Chronic Cough

[Ingrid S]

Please can anyone help? I have used a CPAP for @ 10 years. About 18 months ago,soon after getting my new CPAP whose pressure remained the same,I developed a chronic cough. I am embarassed at meetings with coughing fits and at night it wakes me. This is all the time. I developed post nasa drip with this CPAP,which is probably why I couh
gh but have tried everythig and nothing is working. My lungs are clear and have had a negative TB test. I can't get Dr. to understand the problem so she gave me nasal steroids which also don't help.It is too expensive to keep going back to the Dr. Please help.Thanks

[cflame1]

i'm guessing that the cough is due to sinus drainage

so... work on that first.

try a netipot.

Do you use a humidifier? If not try that too, if you do play with the amount of heat if any being used.

[LSAT]

The cough could also come from acid reflux,

[taberge]

Do you take any medication for high blood pressure?
Many high blood pressure meds can cause a chronic cough and sinus drip.

[GumbyCT]

Do you take any medication for high blood pressure?
Many high blood pressure meds can cause a chronic cough and sinus drip.

I know Lasinopril causes a dry unproductive cough.

[Mr Bill]

The cough could also come from acid reflux,

This has my vote and many people suffer from silent (no pain) acid reflux. The acid reflux irritates the esophagus and the vagus nerve which in turn, enervates the sinus and causes sinus drip, coughing, and asthma like symptoms. Its totally impervious to steroids because its the vagus nerve that is activating the whole process. Its transferring the irritation of your esophagus to your sinuses. I suffered from it for ~25 years before finding the answer. Try stacking three 4' 2"x6" planks under the feet of the head of your bed to raise it 6 inches. I paid about $4 for my planks from the scrap pile at the local lumber yard. My symptoms disappeared 90% after a day and almost entirely after a week. Also, for this to work best, you need to sleep on your back.

Its cheap to try even if it does not work.

[Mr Bill]

Do you take any medication for high blood pressure?
Many high blood pressure meds can cause a chronic cough and sinus drip.

I know Lasinopril causes a dry unproductive cough.

Many of the Ace inhibitors do that.

[JointPain]

I know Lasinopril causes a dry unproductive cough.

Do you mean Lisinopril? I take that but it hasn't had that side effect on me yet. Either it or another drug I started on at the same time causes me to become very drowsy, so I take them shortly before sleep time. In fact, I just took one about 5 minutes ago ... zzz

[Muse-Inc]

From what I've read women are more likely to experience side effects from bloo-pressure regulating drugs. I was on Lisinopril and started couging within a few weeks. Coughed so bad my co-worker complained. Got a beet-red face from the hacking spells. Coughing stopped with 24 hrs when switched to an angiontenstion receptor blocker, wich by the way, is the best class of drugs for lowering the hypertension we get from untreated apnea...took me 18 months on CPAP therapy to get off the drug with slowly decreasing dosages.

[taberge]

You can switch from one ACE inhibitor to another and rid yourself of a cough if it is the cause. All ACE inhibitors are not the same and affect one person differently from one ACE inhibitor to another. ARB's are another option. Stay away from beta blockers and especially so if you are diabetic.

[archangle]

Please go into your profile and fill in your type of machine, mask, humidifier, etc. It will help us help you.

It's possible you're leaking air out through your mouth. Do you wake up with dry mouth?

Do cough drops help? You might try some of the ones without menthol. Just some pectin to soothe the throat.

[Catatrina]

I too have a chronic cough which seemed to develop after I EGD scope done in July 2011; it is especially worse when using CPAP therapy; I have been to pulmonary doc who lowered my CPAP pressure to 9.0 from 10.5; which helped somewhat but I still have this everyday; I was told by my primary care doc that it might be allergy related so she
sent me to a otolaryngologist whom agreed I have post nasal drip and possible allergies especially since this year has been fierce for Hi mold count etc.. she recommend Mucinex for upon exam I had alot of thick mucous in nasal turbinates & In back of throat; I have used Mucinex for past 1 wk cough up a storm feel worse; I even went on internet and found out about SinuPulse Nasal Irrigation System; purchased that last weekend; doing both moisture spray & irrigation which comes with complete kit including SinuAir powder salt mixture; machine was designed for sinus problems & post nasal drip; however despite my 2 x daily use [though there has been some improvement] once I put on CPAP RX been using FF Mask Comfort GEl by Resperonics it has a good seal; after about 45 minutes of using CPAP the cough begins I have even been sleeping on my lazyboy recliner chair which keeps me more upright which helps quite a bit; to me it is interesting that the air from the cpap hits the back of the throat; any other suggestions out there, other than hang in there it will get better?? I am not giving up I fully believe in CPAP RX it has keep me going and I know the benefits but I am getting frustrated Need help!

[n0hardmask]

Please can anyone help? I have used a CPAP for @ 10 years. About 18 months ago,soon after getting my new CPAP whose pressure remained the same,I developed a chronic cough.

Hi, Ingrid. Lot of possible ideas here; I'll throw in a different one. The fact that this started right after starting on the new machine suggests that there could be some mold or other irritant that came in with the new machine. I'm horribly sensitive to mold, so keeping the humidifier, etc clean is a priority. The post nasal drip can be allergy related or several other things as others have mentioned. Suggest you clean out everything really well and pehaps check with an allergist (ouch).

I am embarassed at meetings with coughing fits and at night it wakes me. This is all the time. I developed post nasa drip with this CPAP,which is probably why I couh
gh but have tried everythig and nothing is working. My lungs are clear and have had a negative TB test. I can't get Dr. to understand the problem so she gave me nasal steroids which also don't help.It is too expensive to keep going back to the Dr. Please help.Thanks

I'll encourage you to register and add in your location, and equipment, so we can better tailor the Guesses we're throwing your way. Best wishes getting this resolved.

[Breathe Jimbo]

I had a horrible, back-cracking cough on Lisinopril. After taking Cozaar/Losartan for a couple of years, I recently came down with a less serious but still annoying dry cough. When I experimented by halving the Cozaar/Losartan, the cough almost went away. When I stopped the Cozaar/Losartan altogether, the cough disappeared. Since my blood pressure stayed in the ideal to low pre-hypertensive range, it was unnecessary to take anything else. That's how I discovered I no longer need BP meds. I am, of course, continuing to monitor my blood pressure, as should anyone else who might be tempted to try such "experiments."

I would recommend that for every prescription medication you are taking, read the full Prescribing Information for the side effects, to see whether something that you taking may be causing your cough. Although side effects often emerge soon after starting a medication, they can also develop after taking a medication for years.

[Gaga58]

Once again I find more info on here than anywhere else!! I also take Lisinopril for high bp and had no idea it would cause the cough. I get those too, sometimes very embarrassing when you're in a group and you have to cough til you hack a lung up before it stops!! I get woke up in the middle of the night from the same thing. I've always blamed it on the allergies/time of year thing, but I have spells of it even in the dead of winter! Guess I'll be making another call to Doc to see about changing that, although I have high hopes of once I get therapy started to get off the bp meds completely as I now think my bp is high becuase of the apnea (something else I didn't know til joining this forum)!!