Cough Remedies In Your Kitchen

With a change in season, our health is sure to suffer from either a viral infection, or cold and cough. Allergies due to pollen, dust, animal-fur also cause cough. The irritation you feel in your throat, sometimes, and which you try to clear by coughing, is common and does not need medication. However, the cough caused due to the above-mentioned allergens, or seasonal changes, is what does require care and treatment. A medical practitioner can help you with the allergies and prescribe medications for the same. But, the cough caused due to seasonal change is something that can definitely be treated at home. There are cough remedies in your kitchen that you can use.

Cough Remedies In Your Kitchen

Home remedies for cough or cold can be found in your kitchen, in spices and herbs you use for cooking. These are quick and easy to prepare and do not have any side effects, as opposed to the cough syrups that are usually obtained as OTC drugs at your neighborhood chemist and which do exhibit side effects that often worsen the situation.

Cough syrups contain alcohol that is the culprit—the reason you feel drowsy with even a teaspoon of the syrup. You notice hardly any change in your cough, but you do end up sleeping all day. These also fail to thin the mucus that you find difficult to cough up.

Home remedies, therefore, make for the best way to tackle cough, thin the mucus and fight the problem easily and without any discomfort.

Homemade Cough Syrup

A homemade cough syrup is the easiest way to treat a sore throat and give it the relief it needs.

Ingredients

• Water – 2 cups
• Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
• Black peppercorn – 3 or 4
• Cinnamon – about half an inch
• Cloves – 2
• Grated ginger – 1 tsp
• Honey – 1 tablespoon
• Tulsi leaves – 3 to 4

Method

Keep the water to boil.

Add the tulsi leaves.

Crush the fennel seeds, cloves, peppercorns and cinnamon in a mortar with a pestle.

Add these crushed spices to the water.

Add the grated ginger

Allow the water to boil for a good few minutes till it changes its color.

Switch off the burner. Add the honey and some cool water to make it drinkable.

Drink this concoction twice of thrice a day, especially before going to bed.

This helps thin the mucus, relieves the irritation in the throat and helps cure the cough without making you drowsy.

Additionally, you can have half a teaspoon of turmeric powder mixed with half a teaspoon of sugar if the cough bothers you when you lie down to sleep. Chew the mixture well and have a small sip of water over it.

Homemade Cough Solution

This is a combination of two Ayurvedic powders, honey and ghee, or clarified butter that helps reduce dry cough as well as chesty cough.

Ingredients

• Sitopaladi Churna – 1 tablespoon
• Yeshthimadhu (Jeshthimadh) – Half a tablespoon
• Honey – 1 tablespoon or as much is required to mix the two powders
• Ghee – 1 teaspoon

The two Ayurvedic powders are easily available at every chemist’s. Homemade ghee is advisable, but if you do not prepare ghee at home, select one from the store that belongs to a trusted brand.

Method

Mix the powders in a glass jar.

Add honey and mix well till you get a paste.

Add ghee.

Cover with an airtight lid and store at room temperature.

Having this solution every half an hour, or anytime you feel like, will help reduce the cough. Its taste makes it a favorite with the children as well as adults because it doesn’t taste like the bitter cough syrup.

Home Remedies versus OTC Cough Syrups

Home remedies do not have any side effects.

They do take some time to work their magic, but at least they do not make you sleepy!

And, finally, home remedies for cough can be trusted because they have been passed down from generations and also because they are prepared using everyday ingredients and not a chemical formula.