Cough is an important reaction of the body to free itself from substances that bother the air passages. It can be involuntary or voluntary. The body initiates a cough to clear the build-up phlegm in the trachea by forcefully discharging air at high speed away from it. It is one of the most common reasons to visit the physician. There are many causes of coughing like smoking and infections of the upper respiratory tract. There are some types of cough that continue non-stop for weeks or even years which lead to chest pain, sleepless nights and also affect the lifestyle and work life of a person.
There are two types of cough; acute cough and chronic cough. The first one lasts for less than 3 weeks and the latter for more than 3 weeks. One of the best ways to get relief from cough is gargling with warm water and salt as it cuts the phlegm and reduces the soreness. This could be done by dissolving ½ tablespoon salt in ½ cup of water and gargling every 3-4 hours. To get relief from a stubborn cough you could drink a mixture of honey and lime or lemon, as it will definitely help to soothe the throat. Tea made with a few stems of dry thyme can relieve you from a cough in minutes as thyme has antibacterial properties. Another remedy could be consuming peppercorns (3 in number), adding a pinch of black cumin seeds and rock salt. Drinking hot milk with honey before going to bed or warm milk with a pinch of turmeric powder twice a day can also help. An effective home remedy for cough is boiling 50gms of ginger with 5 tablespoon sugar in 2 glasses of water for 30 minutes and drinking it hot twice a day. Steaming hot chicken soup with garlic and onion also gives relief to the irritation in the throat that is caused by cough. Make a drink with onion juice. Onion juice could be made by chopping them and squeezing as much juice as you can. Mix this juice with honey to relieve your cough.
Apart from all these remedies if the cough still persists, then checking whether an underlying disease is causing the cough is extremely important. Successful treatment of a cough depends on correct diagnosis and giving specific therapy. Another suggestion is to take a second opinion from another physician to be absolutely certain.
answered by G R