Chronic cough

[ibbed]

I am a 40 year old dialysis patient on Atinenol.  A few years ago I developed a chronic cough.  It is worse when I eat ice/very cold beverages, when it's cold outside, or I'm in a cold building.  I do not have fluid in my lungs.  It has become problematic because I cannot sit through quiet situations such as movies, church ect without sucking on a hard candy to prevent it.  Could this be asthma?  If I have never had allergies or asthma before, could it be related to something else.

[National Jewish Health]

I assume that you are on atenolol, a selective beta-blocker medicine.  While theoretically it could cause cough in a person with asthma that is unlikely to be the cause of your cough.  The 3 most likely causes of your cough, assuming that your dialysis is optimized, would be asthma, postnasal drip, or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), commonly called acid reflux.  You were right to ask about asthma.  You should ask your doctor about this and a trial of asthma medicines might be worth considering.

You might also ask if you are taking any other medicines that have been known to cause cough, such as a class of medicines called angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors.

Good luck.