Natural Cough Remedies

How to Control Coughing Without Over-the-Counter Drugs

Jan 24, 2009 Francine Morrissette

Natural cough remedies work with your body's defenses to control coughing, expel mucus, and soothe irritated bronchial passages without drugs.

Coughing, a common symptom of respiratory ailments such as cold and flu, is the body’s way of ridding itself of an unwanted substance in the respiratory tract. Productive coughs which bring up mucus and clear respiratory passages should be left alone to do their job; however, coughing can cause soreness and interfere with healthy sleep. In these cases, a natural remedy may be necessary.

At the First Sign of a Cough

Prepare dill tea (available at health food stores) by adding 1 teaspoon of dried dill to 1 cup of boiling water. Steep 7 minutes, strain, and sweeten with raw honey. Drink 3 cups of dill tea over the course of the day; this alone may be enough to get rid of the cough. For coughs with phlegm, drink garlic tea. Sprinkle ¼ tsp garlic powder in 1 cup of boiling water or put 3 cloves of minced garlic in 1 cup boiling water and steep 10 minutes. Strain the tea and drink 3-4 cups a day to chase away a cough (and maybe all your friends, as well).

All traditional homemade cough syrups have honey as a main ingredient and no wonder. In a study of 105 children and teens published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, honey ranked more effective at controlling coughs than the cough-suppressing drug dextrometorphan. You can take it by the spoonful, or try the following honey-based cough remedies:

Homemade Cough Syrup Recipes

Create a reservoir in a large onion and fill it with honey. Roast the onion until it is soft then mash and strain it while reserving the juice. Take 1 teaspoon of honey-onion juice every ½ hour.
If you don’t like onions, try this: Roast a jumbo lemon until it splits open. When it’s cool, squeeze out all the juice. Take 1 teaspoon of the juice with 1 tsp honey every hour until the juice is all gone; by then cough should be under control.
If you don’t have an oven available to you, try this stove-top cough syrup: Peel and quarter one large onion and quarter a large lemon. Put the lemon and the onion in a saucepan and add just enough water to cover them. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low and simmer for about an hour. Drink a warm cup of the liquid, adding honey to sweeten it, every hour. In several hours the cough should be greatly reduced.

Homemade Cough and Decongestant Remedies

Spicy foods such as chili, garlic, horseradish, and dry mustard can clear lungs, sinuses and the nose, so dig into your favorite hot foods. If you don’t like eating foods that make you sweat, decongest with homemade garlic cough syrup: Peel and mince 6-8 cloves and add them to a jar of raw honey. Let the mixture sit at least 2 hours. When your cough acts up, take 1 teaspoon of the garlic bits in honey.

This great decongestant remedy works best at bedtime: grate ½ ounce fresh ginger root into a cup of boiling water. Let it steep untill it cools. When cool, drink the tea while eating the “meat” of three walnuts. Go to bed and wake up phlegm-free and without the cough.

Use these remedies while drinking plenty of water (to thin mucus secretions) and getting ample rest (to allow the body to heal) and soon you'll be cough-free.

The copyright of the article Natural Cough Remedies in Natural Medicine is owned by Francine Morrissette. Permission to republish Natural Cough Remedies in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.