What to do about chronic cough?

What can you do about chronic and persistent dry cough ? Aside from treating the underlying disease conditions, try these helpful considerations.

• Take a vitamin B supplement that includes vitamin B6. You may not experience greater lung capacity, but you will probably experience less wheezing and coughing.
• 
  Eat a piece of fruit every day and servings of green vegetables several times a week. Studies in the UK of people with asthma, chronic bronchitis, or COPD who never ate fruit or vegetables have consistently noted dramatic improvement after including even one serving of fruit and vegetables a day in the diet.
• Identify your personal coughing triggers, whether they are tobacco smoke, some frequently eaten food, fumes, dust, or pollen, and make a point of avoiding them.
• If you are allergic to pollen, limit your time outdoors between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m., when most plants pollinate.
• Try yoga. You don't have to do the asanas (postures) perfectly. The breathing practice that accompanies yoga will help you control cough and breathe more deeply.
• And, finally, try eating onions. Onions, as well as whole apples, grapefruit, and grapefruit juice, are great sources of the antioxidant quercetin. This plant chemical is a natural antihistamine, stopping the process of inflammation in the lungs, nose, and throat that keeps air passages constantly irritated.

In a Finnish study involving 10,000 men and women, the flavonoids quercetin, hesperitin, and naringenin, found in apples and oranges, protected against asthma. Other fruits and vegetables, such as grapefruit, cabbage, and various fruit and vegetables were not associated with a decreased risk of asthma. A British study focusing on consumption of apples found that eating 1-1/2 oz (42 g) of apple a day reduced risk of asthma attacks by about one-third. Many people who eat these foods on a regular basis report that their coughing is greatly improved, and in some cases, coughing completely disappears.