Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!brl-tgr!wmartin 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