Chocolate and coughing

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Saffy - 04 Jan 2004 22:50 GMT

I always have a cough - sometimes its not too bad and sometimes its awful.
My GP thinks I have asthma and has been unsuccesfully trying to get it under
control for the past two years.

A couple of months ago I won 96 Mars bars in a competiton and noticed at
that time that after stuffing my face of an evening I would often end up
coughing so bad I made myself sick. Since then I have noticed that after
eating chocolate my cough is worse. Is this normal, or am I just
desperately trying to find a solution to my problem. The coughing seems to
start almost as soon as I eat the chocolate. I also can't eat raw fruit,
veg and nuts as I get itchy throat and ears etc and its the same sort of
timescale as that.

I know chocolate contains quite a lot of chemicals, but I am not sure if I
am imagining this or not.

Saffy.

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Ted Edwards - 05 Jan 2004 02:57 GMT

> I always have a cough - sometimes its not too bad and sometimes its awful.
> My GP thinks I have asthma and has been unsuccesfully trying to get it under
> control for the past two years.

> A couple of months ago I won 96 Mars bars in a competiton and noticed at
> that time that after stuffing my face of an evening I would often end up
> coughing so bad I made myself sick. Since then I have noticed that after
> eating chocolate my cough is worse. Is this normal, or am I just

I have COPD and find sucking on a piece of chocolate helps supress the
coughing when I have a spell. Mars bars aren't just chocolate. Perhaps
you are allergic to one of the constituents. Have you tried straight
choclate to if you get the same reaction?

Ted

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Saffy - 05 Jan 2004 23:56 GMT

> > I always have a cough - sometimes its not too bad and sometimes its awful.
> > My GP thinks I have asthma and has been unsuccesfully trying to get it under
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> Ted

I have tried all sorts of chocolate - in the name of research of course -
and it seems to be all types of chocolate, except white chocolate. I don't
normally eat Mars bars, but having two boxes full of them I rather overdid
it and thats why I first made the connection.

Saffy.

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Steven Litvintchouk - 09 Jan 2004 01:11 GMT

>>>I always have a cough - sometimes its not too bad and sometimes its
>
[quoted text clipped - 25 lines]
> normally eat Mars bars, but having two boxes full of them I rather overdid
> it and thats why I first made the connection.

I was tested for allergies and chocolate is one of the very few foods
I'm allergic to. Maybe you're allergic to it too.

It's a no-brainer. If chocolate makes you cough, don't eat it. Cold
foods like ice cream make me cough and so I haven't eaten ice cream in
nearly 10 years.

-- Steven L.

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OgO - 05 Jan 2004 06:39 GMT

In alt.support.asthma, on 05 Jan 2004, Saffy announced:

> ...I have noticed that after eating
> chocolate my cough is worse. Is this normal, or am I just
> desperately trying to find a solution to my problem.

Hi Saffy,

It's quite possible that eating certain foods and increased
coughing are related. Personally I find that if I eat chocolate
some time later (anywhere from a couple of minutes to a couple of
hours, possibly dependant on what else is in my stomach) I have
trouble breathing or lots of coughing. After eating some foods I
find that I have lots of coughing, taking ventolin eases the
coughing.

My doctor said I have reflux and put me on Nexium for it. He
said that the symptom of the reflux I often get is that it
triggers my asthma, rather than the more traditional heartburn.
I do find however that when I drink coffee I feel sick - while I
am drinking it and straight after - to the point where I cannot
drink more than a few mouthfulls of coffee.

The doctor told me to not have any chocolate (boo hoo!) or coffee
(Tea is fast becoming a staple though) or cola. He said it
wasn't caffeine that was the problem and I can have tea without
any trouble. It could be that you have a similar problem. In
any case the symptoms you are having are at the point where you
do need to go to the doctor and have something done about them.

I have a question for anyone who might know, since we are on the
subject. I find I sometimes have extra coughing after a meal,
but can't seem to pinpoint exactly what food has caused it as
often it is food that I have eaten at other times without trouble
- perhaps it is different ingredients / additives that are the
problem. Is there any way to find out what is causing the
problem?

Regards

OgO

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Saffy - 05 Jan 2004 16:02 GMT

> My doctor said I have reflux and put me on Nexium for it.

