There are many natural home remedies that can be used to treat cough.
1. Most coughs can be treated with warming therapies
As you may notice that, most coughs occur in a cold season. It is rarely to see people having coughs in hot summer. This indicates that, most coughs are related to coldness – cold temperature and coldness in the body. So treating cough is simple – applying warming remedies to expel coldness in the body:
(1) Warming therapies for cough. We can use warming therapies to treat most coughs, especially for treating wet coughs. The below are some of warming remedies for cough:
– How to Make Cayenne Pepper Vinegar Syrup for Cough and Cold – Home Remedies DIY Recipes
– Home Remedies: How to Make Garlic Honey Syrup for Cough and Cold – DIY Recipes
– How to Make Onion Honey Syrup for Cough and Bronchitis – Home Remedies DIY Recipes
– Home Remedies: Whiskey for Cold, Cough and Arthritis
2. Other therapies for treating coughs
While the “mainstream” cough remedies are warming therapies, there are some cough remedies are different:
(2) Moisturizing therapies for cough. This is using moisturizing remedies to treat a dry cough. For example, a Chinese cough remedy uses pears with rock sugar to treat a dry cough. Both pear and rock sugar have moisturizing and cooling properties. See:
– Home Remedies – Pears for Dry Cough, Lung Flam and Dry Skin
(3) Downwarding therapies for cough. This is using remedies that have downwarding properties to move the mucus downward out of lungs and respiratory system. A cough is related to lungs and respiratory system, once the mucus is removed, the wet cough can be relieved. For example a traditional Chinese cough treatment is using Chen pi (dried orange peel) to remove mucus. Chen pi has downwarding properties. See:
– How to Make Orange Peel Syrup for Cough, Bronchitis and Indigestion – Home Remedies DIY Recipes
(4) Contractive therapies for cough. This is using remedies that have sour taste or contractive properties. For example, a Western remedy uses lemon juice for cough. Lemon is sour and contractive. See:
– How to Make Lemon Honey Syrup for Coughs – Homemade Cough Remedies DIY Recipes
(5) Tonifying therapies for cough. Many people who suffer from coughs for long time can not be cured with the above therapies. The reason for this may be due to the patients’ weakness. In this case, the best treatment is applying tonifying therapies – using chicken soup, ginseng, huang qi (astragalus), combined warming and moisturizing herbs to tonify the lungs. see:
3. Dry cough and wet cough
There are two types of cough: dry cough (with no or little mucus) and wet cough (with great amount of mucus). When treating a wet cough, you can simple using hot spices or warming remedies because most hot spices and warming herbs have both warming and drying properties that are just what you need to expel coldness and mucus from the lungs and respiratory system. But when treating a dry cough, using hot or warming remedies to expel coldness may increase the dryness. To avoid this side effect, you should add moisturizing remedies, such as honey, sugar, milk or ghee (butter), to balance it. You can adjust the amount of the moisturizing remedies according to your symptoms. For example, if you are too “wet”, add no or little of them; if too “dry”, add more of them.
4. A Cough related to a severe disease
Not every cough is related to coldness. Some coughs are caused by severe diseases. If you suffer from a cough that is not related to a cold season, cold temperature, or a common cold, and cannot be cured after trying the above therapies, then you should visit your doctor and find out the real cause. It may be caused by a severe lung disease. Please note, the above remedies should be only used to treat a seasonal cough – a cough caused by cold season or cold temperature.
For more information about natural cures for cough, go to Natural Remedies Center: http://www.naturalremediescenter.com/treat/cough/
