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From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Disabling the coughing reflex
Message-ID: <587@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 9-Aug-85 16:52:24 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.587
Posted: Fri Aug  9 16:52:24 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 12-Aug-85 05:47:08 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: USAMC ALMSA, St. Louis, MO
Lines: 38

Is there any simple and reasonable way to disable (read "switch it off
by conscious will") the coughing reflex, or, to do so, would I have to
undergo years of yoga training, or have cyborg neurosurgery? I get so
disgusted with my body for subjecting me to a fit of painful and
uncontrollable coughing, on the average of once a week or so, for the
simple reason that a little saliva slips down my trachea instead of my
esophagus. After all, saliva is a totally natural bodily fluid, not that
different from the mucus that normally lines the tracheal and bronchial
surfaces -- if the body had any sense, it would ignore it. But nooooooo!
Instead it insists on making me hack and spasm for no good reason...

I'm sure this happens to everyone -- it did to members of my familiy
and my friends, and is common enough that it generates no large amount
of comment -- after you check that the person is not really choking, you
ignore it. But it happened to me at least once in a concert, and it
caused me vast amounts of concentrated painful force of sheer will and
hate and fury to force my wretched foul body to stop its offensive noise
and spasming (a classical concert, where it mattered, and where coughers
and similar vermin must be stomped into paste..). I see no reason nor
justification for tolerating such behavior on the part of my body, and I
don't see why anyone would; thus, it *should* be common knowledge how to
force this involuntary behavior to stop. (From a simple evolutionary
perspective, to be able to control this should have evolved -- the ones
that coughed and couldn't control it would have gotten eaten by the
sabretooths...)

I'm not asking for the reflex to be removed -- it can certainly act as a
survival aid when you fall into water or breathe foul gasses. But when
it is triggered for no good reason, it should be subject to cancellation
by the higher nervous system -- that is, by will. Note also that I don't
smoke, and this is not a "chronic" problem -- it is something offensive
and annoying that seems to be caused by random chance, and should be
able to be banished. Any advice?

Regards,
Will Martin

UUCP/USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin   or   ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA