The comments below reflect the personal experiences and opinions of readers and do not represent medical advice or the views of this website. The information shared has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.
Oregano
Posted by Jennifer (Albuquerque, NM) on 12/03/2006
★★★★★
I tried ACV, the spicy tomato tea, the onion halves with brown sugar, and the garlic soup. Especially the tomato tea and ACV brought some temporary relief from a month-long cough and sinus congestion that I'd had almost as long. As far as I'm concerned, though, the #1 choice and remedy should be Oil of Oregano. I bought a jar last Tues. and began taking three per day with meals. I am so encouraged and feel at least 95% well again. After doing some research on it I now know that this is an amazing product! Perhaps it doesn't work the same for everyone but it has done so much for me in six days. I've also been using a good quality colloidal silver in a nasal spray bottle. This has probably worked alongside the Oil of Oregano for the sinus congestion. It cured a month-long cough/bronchitis and sinus congestion. I'm wondering now if I could have increased the dosage of Oil of Oregano to say four a day. I've stayed at 3/day since I couldn't find any info. to let me know if more would be too much of a good thing. Any thoughts on that?
Vitamin C, Herbs
Posted by Let It Go (Los Angeles, California) on 01/21/2017 10 posts
★★★★★
Vit C, herbs for coughs
My son had several bad coughs (bronchitis) within a few months, and colds almost every month, so I started giving him vitamin C daily - usually about 4-5 grams a day in 2-3 doses. He didn't have a cold for 7 months, and so far didn't get any serious cough.
When we did have coughs, we used herbs - I have lots of tinctures I buy from Oregon online store or make my own with brandy (vodka just tastes very bad even in small amounts), and make mixtures using my intuition, but the main ones were wild cherry bark, mullein, Echinacea, Umckaloabo (Pelargonium sidoides), and lobelia. We also used propolis with good results, however it tastes not so good. We would take 2-3 droppers of mixture of several of these. It works within 10-15 minutes, so if it doesn't stop coughing in that time, another dose might be needed. But usually it did and he could go back to sleep at night.
There is another herb, that is very effective, but it tastes bad -like a sap or a paint thinner - lomatium (lomatium dissectum). Once I kicked the cold with it -although I had to take a few more doses every 4 hours to kick it for good. That said, I get one cold a year at the most, so I am not sure it would work for everyone. I take vitamin C and other supplements for other reasons, which I think helps to prevent them.
Mullein
Posted by Kazzakazzarooney (London) on 09/21/2016
★★★★★
Mullein Tincture - very powerful
I first tried this a few years ago when I had the most dreadful chesty phlemy cough. After 1/2 hour of taking the ready made shopped bought tincture it all came up! Funnily not by coughing. I blew my nose and I am not joking when I say, for about 20 mins non stop! The relief of being able to breathe better and not having a chesty cough was incredible! I carried on having the chesty cough later that day but then just took more of the tincture.
Since discovering ACV on this site, I think that would be good to take as well and seems to speed up the healing process too!
Thyme
Posted by Traveler (Detroit) on 12/18/2015
★★★★★
Have a hiatial hernia thanks to coughing really badly from a bacterial infection last year (clean your humidifiers regularly people.) It flares up off and on and I treat that by going to the chiropractor who's treatment makes an immediate difference.
This time around, I got a bad cold. Though I seemed to be remaining functional by gargling cayenne pepper water, and a few other things, my coughing was starting to scare me because I didn't want my hiatial hernia to worsen (it's a near constant pressure on your diaphragm, either making you feel falsely hungry, or nauseated like you don't want to eat.)
A few of the things I tried here helped (cayenne pepper for sore throat) but the vicks, for example, worked only for a couple of nights. I tried the thyme tea and that worked out very well. Brewed up a bunch and drank it over two days and nights. My cough is now very rare and seems to just be about expelling phlegm, rather than an irritated throat that feels itchy but not sore.
As a side note, something that may or may not be related is that I think the thyme tea made my period show up 4 days early, similar to how parsley tea does the same thing. It might not be related but it is something that I will keep in mind.
Magnesium
Posted by Lisa M. (Long Island, Us) on 10/24/2014
★★★★★
I have had a cough for the past few weeks. Magnesium has really helped my lungs. I take it at night before going to sleep and haven't been waking up with coughing fits all night. Cough is slowly getting better.
