Coughing is a distressing ailment to go through. It is usually caused by mucus trapped in the back of the throat, which your body is naturally trying to expel so it doesn’t to clog your wind pipe and keep you from breathing.
It is a natural body function. Sometimes you will find you do it automatically without thinking, although you may also make yourself cough when needed.
Having a nagging cough can be quite irritating to your peace of mind and your body. While a cough can be quite good for you and help speed healing, it also can lead to achy muscles, headache, and a sore throat. Not to mention coughs often come on strong at night, which can negatively impact your ability to sleep.
For many people, finding relief for a cough becomes a necessity. It may be the only way to get a good night’s sleep or to simply save your sanity.
Essential oils can be a great tool in fighting a cough. These oils are known for being very therapeutic and serving many health benefits. Discover 12 essential oils that you can use to help you the next time you have a cough bothering you.
Before we look at how to heal your cough, let’s get some insight into why you may be coughing. Understanding the cause can help you to better figure out a cure.
Certain infections in the lungs or the upper airway passages may lead to a cough. Another cause for it might be an allergy, which tends to give you a dry cough, due to the itchy feeling in your throat, as well as a runny or stuffy nose.
Some of the diseases naturally associated with coughing are the common cold, the flu, croup, asthma, and chronic bronchitis. Deep bronchial afflictions may also lead to severe coughing cases, especially wet ones, combined with nasal drip, scratchy throat, or congested nose.
There are many treatments, pills and syrups which one can take. Of course, there has always been a heated debate as to whether pills actually help alleviate a cough or if it’s just placebo. An interesting fact is that the American Academy of Pediatrics has stated a while back that using cough medicine is supported by very little evidence, and thusly, they do not recommend it to be given to children.
Honey has always been a holistic option. It is also known that our bodies have the ability to fight coughs on their own without any aid. Cougingh, just like fever, will usually go away in 10 days if left untreated.
So, having all that in mind, as well as the fact that it is always better to turn to nature with such superficial pains and ailments instead of medicine and antibiotics, there are a lot of remedies, such as essential oils, we can use at home to speed up the healing process.
It’s important to know that, when using these 12 oils, they should be divided up based on the recipient’s age. This means that a toddler’s treatment should be different than an adult’s. The 12 oils are:
Let’s see exactly how to use them.
Everything changes when you’re pregnant. Suddenly there are a lot of food restrictions, alcohol and caffeine consumption is forbidden and no medicines are allowed whatsoever, out of fear of damaging the unborn. But what happens if the mother develops a cough?
Fortunately, nature has an answer through some simple and reliable home remedies you can use. Almost all of them involve essential oils, such as cypress oil, fir needle, ginger, and lemon.
However, you should be on your guard and carefully do your homework before using them because even if they are safe, they do come with some warnings. For example:
Babies may be difficult to deal with when they are sick and have a sore throat. They get moody and don’t take things such as pain, irritations, congestion, or coughing very lightly. They also have trouble sleeping and breathing very often, which will keep you on the edge of your seat and out of bed as long as the more or less severe ailment lasts.
They’re also reluctant in taking drugs usually. Seeing as most cough medicine is syrup based, they refuse it because it tastes bad. Apart from that, most doctors will tell you not to give syrup to children under the age of six, so what do you do with infants?
The answer comes once again from essential cough oils, which are, incidentally, very tasty as well, so you’ve got that problem covered. You can use some lemon oil, ginger, which you can add to their hot teas, buckwheat honey, which is not oil but works wonders and is incredibly sweet and tasty, and eucalyptus oil, which will decongest the nose and airways.
Older kids may be allowed some more things than toddlers, but that doesn’t mean they won’t behave in the same way when they’re sick. Therefore, the same tasty healing treats work for them as well, such as the classic lemon and ginger, but you can also add others, which are mild sedatives as well, like lavender or chamomile.
You can also try patchouli and ylang-ylang, both good for this purpose, but be careful with the dosage. They have very strong smells, and they are difficult to take in even for adults.
You can also try to temporarily eliminate dairy from their diet because all milk-based foods increase the production and secretion of mucus in the throat area. Phlegm will be a lesser problem if you do this.
Add instead plenty of herbal teas, mixed with the very same essential oils we’ve been presenting for coughs. Add to the list sage oil, cherry stems, and cherry oil or wild cherry bark. You can procure all these at your local drugstore or market.
Everything we mentioned so far works for adults as well because the principles are the same. However, you can think of the essential oils for coughs usage as a pyramid with the unborn at the top, which are the most fragile, and the adults at the bottom, which can have almost any kind of oils.
Therefore, on top of everything we’ve said so far, we can add olive oil rubbed directly on the skin in the throat region. If you warm it up a bit, just enough, not too hot, it will work miracles on your vocal chords and release some of the mucus held in the back of your throat.
Hot baths filled with essential oils are recommended for adults as well. Just remember brevity is your friend here because hot water and strong oils can make you dizzy and nauseated. Try adding some eucalyptus in the bath water, rose petal oil, lavender, pear or cinnamon, to unclog your airways and cure the cough. Breathe in the vapors and relax in the warm water.
It’s called kennel cough, and yes, your furry friend can get it. It’s usually a very dry cough, like the animal has something logged in its throat, complete with persistent whooping and wheezing. It’s one of the most widespread canine diseases in the world. It’s highly contagious, but it’s not fatal, just like in humans.
The treatment resembles the human one, as well. Most veterinarians choose to act just like physicians do and simply let the disease run its natural course until it’s cured. Otherwise, you can try giving your dog some honey or some coconut oil. Most dogs actually love their sweet and fragrant taste, so it will be easy for you to feed it to them off a spoon.
However, you should be careful about plant and flower based essential oils. Remember that most plants and flowers are toxic to dogs, even if they are good for humans. So, either do some thorough research so as to not risk poisoning your dog or you refrain from giving it to them altogether and stick to honey and coconut essential oil as a remedy.
Here are some recipes for home-made cough treatments, which you can make in your own kitchen in no time.
There are many recipes out there for using essential oils as a cure for the cough or when having colds. Practice has proven that they actually work better than store bought medicine, they are cheaper and, of course, a lot more natural. So there’s no reason you shouldn’t give them a try!
