Give up smoking and improve your cough

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

A non-smoking cough is a healthier cough, say researchers.
Most people think of a cough as just an annoyance. In fact it has a useful protective function - clearing secretions from the lungs, and preventing the entry of foreign objects. Recent research has suggested that smokers have diminished cough reflex sensitivity compared to non-smokers. This may be why smokers have more respiratory infections - their cough is less efficient at clearing secretions and bacteria from the lungs.

A team at Albert Einstein College of Medicine with colleagues in the USA and Lithuania has been looking at changes in cough reflex sensitivity among smokers who quit. They used a method called capsaicin cough challenge to measure the cough reflex sensitivity. This showed that only two weeks after quitting, the cough reflex had improved, even among those who had been smoking for many years. In other words, this aspect of smoking-related damage is reversible.

Source
European Respiratory Journal October 2006

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