Shortly before our trip I had a cold and it made my chronic cough worse. I always figured the cough was due to allergy, since I have so many allergies and dust and mold are impossible to avoid. The cough sounded pretty bad while we were in California, and my husband said I needed to see a doctor and get a chest x-ray. What, for an allergy?
Hoping to avoid the hassle of an x-ray, I looked for a local allergist who might do extensive allergy testing. While researching allergists online, I recalled my previous allergy tests and all the things I was supposed to avoid. The last time I had extensive testing, I was looking for the cause of a cough. Oh, now I remember! The tests showed I was allergic to black tea and black pepper, in addition to all the allergens previously uncovered. And I gave up black tea and pepper (mostly - it is very difficult to avoid pepper in restaurant food). But I experimented with green tea and found two brands that I seemed to tolerate. They were decaffeinated since I am supposed to avoid caffeine.
But maybe green tea is part of the problem. And probably chocolate is part of the problem too - a little chocolate often sets off a coughing spell. So I decided to give up green tea and chocolate for a while. But I miss it especially since the weather is cold and tea and cocoa are warming and comforting. I can drink a little decaf but more than a cup gives me heartburn.
The cough improved. I decided the try rooibos (red bush) tea which is from a completely different plan than black and green teas. I bought some in Winchester and was looking forward to a nice hot cup. Well, just a couple of swallows set off a violent cough. I coughed and coughed until I threw up. My throat fell like it might be swelling so I took some liquid Bendryl. Within a few minutes I started feeling better.
I've been off tea for six days now and my cough is definitely much better. But it's not entirely gone. I may still have to go to a doctor. We shall see.
P.S. I just had a hunch - I've had reactions to fluoride before and black tea is high in fluoride. So I just looked up "fluoride in rooibos tea" and sure enough: Rooibos contains the minerals, copper, iron and potassium, calcium, fluoride, zinc, manganese, and magnesium. Well, whether or not that's the problem, I won't be drinking rooibos tea again.
Joseph Mercola writes about fluoride at high concentrations in tea and points out the risks of consuming too much fluoride, including hypothyroidism.
February 1, 2007
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Wow - this is really helpful. I have chronic refux problems (stress) and in the past the esophagal inflammation has caused asthma - like symptoms. Although the one previous time that happened I was remodelling and there was a lot of dust in the house, and I was recovering from a respiratory infection. This time none of that is happening - but I have been consuming large amounts of rooibos tea! So thank you for putting me on this track!
ReplyDeleteI just discovered that my inexpensive black tea was making me cough. I have no problem with other black tea. I am curious what could be the cause of this?
ReplyDeleteClark, tea has been found to be contaminated with pesticides and such. Also it can take up heavy metals from the soil. There was a story a while back about lead in green tea.
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