Help! Coughing Myself Silly!
#295248 - 01/04/07 11:18 AM
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belinda
Reged: 10/09/03
Posts: 474
Loc: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Could anyone recommend two things -- a cough medication and a lozenge that wouldn't irritate my IBS?
I've had a bad cold for 10 days now and I can't stop coughing. It's a dry, post-nasal-drip type of cough.
It's worse at night when I spend hours coughing before I can finally get to sleep. I'm afraid to take anything because cough medicine seems to generally contain IBS-unsafe ingredients like alcohol and artificial sweetener. Losenges seem to generally contain IBS-unsafe things like fructose-glucose.
On top of everything else, I am not supposed to have anything with added sugar because sugar makes me dizzy. (Diabetes is in my family.)
I'm really getting desperate! If I don't find something soon, I may be evicted for disturbing the neighbours with all my coughing!
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I'm sorry you're having such a tough time with this cold and cough. Unfortunately, I don't have any suggestions for a cough medication because I haven't used one in a while. I do use lozenges and can recommend two that haven't triggered IBS symptoms:
1. Ricola Natural Lemon Mint Drops
Active Ingredients: Each drop contains: Menthol 1.5mg (Oral pain reliever)
Inactive Ingredients: Color (caramel), Extract Of Ricola's Herb Mixture (elder, Horehound, Hyssop, Lemon Balm, Linden Flowers, Mallow, Peppermint, Sage, Thyme, Wild Thyme), Honey, Natural Flavors (Lemon, Peppermint), Starch Syrup, Sugar
2. Chloraseptic Sore Throat Lozenges, Cherry (15 calories and 3.75 grams of sugar per lozenge)
Active Ingredients: per lozenge: Benzocaine (6 mg), Menthol (10 mg)
Inactive Ingredients: Blue 1, Corn Syrup, Flavor, Red 40, Sucrose
I'm not sure if either of these would work for you since they contain sugar. But maybe they'd be okay for short term use?? I also get some sore-throat relief from Stash's Lemon-Ginger tea, which I usually drink when I'm nauseated or after meals as a digestive aid.
I hope you feel better soon!
Edited by Maria!Maria! (01/04/07 11:34 AM)
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Thank you for your suggestions!
I had actually looked at the Ricola lemon-mint drops when I was at the drugstore two nights ago and thought they looked like the safest of the bunch and was thinking of trying them. But I was nervous because I have some allergies and I wasn't sure about all of the herbal ingredients. Some things seem to make my throat swell. But if they work for you, maybe I will get lucky and they will work for me so I may just try them!
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The only thing I can think of is Robittusin (just the plain green one, which is basically guafinesin as the main ingredient). I don't have the other ingredients in front of me so you'd have to check on the sugar..maybe even has HFCS??? Anyhow, it's not so much for a cough but it is very soothing and I have taken it before bed with no IBS problems. I also give it to my toddler b/c it has no alcohol in it. Also, how about a chloroseptic throat sray that you can use throughout the day? I often feel they just "mask" the symtoms, but at least you might feel better for a little while. There's also the gargling with salt water that my mom used to make me do.  Feel better!
--------------------
Originally IBS-D for a million years!
Then IBS-A, Now a transformed slightly C
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One way you can fight this is by turning off the post-nasal drip. I love Astelin - it's a prescription anti-histamine nasal spray. It stops your nose from dripping without putting much anti-histamine into your system. I start using it when my throat starts getting sore, and I feel better within a day (and generally stop the Astelin pretty soon after that).
--AC
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Hmmm, Belinda, I know that cough. I always have it after I recover from a bad cold (with a cough) and the only thing that helps me is anti-alergic cough medicine. I used to take peritol. I don't know if it is available where you are and how it might be called in the US... Can you find any antihistamine pill that's sold OTC?
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Jeio:
Thank you ... and everyone else ... for your/their replies.
Actually I do have an IBS-safe anti-histamine/decongestant that I could use. I have it brought in from the U.K. because the formula was sold to a European pharmaceutical company about seven years ago and the medication is no longer available here in North America. I had used "Actifed Syrup" all my life before it was sold to Europe.
I discovered it just by accident one day in a chemist's shop in England. I had a bad cold and desperately needed a decongestant and so, for a joke, I asked the chemist for "Actifed Syrup" never dreaming he actually had it! But to my amazement he brought it out and the rest is history. I get friends to bring it back from England for me whenever they're going there. It is the only IBS-safe anti-histamine/decongestent medication I have ever found. It also tastes good kinda like maple syrup!
Interestingly one of the pharmacists here in Toronto said it's now thought that the dry tickle cough is best treated by an antihistamine/decongestent.
So I guess I should get that Actifed Syrup out and take a spoonful. Unfortunately, two weeks after starting this cold, I still have it plus I've got an infection "pink eye" in both eyes now caused by rubbing one of my eyes while I was sick.
Sigh. I am definitely ready for a vacation from winter illness! I have another batch of made-from-scratch chicken soup cooking on the stove right now so maybe it will work this time and cure me!
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That stuff sounds like the right medicine. I'd take it in conjunction with the chicken soup 
I am sorry about the conjunctivitis. Do you have any kind of eye drops? Also, did you go to see a doctor? It sounds like you might need antibiotic eye drops, if it is indeed an infection. It could be an allergic reaction, though, as with the cough and might go away with the antihistamine you will start taking.
In any case, most any kind of eye drops will probably offer relief to your eyes.
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