Cough

Coughing is the body's way of removing foreign substances and mucus from lungs and upper airway passages or of reacting to an irritated airway. In simple words, coughing is an attempt by the body to protect the lungs. Coughs can have many causes ranging from allergies, cold or flu, asthma, weather or seasonal changes, respiratory infection, pneumonia, tuberculosis, bronchitis to lung cancer. Some people have a nervous cough that becomes a habit. A cough may be simply dry, and irritating (dry cough), or it may bring up mucus (productive cough). Some prescribed drugs can also cause coughing.

Home Remedies

• Inhale essential oil of eucalyptus, which is expectorant and decongestant.

• Take honey and lemon which will ease cough and encourage healing.

• Place 2-3 cloves fried in ghee and suck.

        For dry cough

• Eat a ripe banana with 1 teaspoon of honey and 2 pinches of ground black
     pepper, twice or thrice a day.

• Boil 1 cup milk with teaspoon turmeric and teaspoon ginger and drink this
     at night. This will relieve the cough due to pharyngitis or laryngitis.

• Try chewing ajwan mixed with 1 teaspoon natural organic sugar.

   For productive cough

• Mix 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper with one teaspoon of honey, and eat it 
     on a full stomach two or three times a day for 3 to 5 days.

• Drink a tea made from 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder, plus a pinch of
     cinnamon powder in a cupful of boiled water.

• Take 1 teaspoon honey mixed with a pinch of clove powder, 2 or 3 times a
     day. 

   For child

• Give a half cup pomegranate juice with a pinch of ginger powder and a
     pinch of Pippali powder.

Do's

• Drink 8-10 glasses of fluid a day. Include warm drinks such as soup and
     herbal tea.

• Raising the head of the bed or sleeping on extra pillows may help ease a
     cough at night.

Don’ts

• Avoid smoky or dusty environments. If you smoke, stop.

• Avoid soft drinks, candies, ice-cream, and all products made from sugar
     and white flour.

• Avoid tea, coffee, refined and processed foods.

 See Doctor                                    

• Cough persists for more than a week.

• Chest pain or breathing problems.

• Fever, sweating, or weight loss

• Becoming exhausted by coughing.

• Mucus becomes green, yellow, or blood-stained.