Want to get rid of Cough? Here are the effective ways!

Cough is a very common ailment these days and normally in winters, it creates more problems for almost every third or fourth person. This is more visible in cities than villages where we can see fresh air that is rarely fresh in cities due to pollutants and global warming. The allergens or pollutants in the environment enter through your throat pipe, lungs, and airways and force your body to cough them out. It is a common disease which is caused due to defect in the breathing system and sometimes due to faulty liver, we witness the attack of cough.

This continued action, i.e., coughing, causes inflammation of the respiratory tract and throat. Many times, it has been witnessed that cough can last for a longer time if not cured timely and sometimes even become chronic.

A person suffering from a cough may display these types of symptoms:

• Frequent dry cough
• Many a times cough with phlegm/sputum production
• Tiredness or weakness
• fever
• Pain in throat, heart, head, abdomen
• Burning sensation or suffocation in the chest
• Dryness in the mouth, bitter taste, excessive thirst
• Difficulty in swallowing food
• Sore throat, hoarseness of voices
• Nausea after eating food.

When dry coughs are incited by elongated exposures to high pollution levels in the air, dust, allergy, or toxic smoke like cigarettes, it is also known as ‘Vataja Kasa’ in Ayurveda. It is easy to shield your body from this disease but your respiratory system must have very strong immunity. It has been seen that due to poor nutrition, irregular lifestyles, and growing environmental toxicity, it is hard for anyone’s body to fight back.

Some possible remedies for cough are:

1. Ash (Bhasm) of walnut with shell in 1 gram quantity with 6 gram of honey can be consumed.
2. Carom Seeds (ajava’ina) 1 gram with betel leaf every day in the night should be taken.
3. If there is a normal cough, take some ginger juice and mix honey with it. If we add a pinch of black salt to it, it will be beneficial.
4. Prepare a mixture of Amla (Phyllanthus Emblica or Indian gooseberry) dry powder 20 grams, Milk 125 gram, and water 400 gram and cook it till it remains 120 gram. Keep it in a bottle and take with 6 grams of cow’s ghee (clarified butter) two times a day.
5. Make a tea with 10-15 leaves of Tulsi (Holy Basil leaves) along with 8-10 kali Mirch (Black pepper) which cures cough, cold, fever, phlegm/sputum, etc.
6. Prepare a powder of kali Mirch (Black pepper) and store it after filtration through a sieve. Every day 2-3 grams of it along with 2-3 grams of honey helps to cure cough.
7. Roasted fitkari (Alum) 10 grams and the same quantity of desi Khand (organic sugar) crushed can be taken with milk if there is dry cough and with water, if cough with phlegm/sputum production. This can cure chronic cough as well as sometimes beneficial in simple asthma also.
8. Apply mustard oil inside the guda (Anus) and also outside which cures every type of cough.
9. For a dry cough, boil some tulsi leaves (Holy Basil leaves) in water and boil it for few minutes to make an extract of it. It is beneficial in dry cough.
10. Suhaga (Borax – clinical name Sodium Tetraborate) puffed up grind it finely can be kept in a glass jar. Take 1 gram of it along with 2-3 grams of honey. It can also be used with lukewarm water. This is very beneficial for every type of cough and within a day relief can be witnessed. Even it taken for few days, the problem of cold is also cured.
11. Milk 250 grams, water 125 grams, Haldi (Turmeric) one piece and gur (Jaggery), take all these things and boil them for few minutes. When it remains around 250 grams, while some warm, give it to the patient, it will give him relief.

If you are suffering from a cough, try out these effective ayurvedic home remedies

• Before bedtime, take warm milk with turmeric and honey. Turmeric and honey work as natural antibiotics.
• Consume turmeric powder (Haldi) mixed with honey (Shahad) three times a day.
• A small piece of Licorice (Mulethi) can be chewed to reduce inflammation.
• Boil some saunf (Ani seeds) in the water to make coffee or tea.
• Infected throat pipes can be soothed with natural cough syrup made by mixing ginger and honey. Boil a piece of ginger (peeled) in water. After it remains half, filter it and mix a tsp of honey and consume.
• Take warm water and add a pinch of cinnamon powder (daalchini powder) for relief of throat irritability. You can also add cinnamon powder (Daalchini powder) in tea.
• Drink tea made of Tulsi (Holy Basil Leaves), ginger, and honey
• Also, you can chew raw tulsi leaves (Holy Basil Leaves) throughout the day for faster recovery.

Moreover, these remedies are for recovery from cough but if you take care of the root of this disease, it is suggested that you may make some changes to your lifestyle like

• Avoid direct interactions with allergens like pollution, dust, pollens, etc.)
• Abstain yourself from junk food, dry or spicy food.
• Avoid irritants like smoke coming out from mosquito coils, incense etc.
• Consume clean and normal room temperature water or better to use warm water. Try to avoid drinking cold water.
• A nourishing diet in your diet plan taken in small quantities helps you until the digestive system becomes strong. You can take different types of soups.
• Take plenty of rest
• Pranayama (breathing technique) is very important to build your lungs health and life.
• Consume food rich in vitamin C like citrus fruits, orange, lemon, tomato, etc to strengthen the immune system.
• Follow strict food habits and sleep as per schedule. Try to take your dinner before the sunset.

Do check out our post on Ways to Build Your Immunity Strong. The link is here.

I hope with a changed lifestyle as well as with little medication, you can cure yourself of the cough. Wish you a healthy life!