How to Get Rid of Phlegm in Your Throat and Chest Naturally

Written and medically reviewed by Veronique Claes d’Erckenteel, D.C., chiropractor since 1991 · Last reviewed: 16 October 2026

To get rid of phlegm, thin it and help your body move it out: drink plenty of warm fluids, breathe in steam, run a humidifier, gargle with salt water and cough it up gently with a “huff” instead of a hard cough. Honey, ginger, thyme, onion and plenty of vitamin C support your body while it clears the cause. Above all, rest. Phlegm is your body’s sign that it is time for self care. Get medical help if the phlegm is bloody, rusty or comes with a high fever or trouble breathing.

Phlegm is never just a nuisance. The body creating phlegm is another indication that we need to start taking care of ourselves on a broader level. Healing happens from the inside out, and we need to give ourselves time to rest and digest whatever has hit us from outside, whether that’s emotional, bacterial or viral. Usually, phlegm is a great indicator that this is exactly the moment for self care: slowing down, eating well, drinking more, sleeping more.

This guide covers how to get phlegm out of your throat and chest, the natural remedies that thin and loosen it, what the color of your phlegm can tell you, why some people have phlegm all the time, and when it’s time to see a doctor. It’s part of our cough series; for every type of cough, start with how to stop coughing.

The short version

Drink warm fluids all day: water, herbal tea, broth, ginger and lemon.
Breathe in steam two or three times a day and run a humidifier at night.
Gargle with salt water and rinse your nose with saline.
Cough it up gently with a huff, don’t fight it or swallow it back.
Eat vitamin C rich foods: oranges, mandarins, kiwis, peppers.
Rest. Phlegm is your body asking for time.
Bloody, rusty or very dark phlegm, a high fever or trouble breathing: see a doctor.

What Is Phlegm?
How to Get Rid of Phlegm in Your Throat
How to Remove Phlegm From Your Chest and Lungs Naturally
How to Cough Out Phlegm
20 Natural Remedies to Clear Phlegm
Humidifier for Phlegm
What Your Phlegm Color Means
Constant Phlegm in Your Throat: Why It Keeps Coming Back
When Phlegm Points to Pneumonia
When to See a Doctor
Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Phlegm?

Mucus and phlegm are often used as the same word, but there’s a small difference. Mucus is the thin, slippery layer that lines your nose, throat, lungs and gut every day. It traps dust, pollen and germs before they can get deeper into your body. Phlegm is the thicker mucus your lower airways make when they’re fighting something off, the kind you cough up when you have a cold, bronchitis or a chest infection.

So phlegm is your body doing its job. It wraps up whatever is irritating your airways so you can cough or swallow it away. The goal of every remedy on this page is the same: make the phlegm thinner so it moves more easily, and support your body so it needs to make less of it.

The most common reasons for extra phlegm are a cold or flu, bronchitis, sinus trouble, post nasal drip, allergies, smoking or vaping, and acid reflux.

How to Get Rid of Phlegm in Your Throat

Phlegm in your throat often comes from higher up: mucus from your nose and sinuses running down the back of your throat, especially at night. That’s why the best way to get phlegm out of your throat is to work on the nose and throat together.

Gargle with warm salt water. Half a teaspoon of salt in a glass of warm water, gargled for 30 seconds, loosens sticky phlegm at the back of the throat. Repeat three or four times a day.
Rinse your nose with saline. A saline spray or a neti pot washes away the mucus before it drips down. Always use distilled, sterile or boiled and cooled water in a neti pot, never water straight from the tap.
Sip warm drinks all day. Warm water, herbal tea or broth thins phlegm so it slides down or comes up more easily.
Blow your nose gently, one nostril at a time. Blowing too hard pushes mucus back into the sinuses.
Clear your throat softly, with a gentle “hm” instead of a harsh scrape. Hard throat clearing irritates the throat and makes it produce even more mucus.
Sleep with your head raised on an extra pillow so mucus doesn’t pool at the back of your throat overnight.

