Coughing ALL the time

One possibility is acid reflux. I had this problem of a chronic dry cough and it turned out to be acid reflux.

Here is some more information from medicine.net: Many nerves are in the lower esophagus. Some of these nerves are stimulated by the refluxed acid, and this stimulation results in pain (usually heartburn). Other nerves that are stimulated do not produce pain. Instead, they stimulate yet other nerves that provoke coughing. In this way, refluxed liquid can cause coughing without ever reaching the throat! In a similar manner, reflux into the lower esophagus can stimulate esophageal nerves that connect to and can stimulate nerves going to the lungs. These nerves to the lungs then can cause the smaller breathing tubes to narrow, resulting in an attack of asthma.

My doctor finally prescribed a proton pump inhibitor and that worked really well. I was diagnosed with asthma at first too. The only reason I finally caught it was that sometimes I would cough right after eating.

I recently tried a diet that suggested that some of what makes us feel bad, may be due in part to food allergies that aren't real obtrusive.

Well, I failed at the diet, but it did point out that this concept may be correct. As I went back to some older but better habits, I noticed that the dairy products didn't bother me too much, but the bread or gluten products did.

I don't believe half the crap new age doctors put out. But, I have cut way back on gluten products and I don't seem to be coughing as much. I would try pairing that up with the other posters information and see what happens.

Neb- if you come back to this post, I'd be curious to know more about this coughing after eating. I have a similar situation.

It was really bad in the winter time (when the air was dry). What finally sent me to the doctor was that I was walking back to work after eating a burger at lunch and started coughing so bad that I threw up. The proton pump inhibitors (I think I was on protonix) really helped.

I had the same situation, and flovent took care of it. This is a steroid inhalent (like qvar) but maybe you'll have better results with it.

I have this problem on and off, but albuterol has helped me, so we might have totally different issues.

After I have a cold or something similar, the coughing is a lot worse and can last for weeks. I got rid of it a lot faster last winter by drinking apple cider vinegar -- just a little bit in some water three times a day. I hate the taste and smell of the stuff, but it worked and did not seem to have any side effects. If you do this, get the kind with lots of stuff in it, not the clear kind.

Good luck!