I was on something originally for reflux and it didn't seem to help at all.

> The doctor told me to not have any chocolate (boo hoo!) or coffee
> (Tea is fast becoming a staple though) or cola.

I could easily go without the coffee (can't stand the stuff) but chocolate
and cola is another matter altogether!

> In
> any case the symptoms you are having are at the point where you
> do need to go to the doctor and have something done about them.

I have an appointment with a chest specialist, but unfortunately its in May
(isn't the British health system wonderful - NOT) so I kind of hoped that I
might have sorted something out myself by then. In the meantime I am just
having to use my Ventolin inhaler rather a lot.

Saffy.

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OgO - 05 Jan 2004 23:12 GMT

In alt.support.asthma, on 06 Jan 2004, Saffy announced:

>> The doctor told me to not have any chocolate (boo hoo!) or
>> coffee (Tea is fast becoming a staple though) or cola.
>
> I could easily go without the coffee (can't stand the
> stuff) but chocolate and cola is another matter altogether!

> I have an appointment with a chest specialist, but
> unfortunately its in May (isn't the British health system
> wonderful - NOT) so I kind of hoped that I might have
> sorted something out myself by then. In the meantime I am
> just having to use my Ventolin inhaler rather a lot.

I would suggest keeping a food / symptoms diary, if you are not
already - write down everything you eat/drink and all the
symptoms you have. You can then take this to your doctor, or
study it yourself to look for patterns in eating certain foods
and having a reaction. From what you've said so far I would
hazard a guess that chocolate quite possibly is a problem and the
best way to found out would be to abstain from consuming anything
with chocolate in it and see how that goes. White chocolate
might be ok to eat (it's not made of chocolate) if you like that
(luckily I do).

As far as cola goes - I never drank much of the stuff in the
first place - the hardest thing is finding a replacement mixer
for alcaholic drinks :) You might try another soft drink instead
maybe.

I would definately recommend keeping the diary and if you could
see someone before May that would be a bonus.

Regards

OgO

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Saffy - 05 Jan 2004 23:34 GMT

> I would suggest keeping a food / symptoms diary, if you are not
> already - write down everything you eat/drink and all the
> symptoms you have.

I think I might do this - I am definitely begininning to suspect that my
problems are allergy based.

> I would definately recommend keeping the diary and if you could
> see someone before May that would be a bonus.

I think the chances of getting an earlier appointment are next to nothing as
the waiting list for the specialist are very long and I am not a priority
case (to everyone except myself!)

Thanks for your advice.

Saffy.

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OgO - 06 Jan 2004 01:38 GMT

In alt.support.asthma, on 06 Jan 2004, Saffy announced:

>> I would suggest keeping a food / symptoms diary, if you
>> are not already - write down everything you eat/drink and
>> all the symptoms you have.
>
> I think I might do this - I am definitely begininning to
> suspect that my problems are allergy based.

From what you have said it does sound that way, at least it
should be able to give you something to work with, and something
else for the doctor to take into account when you do see them.

> I think the chances of getting an earlier appointment are
> next to nothing as the waiting list for the specialist are
> very long and I am not a priority case (to everyone except
> myself!)

That's dissapointing. Is it only the chest specialist you can't
get an appointment for? Maybe seeing an allergist or someone
like that might help?

> Thanks for your advice.

No worries, I don't know much, but happy to share what I do know

Regards

OgO

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taurusrc@aol.com - 16 Jan 2004 00:43 GMT

It could be the sugar. I don't eat much stuff containing sugar because it makes
me cough. But I do not have any trouble with vegetables. Fruit - yes. Except
canned peaches, drained and rinsed.

Cough syrups and cough drops are completely out except the sugar-free kinds.

Ora

>I always have a cough - sometimes its not too bad and sometimes its awful.
>My GP thinks I have asthma and has been unsuccesfully trying to get it under
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>
>Saffy.

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Saffy - 16 Jan 2004 13:20 GMT

> It could be the sugar. I don't eat much stuff containing sugar because it makes
> me cough. But I do not have any trouble with vegetables. Fruit - yes. Except
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> Ora

I didn't realise sugar could be a problem. Looks like I could end up losing
some of this excess weight then :)

Saffy.

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