Home Remedies and Honey Recipes for Cough and Sore Throat

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Honey makes the taste of some herbs more palatable. The following are recipes and home remedies using herbs and honey to cure cough for adults and children.

Looking for a home remedy for cough? One that is natural and perhaps easy to go down? Consider the sweet liquid from nature - pure honey.

NOTE: Honey should not be given to children under age 1 because of a rare but serious risk of botulism.

Now, when you are down with a bout of sickness, for instance, cold, sore throat, or fever, I am sure at one point or another, you have wondered and questioned what's going on in your body, what has gone wrong and is causing those symptoms of discomfort...

An extremely common ailment which probably all of us have experienced before, cough is a vital bodily function and can be technically defined as an involuntary reflex signaled and triggered by our brain to clear a blockage or irritant (e.g phlegm, cigarette smoke, pungent gas, dust, etc) from the air passage. What is visible or audible to us when this happens is a sudden expulsion of air from the lungs that helps clear airway very quickly.

When you complain of having a cough, doctors or pharmacists often like to ask this question: is it chesty or dry

Chesty cough or productive cough is characterized by the presence of mucus or phlegm on the chest, whereas in a dry cough where the throat and upper airways are inflamed or irritated, no phlegm is produced or expelled. In some cases, a cough can be chesty but is not productive. This happens when the phlegm is not loose enough to be coughed up.

Many smokers can have a continual dry cough throughout their lives. A cough caused by a viral infection such as the flu or common cold usually disappears within two weeks; if it does not, it may be a symptom of a more serious problem and x-rays may be necessary to diagnose the problem. Persistent or chronic cough could be caused by environmental irritants or even stress (such a cough disappears while sleeping), but it could also be a sign of viral infection like bronchitis or pneumonia, whereby antibiotic medicine would be required.

Signs and symptoms that point to an infection include fever, chills, body aches, sore throat, nausea, vomiting, headache, sinus pressure, runny nose, and night sweats. When cough is a warning sign of an underlying cancer of the lung or air passage, other symptoms may also be present, including worsening fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss, or decreased ability to swallow solid or liquid foods.

Cures:

Over-the-counter cough syrups for minor coughs are easily accessible. There are two primary goals in treating a cough: one is to suppress the cough reflex, especially when a cough causes pain or affects with sleep; the other is to thin the mucus, making it easier to bring up and be flushed from the body. It's beneficial to drink lots of water, warm broth, tea, and room-temperature fruit or vegetable juice to help thin and loosen the mucus.

• Mix equal amount of honey and lemon grass juice then drink to reduce the coughs.
• Mix a syrup consisting of 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons water, mix and drink.
• Boil some water with 2 garlic cloves, 1 table spoon of oregano. Pour into a cup add 1 tablespoon of honey and drink.
• Make a lemon and honey drink. Active Manuka honey and propolis have been commonly used as ingredients in the home remedy for cough because of their strong antibacterial properties.

Some researchers believe that honey, a traditional, natural home remedy for cough can offer a "safe and legitimate alternative" to dextromethorphan (DM), which can occasionally cause severe side-effects in children, including muscle contractions and spasms.

A study (2007) by researchers from Penn State College of Medicine, US, involved 105 children with coughs between the ages of 2 and 18. Before bed, the children were given artificial honey-flavored DM cough syrup, buckwheat honey or nothing at all. Results revealed that parents of children who received the honey rated their children's sleep and symptoms as better!

Honey's ability as a home remedy for cough may be due to the way it soothes on contact and stimulates saliva.

There is a growing concern with cough medicines available in the market these days. The concern centers most on the adverse effects of commercially prepared cough medicine, especially amongst children. Many cough syrups cause drowsiness, affecting most activities of daily living.

Honey is one of nature's gifts to all people affected with cough who would love to do away with the drowsiness. This is used as a key ingredient in concoctions based on alternative medicine principles, with the goal to treat and manage cough. Honey, however, could not work alone as it needs the power of other herbs to achieve maximum therapeutic action.

Honey makes the taste of some herbs more palatable. The following are three recipes using herbs and honey to cure cough for adults and children:

1. Honey and Lemon Juice Recipe

Children especially need sweet and good-tasting cough medicine. Mothers should not have a problem anymore because this recipe is a guaranteed hit it does not just cure cough fast, it also makes it easy to administer to children.

Ingredients:

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• 1/2 cup of honey
• 1/3 cup warm water
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp of frozen concentrate (optional)

Procedure:

• Mix honey and lemon juice in a small bowl.
• Using a spoon, blend the mixture well.
• Add the frozen fruit concentrate, but this may not be necessary.
• Stir the mixture and gradually add the warm water.
• Blend the mixture.
• Store it in a glass bottle.
• Take the syrup two to three times a day to effectively cure the cough.

2. Honey and Onion Recipe

Onion is another wonder herb that is known to cure almost all minor health problems, especially those that affect the respiratory tract. This recipe is most advisable for adults, because the smell and after-taste may be a little too strong for children.

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Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp onion juice

Procedure:

• Mix the lemon juice with the juice of onion in a small bowl.
• Add the small amount of water and blend well.
• Heat the mixture, just slightly above lukewarm temperature.
• When the mixture is about to boil, turn off the flame.
• Before it cools down, add honey and stir well until it forms into syrup.
• Keep the cough syrup aside for 6 hours before consuming it.
• Have one teaspoon of the honey cough syrup twice a day.

3. Honey and Ginger Recipe

Ginger is a popular remedy for cough, and it is made even more palatable and effective by mixing with honey.

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Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp honey
• 1/2 tbsp ginger paste
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 3 tbsp water

Procedure:

• Grind the chopped ginger in mixer until it forms into a thick paste.
• In a small bowl, mix the ginger paste with black pepper powder.
• Add the vinegar and honey to the mixture and stir well.
• Add the water to the mixture so that it forms into concentrated syrup.
• Set the syrup aside for a couple of hours.
• Drink one to two teaspoons of the syrup thrice a day.

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Cite This Page (APA): Langtree, I. C. (2011, May 5). Home Remedies and Honey Recipes for Cough and Sore Throat. Disabled World. Retrieved April 19, 2024 from www.disabled-world.com/fitness/diets/special/honey-cough.php

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