Overcome Coughs and Colds Naturally!

Koff koff, coofff coffff, kackkf, kackkk, deep breath, Koff koff, coofff coffff, kackkf, kackkk! It is that time of the year for the northern hemisphere.

Nothing is more irritating than a cough that would not go away. Well I exaggerate but those of you who are suffering from it know what I mean. When sucking lozenges only add to sugar highs and furry tongue, and when sleep all but evade and disturb you. Your throat is burning, your chest is sore with all the hacking and heaving and you are tossing and turning in bed, very sore with a stuffy nose.

You go to the pharmacy and the pharmacist will recommend linctus cough syrup for dry coughs (without phlegm), and expectorants for wet cough (with phlegm). Linctuses’ cough syrups generally work as suppressants to help reduce the severity and frequency of coughing attacks. Expectorants work on chesty, rough coughs and work to loosen mucous in the throat. This can help you to 'cough up' the phlegm more easily, which then clears up your throat and relieves irritation.

When these cough mixtures also would not help, short of slitting your throat (that is how I sometime feel!), what would you do? See the doctors and they will prescribe anti biotic at the drop of a hat. But coughs and colds are caused by viruses, which antibiotic do not cure. What we need is something to relieve symptoms and then we wait for our bodies to heal itself.

If your coughs are caused by smoking. My only advice is to stop smoking. How do you do that? It is another topic for another hub.

Let me share with you some alternative methods that had helped me.

Yes the friendly yellow fellow. It is inexpensive and easily available from your local green grocers and supermarkets. I find sipping freshly squeezed lemon juice brings immediate relief to my burning throat that is sore from continuous coughing. It is a bit bitter and sour but it helps. My experience is after sipping the juice four times a day for two days, my cough symptoms quickly disappears and I feel so much the better for it. Best of all I can have restful sleep.

Some people would add warm honey to the lemon juice. Warm liquid does soothe the throat and honey coats the sore throat and brings relief.

Gargling with warm salt water also bring soothing feelings to the throat and therefore stops coughing.

There is a popular common coughs and cold relief called Lemsip available from the chemists/pharmacists in the UK. I believe this powdered form of ‘medication’ is trying to imitate what I am suggesting here. Why buy the imitations when you can have the original and natural way? I am an advocate for natural healing because I am so wary of giant pharmaceuticals’ hidden agenda.

Cordyceps has been used by Chinese Herbalist for centuries to help heal coughs.Wiki has this entry:

Cordyceps is a genus of ascomycete (Sac Fungi) fungi that includes about 400 described species. All Cordyceps species are endoparasitoids, mainly on insectsarthropods (they are thus entomopathogenic fungi); a few are parasitic on other fungi. The best known species of the genus is Cordyceps sinensis, first recorded as yartsa gunbu in Tibet in the 15th Century. The Latin etymology describes cord as "club", ceps as "head", and sinensis as "chinese". Cordyceps sinensis, known in English commonly as caterpillar fungus is considered a medicinal mushroom in oriental medicines, such as Traditional Chinese Medicines and Traditional Tibetan medicine.

Tulsi extracts (Holy Basil) is another herbal remedy that is used in Ayurveda medicine, widely used in India/Nepal and the Himalayas for coughs and common colds.

Sea coconut is another natural food that is effective for coughs.

Maybe the jury is still out and researches have not been conclusive about health supplements but a good dose of good quality vitamin C combined with a balanced diet and a set of multi vitamins and minerals have been good for me. I believe our natural diets have been compromised and we cannot take enough of natural food to combat the degenerative diseases that the modern age has thrown at us. Normally the diets of our ancestors may be enough but pollutions and stress of the modern era have been destructive to our bodies. We need to supplement our normal diets, healthy that it may be, but sadly it is not sufficient.

Amongst the myriads of health supplements out there, I personally find USANA Essentials the best for me. I spend US$50 per month on these well balanced and good quality pharmaceutical grade supplements and it had kept me healthy and well over the years I have been taking them. It is a worthwhile and cost effective investment for my wife’s and my health. Prevention is always better than cure.

By being healthy helps me prevent oncoming coughs and colds and when I do get one, it is never so severe and it helps me recover faster. Maybe being healthy overall helps me to overcome coughs and colds faster and when I do get it, it is not so severe. I wholeheartedly recommend USANA. Here are some other people's opinions.

For those of you who would like to make a business out of staying healthy, USANA does give you an opportunity to earn an extra income from your home and in your spare time.

What is my agenda and what do I get out of recommending USANA? Personally I am a consumer and I find the product good and I therefore desire to share it. I do not make living out of USANA. However I have friends who are earning decent money and are making an honest living from making a business out of it. If you want to find out more just drop me a line and I can help you connect with them and they will mentor you.