Home Remedies for Cough

If you have had a cold before, you’re probably of how painful and irritating it is especially if you cannot sleep at night. The worst part comes when your job involves a lot of speaking, but you cannot speak because of the cough. Although there are numerous treatment procedures for suppressing coughs, you can easily clear that cough with a few ingredients from the kitchen and over the counter drugs.

Home Remedies for Cough

1. Salt Water


Gargling with salt water is the first thing you should do as soon as you feel some soreness in your throat. The salt used helps reduce excess fluid from swelling areas in the throat hence clearing the cough. Gargling is also ideal as it removes any irritants in the throat and thins out the mucus.

2. Throat Lozenges


Taking lozenges has been approved by a study from Wayne University. The study showed that patients who took throat lozenges every three hours after waking up with a sore throat reduced the chances of getting a cold almost by half. This is because the lozenges have the ability to overcome the irritation and hence curb the cough.

While there are those lozenges that contain natural soothing ingredients such as honey, eucalyptus oil and peppermint, there are those that are medicated hence have dextromethorphan as a cough suppressant and benzocaine as an anesthetic. You will also notice that in many homes, children are forced to suck the rock candy to stop a sore throat from progressing into a cough.

3. Warm Liquids


This is a good way of calming soreness in the throat. The fact that warm water does not have any taste might be unappetizing for most people. However, you could use warm soup or herbal tea instead of water.

4. VapoRub


This mostly works for children under the age of 2 years. Although, the manner in which the vaporubs work remains a mystery to date, a study showed that children could feel relieved and even sleep better after applying vaporubs. Menthol, eucalyptus, and camphor are examples of ingredients behind the soothing effect.

5. Honey


Honey has been used as a throat soothing ingredient since time immemorial. A study at the Penn State School showed that honey helped in clearing throat soreness and reduced coughing. Better yet, is that it helps users sleep better.

There are different ways of using honey.

6. Turmeric


Turmeric is a long-established remedy that many people use with hot milk to relieve coughs. Studies have also proven that turmeric has antibacterial properties.

Here is how to use turmeric:

For a turmeric gargle:

For a dry cough

According to Dr. Soumya, inhaling some smoke of burning turmeric is also a cough remedy.

7. Ginger


Taking ginger is one of the easiest remedies of clearing a dry cough. If you cannot chew the ginger raw, you're allowed to take ginger tea which has the same effect. For more information on how to use ginger in relieving a cough, here is a video.

8. Garlic


Garlic is yet another effective antimicrobial ingredient used for cough relief. This is because it is believed to lessen cold symptoms, and even clear them.

To use garlic:

9. Jaggery


10. OTC Medications


This is the fastest way to relief a cough. Apart from using the medicated lozenges, you could get cough suppressants from your nearest chemist. They are effective as they have a better way of hacking down a cough hence bringing relief.

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