Quit Smoking, Having Chronic Cough. What To Do?

Posted on Tue, 19 Feb 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 Answered on

Thu, 7 Mar 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : Dear Doctor, I quit smoking for last 20 days, I used to smoke 4 to 5 cigarettes per day for last 30 yrs. I tried to quit many times earliers also but this time I am fully determined. But the day I left smoking till todate I am having chronic coughing.I feel psymtoms of Asthma. I have cough while getting up in morning and coughing during day also. I can feel some noise in lungs while breathing out. Please help.

Answered by Dr. Grzegorz Stanko (49 minutes later)

Hello!

Thank you for the query.

After 30 years of smoking for sure you do have COPD which is a sever lungs disease (similar to asthma but caused by smoking) due to severe inflammatory process. Moreover, there is always a possibility of lung cancer and it should be ruled out.
It is strongly advisable at your case to have chest CT performed. If no tumors, than you should visit pulmunologist and have spirometry(blow test performed). You are probably going to need beta-mimetics and steroids aerosols for the rest of your life to control your lungs disease and prevent it from further destroying.

Hope this will help. Feel free to ask further questions.
Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar