Originally published February 1 2006
Chronic cough stimulates research and creates a demand for specialists
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
South Florida's Sun Sentinel talks about cough clinics and specialists, as the medical field has begun to address the common cough in innovative ways, with the hopes of improving people's lives.
That was when George Gharabeigie began to cough.
Cough accounts for an estimated 23 million doctor visits annually, making it the No. 1 reason people see a physician.
But even though a cough can take a physical and personal toll, until recently many doctors failed to see it as anything more than the vestige of a recent illness.
Perhaps most visibly, cough clinics are springing up around the nation, typically at university medical centers.
"It seems all of a sudden it's becoming a hot area of research."
But to benefit, patients often must find their way to a doctor who specializes in cough, says Dr. Kaiser Lim, a pulmonologist who studies cough at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Some people may not suspect that their cough is due to asthma, for instance, because they don't have wheezing and shortness of breath.
Likewise, cough can be linked to reflux, in which the contents of the stomach back up into the esophagus, even without the classic symptoms of heartburn and regurgitation.
In a recent study, Lim found that sinusitis, which is inflammation of the sinuses, was the cause of chronic cough in one-third of the patients studied.
"The shame of it is that many of the people had been coughing due to something you could potentially treat," Lim says of his study, which was presented last month at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians.
Less common triggers of cough include lung cancer, chronic bronchitis (usually linked to smoking) and pertussis, which in the United States has seen a dramatic upswing in cases in the last year.
A cough can even have multiple causes, further complicating treatment, says Dr. Brian Levine, medical director of the newly opened Cough Center in Mission Viejo.
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