Ginger
Posted by Tina (Princeton, N J) on 01/06/2017
Dear Kathi, Our daughter came home from college with a nagging cough that she had been battling for a few weeks including an ER visit when her temp spiked to 102. The docs said everything checked out ok and it was a viral infection. It was keeping her up at nights and she would wake up in the mornings unable to talk. I did all my usual remedies. Peppery hot tomato drink, apple cider vinegar with raw honey that she sipped throughout the day, and lots of Vitamin C. All these remedies helped but did not get rid of the cough. Until I started her on Umcka cough syrup and Vitamin D, 5,000 IU. She slept through the night and within 2 days the cough's gone. Hope this helps. All the best with getting rid of your cough.
Elderberry
Posted by Ed2010 (Canada) on 11/10/2013
Change the milk brand or percentage. Try skim milk. Preservatives in milk and milk products like butter, cheese can trigger cough.
To re emphasize, it is not the milk per se. It is the preservative that is causing the reaction.
In India, for mucus or chest congestion. We will boil glass of milk with quarter teaspoon black pepper and quarter teaspoon of Turmeric powder. Add Palm Sugar and drink it for couple of days. All the sore throat, congestion, mucis, cough are gone.
Good Health
Looking Up Technique
Posted by Maggie (Overland Park, Kansas) on 03/23/2013 5 posts
Whether you're coughing from allergies, flu, a cold, or horrible reflux, it gets old. Your stomach muscles ache and you're so tired! The technique is to look up while coughing. The stomach muscles don't get engaged, so you don't use them. There's no jerking backwards motion anymore, keeping your back or sciatica from hurting during the cough. Try it! Cover your mouth though. Lol!
Flaxseed Tea
Posted by Busy Mom (Ma) on 01/31/2014
★★★★★
I just tried this earlier tonight and I didn't have whole flax seeds on hand but do have ground that I use. So I used that and after it thickened which took about 10 minutes I used a fine strainer and funnel to separate the ground seeds from the syrupy tea. I strained it 2x since the strainer was small and I didn't have a container to hold it properly. The tea was pleasant in taste and I did add some honey and fresh lemon juice to it. It seemed to help my cough a lot as I have been dealing with it for over a week I had gotten it after I got the flu and I think its because of a sinus infection I am on antibiotics to rid. Though they are low dose since I am pregnant. The coughing is less severe but has come back a bit since eating dinner. I am going to try making another cup before bed and I hope this will allow me to actually sleep. The only other relief I have been getting at night is to bite into a lemon wedge and swallow the juice. It stops my cough for about 5 min so I can fall asleep.
Lobelia
Posted by Jamie (Santa Monica, California) on 01/05/2010
★★★★★
A few years ago I had a cough with tons of mucous that lasted for weeks on end. I felt terrible and fatigued all the time. I picked up an old herbal remedy book (sorry, can't remember the name) and read about Lobelia as a fast expectorant for coughs. I think I took 1-2 doses of lobelia (whatever was recommended on the bottle), enough to make me start gagging. That's when the fun began. I then threw up a ton of mucous from deep down in my lungs, mucous that was not coming up from my coughing. Well, my coughing stopped within a day of that (not fun) cure. Lobelia is an intense herb for a desperate situation.
Last spring I got a dry cough that did not quit. Since it was a dry, irritated cough I went another route: I took elderberry extract 2 times a day and also made a strong batch of garlic tea (entire garlic cube boiled in water for 15 minutes) that I drank a small amount of throughout the day. I also went to bed every night sucking on a natural cough lozenge. It took a few days of these remedies but my cough went away about 2 days later.
Peppermint
Posted by Faith (Pj, Selangor Malaysia) on 05/08/2009
★☆☆☆☆WARNING!
I had a horrible reaction to taking a reputable brand of organic peppermint oil (one drop) in a quarter cup of water to stop a cough. Immediately upon drinking I began to feel dizzy and almost passed out. The dizziness and weakness lasted approximately two weeks and about four days respectively. It didn't help my cough either.
Ivy Leaf Syrup
Posted by John (Trumbull, CT) on 02/21/2009
★★★★★
Ivy Leaf Syrup cured my Cough/Bronchitis. I had been struggling with bronchitis/cough for about 2 months, so I turned to this website for solutions. I never heard of apple cider vinegar before and tried it (by making a tea with it as described by others), it definitely helped, but it did not cure me. However, after a visit to my local organic food and health store, I came across some stuff called Bronchial Soothe (its Ivy Leaf Syrup), this stuff is the best thing since sliced bread. After about 1 to 2 days my Bronchitis was cured. I could not believe how effective this stuff is! I now keep 1 to 2 bottles of it in the cabinet and reach for it every time I even think I may be developing a cough and Bang its gone! Just follow the directions on the box and hope this helps you as it helped me!
Turmeric
Posted by Susan (Yuma, AZ) on 11/15/2007
★★★★★
I started taking turmeric, 1/4 teaspoon once a day in about 1/4 cup of water after my mother told me it quited her cough. I have a cronic cougn especially when my body temperature changes. It is amazing my cough has stopped. However, I have terrible knee pain and sciatic pain but am not sure if I am feeling much relief. I will continue and see what happens.
Olive Oil, Apple Cider Vinegar and Lemon
Posted by Tash (London, UK) on 03/20/2007
★★★★★
I had a very bad and nagging cough since i had a flu. Everything like millions of cough syrups and ginger and lemon and honey and all other things and cures were suggested me but nothing worked. I thought I would choke and die with the enormity of the cough; then I read this on google and after reading all the confident e-mails, I decided to try apple Cider Vinegar with Olive Oil. Initially it did not work but I think that was because mine was really bad cough, but then slowly and steadily it brought me back to normality and now I am good as new. Thanks to the person who put it here first. This works, maybe not instantly but it does with regular morning and evening doses. It is better than any cough syrup, I promise you that. THANKS!!!:
Garlic, Onion
Posted by Curtis (Worcester, Ma) on 10/18/2005
★★★★★
Here is a cold and flu remedy that will help with your cough and flu symptoms.
- Take one clove of garlic crushed and chopped fine.
- 2 slices of onion also chopped fine.
- One to two tablespoons of honey (to taste)
- one-quarter teaspoon of cayenne or crushed red pepper.
Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl and eat.
Garlic-natural antibiotic
Onion- helps with nasal passage
Honey- throat soother
Cayenne- The capsicum helps kill the cold or flu virus.
NAC
Posted by Ted (Bangkok, Thailand) 391 posts
★★★★★
The most effective cough medicine I have tried is N-Acetycysteine (a natural amino acid and modified to aid absorption). Vinegar and oregano or vinegar and garlic seems to solve sore throat the best and reduced the coughing faster. The key is to avoid sugar and cough drops as sugar accelerates viral growth causing a quick return to coughing.
There is an amino supplement form hidden in your local drug store as a mucus clearing medicine to help clear breathing passages, which goes (at least in Thailand) under the label brand of Flumucil, Mysolven, NAC-Long etc. This is the only bioavailable form of the amino acid cysteine. (N-Acetyl amino acid holds great promise in alternative medicine, but I think many doctors don't know about this.) An example is N-Acetyl Carnitine for cataracts. If you know your biochemistry, N-Acetycysteine is an antioxidant and very helpful when used alongside with selenium. Holds promise for SARS, bird flu, AIDS and cancer due to its antioxidant properties. The amount is either 100 mg., 200 mg., 800 mg. My mom and my sister are o.k. with 100 mg, but I use up to 800 mg.
For emergencies in stopping coughs, I eat very small crystals of menthol. The cough medicine I mentioned here is better than any cough medicine in the market. No kidding. I used to have persistent coughs which lasted 6 months, and at that time I was only 22 years old and supposedly the prime of my life!
Vinegar and food grade hydrogen peroxide is another story which reduces sore throat in minutes, but seems to be helpful in coughs by reducing the irritation.
Peppermint
Posted by Anne Murray (New Zealand) on 03/13/2020
★★★★★
Peppermint Tea
I found this cure in a collection of natural home cures from a society in America. I had been coughing with the flu, so I tried this. Worked straight away. Now I always have a big box of peppermint tea ready for coughs, and take it with honey and a squeeze of lemon juice. (When I get the first symptom of a cold or flu, I take 'master tonic' (www.youtube.com).
Warm Milk
Posted by P B (Cape Breton) on 02/20/2016
★★★★★
My coughs normally respond to cures noted on this site. Currently I'm sick with a chest cold that has come with a terrible unproductive cough - was keeping me up and none of my usual tricks worked - nor did cough syrup. I thought of how drinking milk kind of coats your throat and I thought maybe it would help get rid of that urge to cough. I warmed up a cup of 3% milk with about 1 tbsp of honey (had previously tried tea & honey with no effect) and it worked fine. I drank half the cup and was able to sleep, woke up coughing later and drank the rest, then slept the rest of the night.
