Don't eat anything spicy ;) Last year, I got sick with whooping cough, and I would cough for 5 minutes straight. I ate a hot pepper for fun, and before a very important personal matter, I burped, and some juice came up with it, and irritated my throat. Guess what? I started coughing really bad. I was afraid when I had to attend to the "important" thing, the same thing would happen. :P