Ask Dr. H: Cough that won't quit? Check for a hair in your ear

Question:

I've got an unusual reason for coughing to tell you about: an ear hair. My sister has had a cough on and off for several years. After an ear, nose and throat doctor removed a long, thin hair growing in her right ear canal, her cough disappeared completely! Have you ever heard of this before?

Answer:

What your sister had was a reflex cough caused by an ear hair irritating Arnold's nerve, an ear branch of the vagus nerve, one of the nerves of the head.

You may be familiar with coughs that are triggered by sensory nerves of the voicebox, trachea, pharynx (back of the throat), upper airway (bronchi), and lung surfaces. But, as your sister discovered, there are other nerves that can trigger a cough. Irritation within the nose can trigger not only a sneeze, but a cough as well.

Among the triggers for the nerves that make us cough: dust, smoke, mucus and other secretions; a foreign body; fluid in the lungs, as with congestive heart failure; inflammation of airway tissue; and inhalation of noxious substances or of air that is extremely hot or cold.

Some people cough or clear their throat simply as a nervous habit, so it's always a good idea to consider stress as a possible cause for coughing once all other reasons have been ruled out.

While coughing may be helpful, it does have a down side. The dangers include a predisposition toward hernia or urinary incontinence, spread of infection to noninfected lung tissue, a collapsed lung (pneumothorax), fractured ribs, vomiting, lung bleeding from tears in tiny blood vessels that line the respiratory tract, transient rises in blood pressure, exhaustion, headache, strain on lung tissue, and bleeding of the eye tissue (subconjunctival hemorrhage).

So if you're having an unexplained cough, have your doctor check your ears.