Gluten intolerance and coughing fits

[Surinder]

I read with interest someone's article regarding gluten and coughing and how drs could not diagnose the cause.

I am a prediabetic and in the process of cutting down on carbs I slowly eliminated bread and added more complex carbs and found that my cough had gone and I was feeling generally calmer and happier.

This was an accidental finding and I relate to your story. I have shared my story for you.

Kind regards,

Surinder

[Russ H]

Hello Surinder, and welcome to the forum.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Have you been diagnosed with coeliac disease? Although less common, there are reports of coeliac disease being associated with pulmonary conditions causing symptoms such as a chronic cough.

 

Quote

This patient had a chronic cough, a heightened cough reflex, and bronchoscopic evidence of lymphocytic airway inflammation in association with coeliac disease. All features markedly improved on a gluten free diet suggesting a causal relationship between coeliac disease and cough. Coeliac disease is associated with a number of extra-gastrointestinal features including dermatitis herpeteformis and ataxia. A number of pulmonary complications including diffuse pulmonary nodules, interstitial fibrosis, and alveolitis have been linked to coeliac disease. In contrast to these reports, the lymphocytic bronchoalveolitis in our patient was not associated with overt radiological or physiological evidence of airway or lung parenchymal involvement and manifest itself solely as a heightened cough reflex. Similar pathological findings have been reported in subjects with Sjögren’s disease and Crohn’s disease although, unlike our case, a link with chronic cough and heightened cough sensitivity has not been established.
   Our case also differs from previous reports in that the cough and airway inflammation improved with a gluten free diet. The improvement in most parameters was marked and exceeded the known 95% confidence interval for repeat measures suggesting a real change. This would be in keeping with a causal association between coeliac disease, cough, and lymphocytic bronchoalveolitis.

 

Case Report: A case of cough, lymphocytic bronchoalveolitis and coeliac disease with improvement following a gluten free diet

Edited yesterday at 12:41 PM by Russ H

[Scott Adams]

This is an old article from 2007, but interesting: