Lung mets cough

[Rock_Robster]

Hi all,

Unfortunately I seem to have developed a chronic, dry cough which my onc believes is related to my lung mets / nodules and potential involvement with bronchial structures. He’s prescribed codeine linctus which is… meh - better than nothing but doesn’t completely relieve it by far, and doesn’t last long. Honestly oral oxycodone is much better, but obviously a bit heavy. Dextromethorphan is about as good as the codeine. He mentioned steroids would be a last-ditch option, but obviously I wouldn’t want to be on them for long.

Welcome any tips and tricks you may have seen to relieve a cough - either medicinal or otherwise!

Thanks,
Rob

[utahgal7]

Hi Rob,

Have you tried manuka honey? In the past, I found it helpful for cough and heartburn too, surprisingly. Also, ginger tea & lemon tea with manuka honey is good as well.

Good luck!

[Rock_Robster]

Hi Rob,

Have you tried manuka honey? In the past, I found it helpful for cough and heartburn too, surprisingly. Also, ginger tea & lemon tea with manuka honey is good as well.

Good luck!

Good tip thanks - I’ll give it a go! Thankfully being Aussie it isn’t hard to come by Manuka honey here (although I think we pay for it than in the States!).

[beach sunrise]

Bromelain (as long as you are not allergic to pineapple), NAC, Fisetin, Astragulus come to mind off the top of my head. These are soothing adapts. Licorice root is another good one for lungs.
If you would like dosage and schedule let me know.
Thinking of you. Those coughs are the worst and so annoying when having a conversation.

[rp1954]

Unfortunately I seem to have developed a chronic, dry cough which my onc believes is related to my lung mets /
Welcome any tips and tricks you may have seen to relieve a cough - either medicinal or otherwise!

I'm not the one that had colon cancer but...
I suffered various lung, bronchitis and cough problems for a loooonnnnnggggg time. Probably related to infections and inflammation since childhood (a ferritin of 360 at 18 popped up on a military medical); varying vitamin C and D deficiencies in conventional terms, an antibiotic disaster (drug removed from mkt), and some kind of chronic background infection that would be superimposed with conventional ones.

After any cold/flu and likely secondary bout I'd have a fading cough for a month. Eventually I found that lots of oral vitamin C (e.g. 4grams x4/day or more towards bowel tolerance) would stop that last part in a day or two, instead of weeks or a month. At one point I had to have 4x4 vitamin C to keep several problems including the worst of the cough, at bay in the 2000s for some years. Later I would be diagnosed with asthama (very reactive to metacholine) but I didn't wheeze and magnesium probably helped there too (I already had had cardio symptoms relieved by magnesium in the 1980s).

Eventually "lots" of vitamin D brought more benefits, at a whopping 5000iu (turns out I would still be short of basic adequate levels until ca 7000 iu/day). I had previously spent a winter crawling from 1000 iu to 2000 iu to avoid that vitamin D toxicity onset that "std medicine" always brayed about. Then I had a trip with lots driving in southern US during a sunny August - many problems.just.disappeared ... the light bulb comes on. (melatonin from infrared would now be included with the sun's vitamin D benefit)

Finally, in April 2021 when we finally got ivermectin for "other reasons", my chronic residual cough, "COPD" just disappeared.

Other people use megavitamin C, oral and IV, to reduce or stop their steriods. One lady in our IV vitamin C circles used IV vitamin C and then other natural anti-inflammatories to wean herself off scary amounts (to me) of predinisone for chronic inflammation with pseudotumor cerebri.

My wife ran on 25,000-45,000 iu vit D3/day for some years, which presumably has some anti-inflammatory action too.
With my wife's immunochemo and particular CC cell line(s), these approaches (vit C, D3, K2) were not only compatible but additive on treating the cancer itself.

[Pagola44]

I've developed a cough as well lately I wonder if I have lung mets

[Markdale]

Hey rob, salbutamol (ventolin or asmol) could dilate the bronchioles a bit and give some relief. You don’t need a prescription for it here. I use it sometimes when I have a cough but I also get asthma.
Have you had a lung infection recently? I’m sure you and your doc would have thought about it but I’ve seen a few people have a dry cough for a few weeks after Covid.

