Here is my problem - I am coughing.  Nothing special, you would say,
but the problem is that I have been coughing for 20 years now.  Not a
lot, but still enough to bother me.  Sometimes more, sometimes less. 
Especially in the morning, but also during other times of the day. 
It's a dry cough and it's probably not allergy related, because I
cough the entire year around.  It never goes away, just once, when I
spent 10 days in a rain forest, where it was humid and very warm.  But
it came right back after I came home.  Medicine doesn't work, except
for an asthma spray with cortizone, but I don't want to take that for
my entire life, so I stopped using it and the cough came right back. 
Now my doctor is treating me for heartburns, which I have frequently,
but this doesn't appear to help either.  So, basically, I am helpless.
 If anybody can provide the answer on what could help, except for
cortizone, that would be highly appreciated.  And if it turns out that
it really works, I will add a $100 tip.

Regards,

Peter

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Request for Question Clarification by sublime1-ga on 23 Sep 2005 19:20 PDT

pete...

Have you tried massage?

A long time ago, I learned to massage the area of the throat
which "tickles" when you have a cough. The area to massage
corresponds with the location of the thyroid gland, as shown
on this page from Endocrinologist.com:
http://www.endocrinologist.com/thyroid.htm

Even if you don't feel a tickle which precipitates the cough,
massaging properly may make you aware of a tickle which is
actually the cause of the cough, of which you were unaware
until you started massaging. Further massaging can relieve
the tickle, and thus, the cough.

To massage this area, I like to use my non-dominant hand,
so, for me, the left hand. For support and balance, place
your other hand (for me, the right) behind your neck. 
Then place your left thumb to the left of your neck, 
beneath your adam's apple and above your clavicle. Place
the index finger, bolstered by the middle finger, on the 
opposite side. Open your fingers and apply pressure as
you move them closer to the center of your throat.

Start gently, and increase pressure as you become 
comfortable. Then, to "challenge" the tickle and make
it more obvious, as your fingers are almost together
at the front of your throat, with a flap of skin between
them, push into your throat, toward the back of your neck,
with increasing force. It will assist you in feeling the
presence of any tickle if you also exhale strongly as you
press in. With your lungs almost empty, it will be much
easier to detect any sign of a tickle. Once you've located
the tickle, work with it using massage and exhaling to 
gradually eliminate it.

Let me know your results...

sublime1-ga

Coughing is one of the most frequent symptoms of a multitude of
ailments. A few of them are listed here:

http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/sym/cough.htm

I think you answered your own question. If a cortisone containing
inhaler works you probably have a low-grade asthma condition. You
might want to have your doctor order pulmonary function testing - it
will tell you whether you have spasms in your bronchial tubes and if a
bronchodilating inhaler relieves these spasms. There are variety of
very effective prescription medications some of which you may only
need to take once a day. If you don't want to take medications, the
writer Marcel Proust treated his asthma with drinking coffee, which
contains an active, bronchodilating ingredient. But it would be much
easier just to use an inhaler.

Hi,

Do not mind but I think it will be better for you to see a pulmonary
medicine specialist. As cortisone helps then you should think that it
is either Asthma or Allergy. Both these have some common aggravating
factors and in these cortison helps. More likely you have mild Asthma.
Spending time in rain forest means there is less pollution. Pollution
can aggravate Asthma and Allergy if it has the ingrediant in your
surrounding to which you are allergic. Discuss with your doctor if you
can inhale steam but do not do it beore discussing with your
physician. So consult a pulmonary medicine specialist and even if it's
Asthma hen it can be kept in control by oral medication if you do not
like inhaler though inhalers are considered better and fast acting.
Your doctor can give you best advise as he knows lot more than what
you have written here and is professionally competent too.

Good luck.

First of all - do you smoke?do you have severe reflux disease?is your
throat ok?i mean do you have any upper respiratory tract symptoms like
itching in throat,discharge dribbling down the throat wall,running
nose?reply me back & then i'll proceed further.

This is not uncommon and, as others have mentioned, sounds like a low
grade asthma. Can you get an inhaler that coes not contain the
steroid? i.e. a simple broncho-dilator? (like the coffee idea, but
more direct) Albuterol is a common one.