Two Tricks to Move Excess Phlegm Out of Your Throat

When phlegm sits stuck in your throat, you can try these two tricks instead of scraping it out with a hard cough or throat clearing. They take a little practice, but they really do the job.

Hum and gargle with your mouth closed. Close your mouth and make a low gargling or humming sound deep in your throat, as if gargling without water, for 10 to 20 seconds. The vibration at the back of your throat and around the voice box loosens sticky phlegm so you can swallow it or bring it up with a gentle huff.

The throat lubrication trick. Breathing through your nose with your mouth closed, suck the back of your tongue up and back towards the inside of your nose. You may hear a soft click. Let the moisture that gathers there run down the back of your throat, then swallow. It moistens thick phlegm so it slides down instead of sticking.

Both tricks come from our dry cough remedies guide, where they help calm a tickly throat too.

Phlegm stuck at the back of your throat that comes with a constant need to clear it is usually post nasal drip. Our guide to post nasal drip remedies goes deeper.

How to Remove Phlegm From Your Chest and Lungs Naturally

Phlegm in your chest feels heavy and rattly, and it often comes with a deep, wet cough. Here you want to loosen the phlegm so your lungs can clear it.

Steam. Sit over a bowl of steaming water with a towel over your head for 10 to 15 minutes, two or three times a day. Add a few drops of eucalyptus or a spoonful of dried thyme or rosemary. Eucalyptus has the best research: a review of six trials found eucalyptus products improved cough more often than a placebo, and its main compound, cineole, reduced coughing fits in acute bronchitis.
A hot shower. The steam does the same job, and a warm drink straight afterwards helps keep the phlegm moving.
Thyme and ivy leaf. In a trial of adults with a productive cough, a thyme and ivy leaf extract reduced coughing fits more than a placebo, and a review of ivy leaf trials found every one reported fewer symptoms.
Move. Gentle walking, stretching and deep breaths help loosen phlegm in the lungs. Yoga poses that open the chest, like Camel or Bow, do the same.
Lie on your side or tummy for a few minutes at a time (older children and adults), so gravity helps the phlegm move towards your throat.
A warm compress on the chest relaxes the chest and makes breathing feel easier.

For more, see our chest congestion remedies and natural expectorants. A chesty cough that lasts more than a week or two with a fever may be bronchitis; see bronchitis home remedies.

How to Cough Out Phlegm

A cough with phlegm is a useful cough. It’s your body’s way of clearing the airways, so don’t try to stop it with a suppressant. Instead, make each cough count, so you need fewer of them. Physiotherapists teach a gentle technique called huff coughing:

Sit up straight with your feet on the floor.
Breathe in slowly through your nose, a little deeper than normal.
Hold for two or three seconds.
Open your mouth and breathe out forcefully but steadily, as if fogging up a mirror: “haaa”.
Do this two or three times, then one gentle cough to bring the phlegm up.
Spit it out into a tissue rather than swallowing it, so you can see what it looks like.

A huff moves phlegm up without the strain of a hard cough, which irritates the throat and wears you out. If the cough keeps you awake, see how to stop a cough at night.

20 Natural Remedies to Clear Phlegm

These are the home remedies for mucus in the throat and chest I come back to. Many have been passed down from generation to generation; where there’s research, I link to it.

1. Vitamin C, the basic

As in all our cough articles, vitamin C is a basic. That’s exactly why nature gives us oranges and mandarins in autumn: right when colds and chest infections start. Eat citrus, kiwis, peppers and berries every day, and during a cough I add liposomal vitamin C. Taken regularly, vitamin C shortened colds in a Cochrane review, and I explain how I take it in how to stop coughing.

2. Warm fluids

The simplest remedy and one of the most important. Warm water, herbal teas, broth and hot water with lemon all thin phlegm. Milk is fine if you like it: in a study of adults with a cold, drinking milk didn’t increase mucus, even though many people feel it does. For tea recipes, see tea for cough.

