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Nutrition & diet

Many health practitioners advise increasing fluid intake and breathing in warm, humidified air as ways of loosening chest congestion. Avoiding mucous-producing foods can be effective in healing a cough condition. These mucous-producing foods can vary, based on individual intolerance, but dairy products are a major mucous-producing food for most people. Other foods to avoid are sugar and foods high in sodium. Others recommend hot tea flavored with honey as a temporary home remedy for coughs caused by colds or flu.

Various vitamins may be helpful in preventing or treating conditions (including colds and flu) that lead to coughs. They include vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc, vitamin A, and folic acid.

Herbal medicine

There are many Western herbs, as well as herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), that soothe the throat, quiet coughs, and act as expectorants. Some include:

marsh mallow
licorice
aniseed
fritillaria
loquat

Homeopathic remedies

Depending on the type of cough and its duration, several homeopathic remedies include:

Aconite for dry coughs with fever
Antimonium tartaricum for productive coughs
Bryonia for intense, dry coughs accompanied by thirst
Drosera for violent coughing
Rumex crispus for tickling coughs

Allopathic treatment

Treatment of a cough generally involves addressing the condition causing it. An acute infection such as pneumonia may require antibiotics, an asthma-induced cough may be treated with the use of bronchodialators, or an antihistamine may be administered in the case of an allergy. Cough medicines may be given if the patient cannot rest because of the cough or if the cough is not productive, as is the case with most coughs associated with colds or flu. The two types of drugs used to treat coughs are antitussives and expectorants.

Expected results

Because the majority of coughs are related to the common cold or influenza, most will end in 7-21 days. The outcome of coughs due to a more serious underlying disease depends on the pathology of that disease.

Prevention

It is important to identify and treat the underlying disease and origin of the cough. Avoid smoking and coming in direct contact with people experiencing cold or flu symptoms. Wash hands frequently during episodes of upper-respiratory illnesses.

BOOKS

The Burton Goldberg Group. Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide. Tiburon, CA: Future Medicine Publishing Inc., 1999.

Chandrasoma, Parakrama, and Clive R. Taylor. Concise Pathology. East Norwalk, CT: Appleton and Lange, 1991.

Schumann, Lorna. "Alterations in Respiratory Function." In Perspectives on Pathophysiology. Lee-Ellen Copstead, ed. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders, 1994.

Time-Life Books Editors. The Alternative Advisor. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1997.