Cough hypersensitivity risk increases during heatwaves and can be reduced by inhalation of alkaline aerosols of endogenous ions
B Button, A Edwards, K F Chung, H Dang, M Gutay, N Griffin, J Gerenza, Linying Wang, H Abubakar-Waziri, D B Bhatta, D A Ausiello, D Li, B Alotaibi, K K Altassan, D A Edwards · 2026
Read Cough hypersensitivity risk increases during heatwaves and can be reduced by inhalation of alkaline aerosols of endogenous ions by B Button, A Edwards, K F Chung, H Dang, M Gutay, N Griffin, J Gerenza, Linying Wang, H Abubakar-Waziri, D B Bhatta, D A Ausiello, D Li, B Alotaibi, K K Altassan, D A Edwards (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13578754.txt.
Description
B Button and co-authors report in this 2026 study that heatwaves can prime airways for coughing fits, and that a salty alkaline mist can undo it. Dry heat, they show in lab-grown airway cells, collapses the airway surface layer and switches on cough-linked sensor genes after eight hours. A mechanics model predicted that alkaline aerosols of natural salts would reopen the layer, but only above a sharp acidity threshold.
Cell tests confirmed the threshold. In small human trials in Riyadh, the alkaline mist at the higher strength cut daily cough bouts by about fifty-nine percent in two weeks versus placebo, while a weaker mix barely helped. The authors propose the spray as heatwave protection.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | B Button, A Edwards, K F Chung, H Dang, M Gutay, N Griffin, J Gerenza, Linying Wang, H Abubakar-Waziri, D B Bhatta, D A Ausiello, D Li, B Alotaibi, K K Altassan, D A Edwards |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 53 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |