Effective Natural Remedies for Cough Relief

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!

Ginger

Posted by Chuck (Cypress, California) on 03/15/2011
★★★★★

Have miserable chronic dry cough when catching cold, almost caused hernia once. One night can't sleep cause of cough, so look up remedies on Line & find ginger root. Cut piece size three quarters stuck together & stop cough immediately & lasted 4 while b4 having 2 pop some more .

Recently found more pleasant remedy. Cut ginger into McDonald french fry sized pieces about 1&1/2 inch long & squeeze bead of honey onto same. The honey kills harsh ginger taste & ginger keeps honey from being 2 sweet. All that's left is that hot healing feeling. Love it.

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.

Ginger

Posted by Tena (Champaign, Illinois) on 03/15/2010
★★★★★

This is what worked for my family:

Cough remedy: 1/2 cup of warm milk, 1/2 Tbsp Honey, 1 tsp Ginger. Works great, especially if you drink it before bedtime, helps to sleep without coughing. Hope this helps.

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.

Ginger

Posted by Abah (Lubbock, Texas, USA) on 06/05/2008
★★★★★

Ginger root -- remedy for cough caused by cold. Clean and wash the root, chew a couple and swallow the juice. Although it burns, but works very effectively.

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) 392 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.

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.

Turmeric

Posted by Joan (Mi) on 04/03/2014
★★★★★

Great Home Remedy for Chest Congestion

A sure cure is 1.5 cups of milk, 1 tspn or 1/2 tspn of organic turmeric powder, 1/4 tspn black pepper powder. 5 peeled cloves of garlic.Boiled until milk is 1 cup or so. Drink as hot as you can(honey is optional).

Once just before bedtime or if possible twice (once morn n once evening) if your tummy can tolerate it. this helps to remove phelgm in the body through the stools.

Have this for 5 days only or more if your body can handle the turmeric. 5 days should be more than enough.

3 -4 cups of water.
1 tbspn whole flax seeds
4 pepper corns or more
1 large onion sliced
2" pc of fresh ginger smashed
2" cinnamon stick

Boil it all until the mix is thick and slightly slimy (with cinnamon). Drink this twice a day. It helps loosen up phelgm in the chest.

Elderberry

Posted by Mama To Many (Tennessee, Usa) on 11/11/2013

Dear Aurora,

Thanks for sharing what Elderberry and Phytocillin have done for you!

Your allergy cough sounds miserable!

I noticed Ed shared some sound wisdom. One of my sons had a cough/throat clearing thing going a few years ago that turned out to be cause by dairy. (I agree with Ed, it wasn't necessarily milk, but the processing or additives that were a problem. This son does fine on raw goat's milk, by the way.)

Another of my sons gets a cough now and again that seems to be allergy related. There are two different things he tried and both seem to help his symptoms. One is vinegar tea. 1-2 Tablespoons of Raw Unpateurized Apple Cider Vinegar and 1-2 Tablespons honey in a mug. Add hot water. Sometimes he just takes 3 or 4 nettles capsules and that works too. Nettles are great for allergies.

However, if the cough comes upon you very quickly, these things might not be very helpful as they could take a little time to take effect. You could try a spoonful of the apple cider vinegar (not delicious, at least to me! ) ACV can stop many issues very quickly!

Nettles and vinegar tea can be taken daily to prevent allergy symptoms.

I hope you find relief soon. Do let us know what you try and what helps!

~Mama to Many~

Oregano

Posted by Jholl (Louisville, Kentucky) on 03/11/2013 27 posts

I have been battling a bad cough/cold for about two weeks. I have taken grapefruit seed extract (in pill form) for it and slippery elm to relieve the throat irritation, and apple cider vinegar to help stop the cough. Also, I have taken lysine to help clear it. I did that faithfully for several days and thought I'd kicked it. So, I slacked off for most of a day. Big mistake. It came back.

After continuing the previous protocol, I finally dug out the oil of oregano. I am substituting the that for the GSE. I am much better, much faster too! As an added bonus, I finally slept through the night.

Another huge hint on taking the oil of oregano. Here is what I have learned to do. Fix a glass of water with two teaspoons of apple cider vinegar, a teaspoon or so of honey, and probably a teaspoon or more of baking soda. Stir it up and put about 5 or six drops of the oil of oregano under your tongue. Then let it sit a minute or so and then drink the glass mixture. It will prevent the overwhelming icky taste from gagging you out and yet you will still get all the benefits! ( I believe the baking soda helps neutralize the acidity a bit.)

I hope this helps someone out there. This is working very well for me and has stopped my cough. It is breaking up and I feel sooo much better. What little cough there is, is finally productive and not that nagging dry stuff that rips you apart.

Vicks on Feet

Posted by Emilyr (Portland, Or, United States) on 03/30/2011
★★★★★

I was really hoping ACV could be a simple cure for the horrible cough I've had for over 2 weeks following a sinus infection, but it has not helped. I am 36 and pregnant, saw my doctor last week, he thinks it is a random virus and not a flu, cold, or anything bacterial. I tried Robetussin at his suggestion but that did not help a bit. I alternate between mucousy coughs, and dry spasm-like coughs and feel like it is moving into my lungs...

For the last 2 days I have taken 2T raw organic ACV w/ 1T honey and a wedge of lemon in 8oz hot water, 2 doses during the day, with very little temporary relief.

The Vick's on my feet remedy DID, however, work to provide me with a blissful 8 hour break from coughing - enough relief to get a good night's rest finally. Still searching for a cure though. I have a sensitivity to Aspergillus Niger mold and suspect that might be the cause, it is prime mold season here in Portland, OR. Working up the courage to try inhaling hydrogen peroxide... Any advice is welcomed. Thanks, emily