[CoolHandLuke8723]

N Acetyl Cistine (NAC) for about $6 a bottle from Walmart worked for my cough. Took a few weeks before the cough was gone. Your mileage may vary. Don't take if you are using IP6 and inositol - it deactivates the cancer fighting properties of IP6.

[Rock_Robster]

Thanks everyone for all the creative advice. I’m working through these and have placed an iHerb order and will be restarting IVC next week.

[beach sunrise]

R_R, sounds like you are on it, taking care of business! C is so good....
CoolHandLuke, I didn't know about the conflict between IP6 and NAC. Can you post the study paper where you found this info?

[CoolHandLuke8723]

I can't find the original medical article but this medical excerpt explains NACs effect on ROS:
"Excessive ROS can react with biomolecules including DNA, which is considered to be a possible cause for the increase in oncogenic mutations and the development of cancer [60]. This notion led to the expectation that dietary antioxidants might effectively prevent cancer development and has been a theoretical basis and explanation for the cancer-preventive effects of various antioxidant-rich plant foods observed in epidemiological studies. However, cancer-promoting effects have also been observed for antioxidants in some preclinical studies [10,11]. For example, supplementation with NAC or vitamin E after the development of cancer was found to increase cancer progression and reduce survival in mouse models of both BRAF- and KRAS-induced lung cancer [10]. Similarly, the oral administration of NAC after small nevi formation was shown to increase lymph node metastases without affecting the number and size of the primary tumors in a transgenic mouse model of melanoma [11]. These cancer-promoting effects of dietary antioxidants have resulted in a change in the perspective on the role of antioxidants in cancer. While antioxidants do prevent ROS-mediated cellular damage, they also protect cancer cells from ROS-mediated death. Therefore, antioxidants can effectively prevent cancer initiation, but can promote the growth of established cancers' https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7911701/

Essentially, IP6 and Inositol works by depleting iron from tumors and stops the cancer from feeding on Iron by removing it from everything but hemoglobin - NAC does the opposite - it neutralizes IP6. So the scientists experimenting with IP6 to fight cancer discovered they could inactivate IP6 and inositol by supplying NAC to the test animals. Since I want to deplete the iron from cancer, I stopped taking NAC after my cough disappeared. I've been taking IP6 and Inositol at 8 grams a night and 8 grams a morning for over a month and my CEA score has dropped by half from 15.7 to 8 and I've lost over 20 lbs. I'll take another CEA test in two weeks and see if the progress continues. IP6 seems to also prevent nausea and diarrhea when taking FOLFOX and other side effects, so for me it is worth it.

[utahgal7]

Rob,

How is your cough? Did you try manuka honey or any of the supplements mentioned? Hope your cough has gotten better!


Paige

[Rock_Robster]

Rob,

How is your cough? Did you try manuka honey or any of the supplements mentioned? Hope your cough has gotten better!


Paige

Hi Utahgal,

It’s definitely improving! Thanks for checking in. I still have coughing fits from time to time, but it’s nowhere near as constant as before. The supps only arrived fairly recently unfortunately (iHerb is very slow to Australia) so I’m not sure how much credit I can give them. I’ve definitely been doing the honey though - it’s also great as a drink with lemon and hot water (which I never thought would do anything, but here we are!).

[CoolHandLuke8723]

Did you take the covid vaccine? Did your cough start afterwards? From what I've read, those who have taken the covid vaccines and boosters should take a D-Dimer test for micro coagulations in the blood, which clogs the arteries.

[Rock_Robster]

Did you take the covid vaccine? Did your cough start afterwards? From what I've read, those who have taken the covid vaccines and boosters should take a D-Dimer test for micro coagulations in the blood, which clogs the arteries.

Sorry for the delay on this one, I have had Covid vaccines but nothing within 6 months of the onset of the cough.