My Mum has been suffering from a cough problem for the last 2 months. She coughs very frequently, whilst talking, eating, cooking ... We have consulted a ENT specialist, who told us that she has lot of mucus in her throat. He gave her some pills and syrup to try, but there has been no improvement. We consulted another MD, who told us that her body is very weak, low in red blood cells, and gave us some multivitamin tablets. However, we had to stop taking these tablets too. My queryies are: 1. Could it be due to a dust allergy 2. Who should we consult. Should we go back to the ENT specialist or someone else? 3. What solution can you suggest? Anything you can suggest would be much appreciated. She is suffering a lot because of the cough.

I am sorry to hear that your mother has been unwell. As you can appreciate any advice I can give is limited by the information you have provided to me.

The first thing we should do is to exclude a serious illness for your mother’s cough. Of course, this may already have been done, but I would think that, with symptoms stretching back to 2 months, a chest x-ray will be called for, in addition to a physical examination. This is especially so as you say that your mother is anaemic and feeling weak.

If a serious health condition has been excluded, then as you say, one of the first things that springs to mind is an allergy or asthma. This can give rise to a dry cough, or a mucus producing cough. If the ENT specialist is unable to help, you might want to consider taking your mother to a respiratory specialist.

If, at the end of the day, no obvious cause of your mother’s symptoms can be found, it could well be that she is producing excessive amounts of mucus – if this is the case, we would recommend that she reduces the amount of cow’s milk and dairy produce consumed in her diet. In addition to this, she may benefit from using the herb Plantago.