have some mucous in the morning but it is moist and comes out easy instead of taking hours of hacking debilitating and embarrasing coughing.

My case is extreme. Hopefully, you just need an antihistamine for a few days to dry things up. Brine therapy helps too.

Good Luck. I feel your pain.

 

[Mittir]

I have found apple cider vinegar to be quite helpful during flu and sore throat.
Another natural cure for sore throat is gurgling cayenne water, half a tsp of cayenne
powder in a cup of water.

From peat perspective, stress hormones goes up with darkness, especially
cortisol and digestion slows down. You can eat raw carrot salad before sunset and
eating light easily digestible food after sunset, low in protein and high in carb and fat.
Avoiding starch and fiber can improve this condition. Coconut oil helps a lot with
lowering endotoxin load and if carrot salad is not that helpful you can adopt
low dose antibiotic therapy ( 30 to 50 mg of tetracycline) to see if there is any improvement.
I believe in most cases it's food or problematic ingredients in supplements cause these
flu like symptoms.

Meditation lowers cortisol and i believe CO2 therapy does similar thing.
Bright red light therapy also lowers cortsiol after sunset.
You can post a detail description of your diet. Vitamin D deficiency can
lower immunity.

 

[moss]

Renky you mentioned ‘yearly situation’ is it Winter where you are?

I use to experience something similar and went through a period of taping my mouth whilst sleeping until breathing through the nose became a habit. I use to wake in the middle of the night with a dry cough when the air was cold. I took to wearing a beanie and taping the mouth (very becoming) and it was helpful and concur with Mittir’s suggestions.

Perhaps a small cup of warm water with lemon, honey and a sprig on thyme would soothe the cough/throat immediately even if only a Band-Aid solution.

 

[tara]

:)
Yes to trying tape at night. Smear lips with butter or cocoa butter or something so it comes off OK in the morning. During the day, remember to keep mouth shut, and a couple of short breath holds (just till it starts to get a little uncomfortable) after each time you have to cough to get the CO2 level back up again.
These tactics helped me with coughs.

Mittir's suggestions about keeping guts happy and endotoxin low seem good. Aaything that improves your overall metabolism may help the cough too.

 

[honeybee]

I had a cold last week and developed an annoying dry cough and sore throat. Taping my mouth at night reduced the severity of the sore throat GREATLY. It has also helped the cough quite a bit.
Another interesting effect....Ever since I had Lasik surgery about 11 years ago, my eyes would dry out overnite and I always wake needing drops immediately. In fact over the past year the dry has been getting worse and started happening every nite right before bed. Since I started mouth taping last week, I don't need the drops in the morning anymore and my eyes haven't been drying out in the eve. A welcome effect.

 

[tara]

post 108567 I had a cold last week and developed an annoying dry cough and sore throat. Taping my mouth at night reduced the severity of the sore throat GREATLY. It has also helped the cough quite a bit.
Another interesting effect....Ever since I had Lasik surgery about 11 years ago, my eyes would dry out overnite and I always wake needing drops immediately. In fact over the past year the dry has been getting worse and started happening every nite right before bed. Since I started mouth taping last week, I don't need the drops in the morning anymore and my eyes haven't been drying out in the eve. A welcome effect.

Cool. :)