Constant, excessive coughing is an irritating condition that keeps you up at night and interferes with daily activities. It also annoys the people around you whether it’s at school or at work.
Coughing is the body’s natural way to clear foreign objects from the lungs. Normally, coughing produces sputum that clears microbes such as bacteria and viruses from the body. However, when trying to sleep or work, coughing leads to headaches, nausea, and vomiting.
Here are some of our favorite home remedies for cough, many of which you probably already have in your kitchen!
Tea and Lemon
Warm tea soothes the throat and honey coats the membranes inhibiting the cough. Add lemon for an added effect. Some teas such as those containing kava are mild analgesics that numb pain and suppress coughs.
Be careful with too much tea since it’s a diuretic. If you are sick and losing fluids, tea exacerbates the situation and causes you to excrete more fluids. Drink water to replace fluids when you are sick.
Steam
Steam from a hot shower or boiling water soothes the throat and calms the coughing. The steam also clears nasal passages if the illness affects stuffiness and breathing. Long showers are the easiest way to get steam flowing, but boiling water in a large pot and placing a towel over your head while breathing fumes is also helpful.
Ginger
Ginger is a natural herb found in any health food store. Ginger also has healing properties, especially for coughing. Chew on pieces of ginger to suppress the cough and heal the irritation of the throat.
Vinegar
Add some vinegar to a glass of water, and drink up! Vinegar reduces the inflammation in the throat passages, which alleviates irritability from coughs.
Humidity Purifiers
Humidity purifiers add a touch of humidity to the air. These are especially good for people with allergies. Dry air irritates the throat and causes increasing bouts of coughing. Humidity purifiers keep the air moist and help throats clear.
