Cough Herbal Remedies

Cough is a common manifestation of respiratory tract infections. People might just use the term cough to describe an illness but then in diagnosis there could be more to it than just plain cough.

Note that a lot of people who seeks consultation with a medical professional during the cooler months are those who have contracted the illness or have acquired the disease causing pathogen primarily by transmission either by inhaling the droplet of the contaminant in the air, not properly washing hands and many other modes of transmission like using contaminated utensils or personal things from other people who has the disease.

It cannot be helped that people ask about a treatment that is all-natural in to alleviate cough and to potentially resolve the immune-compromised condition.

Since all cultures have had times in the past where majority of the population in the planet relies on these herbal concoctions we are sure that there use of herbal remedy for cough is still apparent in any locality.

Cough is.....

Cough is a basic reflex of the body to help the infected area (lungs, throat etc) to expel any obstructive material and to rid the body of the infectious factors trying to inhabit the body causing disturbance of homeostasis or balance. This is a way of the body to clean the bronchi in the lungs and even the airway.

Type of cough

There will be times that a cough is caused by irritants and allergies. In general there are two types of cough regardless of the causative factor.

One is dry cough where there is no sputum apparent when coughing and two productive cough which is the direct opposite of dry cough.

Dry coughs can be relieved by the use of herbal remedies that is a cough suppressant or you may try expectorants on this cough type to make dry cough to a productive type.

This is normally common on viral respiratory tract infections. In the course of the infection, as it progress, sputum becomes more abundant and so dry coughs then naturally progress to a productive cough.

Cough suppressants must only be used on dry coughs this is to relieve exhausting persistent coughing that interferes with sleeping.

Productive coughs are commonly caused by bacterial infection and would usually last a week and may reoccur. When a person contracts bacterial infection of the respiratory system the administration of antiseptic substances appropriate to the condition will be necessary.




Regular Use of Cough Herbal Remedies

Now let’s talk about the herbal remedy for each type.

Licorice extract has been used widely for its expectorant property though some of its derivatives were found to have antitussive qualities. Let’s distinguish expectorants versus antitussives. Antitussive is a fancy term for cough suppressants while expectorants are those substances that induces an increased production of the lung fluids and so is good for productive coughs.

Wild Cherry Bark is an example of an antitussive. This substance helps decrease the irritation of the membrane of the affected area. The amount of the extract used for the administration is controlled as there is a substance in the extract that can be toxic in high dosages. The substance is called prunasin which is the substance that helps reduce the irritation. It is highly discouraged not to use this antitussive for a long period of time as the dosage due to the risk.

Share :

Facebook Google+ Twitter