Elderly people coughing and gasping for air may have chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, tracheal foreign body, acute laryngitis and other diseases. 1. Chronic bronchitis: mostly seen in long-term smoking elderly patients, mostly occurring in the cold weather season. The acute onset of chronic bronchitis is characterized by coughing up phlegm, which may be accompanied by wheezing, and a feeling of “breathlessness” if the cough is severe. 2. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): long-term attacks of airway inflammation destroys the bronchial walls and causes airway narrowing, which is mainly manifested as coughing up sputum, wheezing, dyspnea and so on. Acute attacks of COPD patients are often caused by infection, manifested by frequent coughing, due to bronchial stenosis, spasm will lead to wheezing, dyspnea. 3. Foreign body in trachea: some old patients or patients with history of cerebral infarction or cerebral hemorrhage may enter the trachea when eating, and then there will be irritating choking and coughing, accompanied by wheezing, dyspnea and other symptoms. 4. Acute laryngitis: acute laryngitis patients will appear cough, dyspnea symptoms, acute laryngitis laryngeal edema, serious cases can appear choking, need timely treatment. Elderly people coughing and gasping for more reasons, in addition to the above causes, there are cough variant asthma, lung cancer, bronchial mucosal tuberculosis, etc. In order to avoid delays in the condition, it is recommended to go to the regular hospital as soon as possible to consult a doctor to clarify the cause of the disease.