Cough is a reflex mechanism to throw out any irritant from the trachea or bronchial tubes (wind pipe). It can occur from simple conditions like cold and flu and more serious conditions like chronic bronchitis, cough variant asthma and whooping cough.
A cough occurs when there is inflammation or irritation in the lungs, throat, larynx, or bronchial tubes.
Symptoms of cough and bronchitis
There are two main types of cough: congested and dry.
A congested cough typically occurs when you have a cold, and is often accompanied by a stuffy nose or sore throat.
A dry cough, on the other hand, will have a raspier feel to it without any phlegm.
Coughs must not be suppressed immediately and should be allowed to run its normal course. In fact the coughing action is good for the lungs in that exact situation. The phlegm should be expelled out. The reason for cough should be dealt with, instead.
Causes of a Cough/Bronchitis
Congested cough often occurs due to a cold, flu, or sinus/bronchial infection and is often called bronchitis. Usually, human immune system fights off the infection in a span of a week. Additionally, most of the home cures listed below can help boost your immune system to shorten the duration of infection or bronchitis. A couple of these home remedies actually do help to thin the mucus so that it is easier to cough up.
A dry cough often occurs due to smoking, asthma, dust, or pollution. Temporary dry cough can result while traveling in polluted areas without sufficient fluid intake. Rapid temperature changes can also lead to a dry cough. In this case, the first and best action to be taken is to moisturize your throat by drinking warm fluids.
Home Remedies for Cough
Implementing some of the below mentioned remedial actions at home can help fast cure of cough.
- Boil 100 gm of ginger powder in 1 liter of sweet wine. Take three table spoons daily for fast and effective relief from cough.
- Take a mixture of 1 tablespoon of honey with few drops of brandy.
- Drinking lots and lots of fluids is the key. Fluids make the mucus easier to cough up. Warm liquids or water at room temperature work best. Cough syrups mainly act as a cough suppressant the similar way.
- Add one to two teaspoons of oregano in water for ten minutes and drink.
- Avoid caffeine or alcohol.
- Taking 5 to 10 drops of certain essential oils e.g. Thyme Essential Oil and Peppermint Oil with hot water effectively helps stimulate your lungs to expel phlegm.
- Boil few garlic cloves in two cups of water. Drink the warm water. This is a proven effective home remedy for curing cough.
- Garlic and Honey can be used together to relieve cough. Take 3 or 4 cloves of garlic chopped into pieces; Add 2 teaspoons of honey and let the mixture sit overnight. Take one teaspoon of this honey and garlic mixture twice daily.
- Mix uncooked egg yolk with a table spoon of sugar; add hot milk and drink.
- Mix half a cup of boiling milk and half a cup of cold baking soda (sodium bi-carbonate). Drink sip by sip. It is a good home remedy for cough. Repeat every alternate day for chronic cough.
- Add to Diet: Pears, fresh and dried apricots, grape fruit juice mixed with a teaspoon of honey. Also take vitamin-A enriched food.
- Mix equivalent quantity of honey and lemon grass juice and drink.
- Smear olive oil on the chest to give soothing effect.
- Drink a lot of herbal tea, preferable with cinnamon for immediate relief.
- Soak almonds in water over night. Grind and eat it with butter. Take 1 to 2 tablespoons several times a day.
- Squeeze holy basil (Indian: Tulsi) leaves add equal amount of honey, stir and drink.
- Honey (already mentioned many times above) has been found to be very beneficial in soothing the lining of your throat, especially in case of dry coughs.
- Grind a big onion; mix with a bottle of honey and keep air-tight. Drink one tablespoon from the juice, twice a day to help the cough.
- Saturate slices of oranges in wine; keep overnight. Cook them soft the next morning and eat several times a day. This helps reduce phlegm.
- A vaporizer or humidifier helps to thin the mucus that leads to coughing. Use a vaporizer at night while you go to sleep.
- Aromatherapy to Treat Bronchitis: Inhaling steam helps moisten your throat and loosen the mucus is to inhale steam. Most effective way to do this is to take a steam-bath, if available.
After following couple of the above remedies at home, if cough persists for more than a week, or if blood happens to appear in cough, you should see your doctor immediately and probably would need further medication.
How to get instant relief from cough? I always face this type of situation.
Use honey with one or two leaves of Basil plant. Else, use some cough syrup or some cough lozenges. They provide soothing effect for sometime. That’s same as taking fluids frequently.
Take one table spoon of Honey. It will give you instant relief from cough. Then you can take other medicines.
While all of the above are great, there is a potential that the cough, if it does not go away, is cough variant asthma or chronic bronchitis.
There is a simple solution to add to the above to help. It is called the Water Cures protocol. It is free (so long as you have unprocessed salt which is the best).
Take a pinch of salt and dissolve it on the tongue. Then drink a glass of water. The salt helps your body better hydrate and eliminate the cause of the cough naturally.
Thank you for the info. Really an informative and helpful article on home remedies for cough. will surely share this. looking forward for more articles like this. Thank you once again.
The best way to avoid contracting influenza or cold is to keep yourself warm and drink plenty of fluids. Liquids like tea can also reduce mucus thickness. You can also use a humidifier at home as warm moist air causes the bronchial tubes to relax and it loosens up mucus, however, care should be taken to clean out the humidifier regularly to avoid bacteria or fungi propagating in it. If managing a humidifier is problematic, breathing in steam from boiling water can soften mucus while adding a few drops of eucalyptus oil has enhance the effect of steam therapy as the oil contains antibacterial properties which can heal burning sensation in the throat. Still, there are some other natural foods for bronchitis treatment like: honey has antiviral as well as antibacterial properties and eating a tablespoon daily be useful to treat bronchitis as it helps soothes the throat and build an strong immune system. Oregano oil and salt water tends to lessen throat soreness and a few drops of oregano oil or gargling salt water are enough to cure severe or uneasy breathing. Garlic and turmeric has antiviral and antibiotic properties while turmeric have anti-inflammatory properties. Add one teaspoon of turmeric powder or some freshly chopped garlic cloves in a glass of milk, boil it for some time and drink. Orange and lemon juice are rich in vitamin C and have antioxidant properties. Drink lots of orange juice to build immune properties in the body. Or boil a cup of water and add a few drops of lemon juice in it and drink to relieve throat soreness. Ginger has immune building and anti-inflammatory properties. Add half a teaspoon of ground ginger and cinnamon to hot water and drink the mixture. In addition drink plenty of water as it is necessary to keep your body hydrated during cold and influenza bouts to avoid your throat from getting dry, which can make coughing painful.
What do you do with severe chest congestion? And breathing problem?
I think you need some over the counter de-congestant. They act fast.
Cold and cough is very common issue happens to me in every winters and earlier i was familiar with 2 or 3 remedies to cure cold. But i found amazing list of remedies, which proved really well for me.