3. Steam inhalation

Described above: 10 to 15 minutes, two or three times a day, with eucalyptus, thyme or rosemary. Steam bowls are for adults and older children; little ones sit with you in a steamy bathroom.

4. Salt water gargle

Half a teaspoon of salt, a pinch of turmeric if you like, in a glass of warm water. Gargle and spit, several times a day.

5. Saline nose rinse

A saline spray or neti pot with sterile or boiled and cooled water clears the mucus that drips into your throat.

6. Honey

Honey soothes the throat and calms the cough, and a Cochrane review found it eased children’s coughs about as well as some common cough syrups. Mix a teaspoon of honey with a pinch of ground ginger, or stir it into warm tea. Never give honey to a baby under 12 months. More in honey for cough.

7. Ginger

Simmer a few slices of fresh ginger with two or three black peppercorns for 10 minutes, strain and add honey. Drink two or three cups a day. Ginger warms and calms inflammation, and a 2024 review of plant remedies for cough lists it among the extracts that work on the cause of a cough.

8. Onion syrup

Slice an onion, layer it in a jar with honey, leave it overnight and take a teaspoon of the syrup every few hours. A traditional remedy for a chesty cough that every grandmother seems to know. Full recipe in our homemade cough syrups.

9. Thyme tea

Pour hot water over a teaspoon of dried thyme, cover for 10 minutes so the oils stay in, strain and add honey. Thyme has been the herb for chesty coughs for centuries.

10. Lemon

Two teaspoons of lemon juice and a spoonful of honey in a glass of warm water, two or three times a day. Lemon adds vitamin C and makes warm water easier to drink.

11. Licorice root

Simmer a teaspoon of dried licorice root for 10 minutes. It soothes the throat and helps loosen phlegm. Keep it to a week or two, and skip it with high blood pressure or in pregnancy.

12. Elderberry

Elderberry syrup is a traditional winter remedy, rich in anthocyanins, the deep purple plant pigments. Use a ready-made syrup; raw elderberries must never be eaten.

13. Eucalyptus and other essential oils

Eucalyptus, thyme, rosemary, tea tree and lavender in a diffuser or steam bowl help loosen phlegm and open the airways. For children: eucalyptus from age 3, a kids’ blend from age 2 and no oils under 2. Always dilute oils before putting them on the skin, and choose food grade, quality controlled oils. See our guide to essential oils for bronchitis.

14. A warm compress

Soak a towel in warm water, wring it out and lay it over your nose and forehead, or your chest. The warmth relaxes and helps thin the mucus.

15. An extra pillow

Sleeping with your head raised stops phlegm from pooling at the back of your throat overnight.

16. Acupressure

Press firmly just below your collarbone, close to the breastbone, on both sides, in small circles for one to two minutes while you breathe slowly. In traditional Chinese medicine this is KI-27, a point used to open the airways. All five points for a cough are in our acupressure chart.

17. Turmeric

Golden milk, a teaspoon of turmeric warmed in milk or a plant milk with a pinch of black pepper, is a soothing evening drink that has been used in Ayurvedic tradition for colds for centuries.

18. Spicy food

Cayenne pepper, chilli, fresh ginger and garlic make your nose run and your eyes water for a reason: their sharp compounds thin mucus for a while. A spicy soup is a traditional way to clear a blocked head.

19. Apple cider vinegar

A tablespoon of raw apple cider vinegar in a glass of warm water with honey is a traditional remedy many people use for phlegm. There’s no research on it for mucus, so see it as a warm, gentle drink rather than a treatment.

20. Rest and self care

The most important remedy of all. Sleep, eat simple warm food, step back from stress and give your body the time it’s asking for. Healing happens from the inside out.

For even more ideas, see our guide to cough remedies at home.

Humidifier for Phlegm

Dry air thickens phlegm and makes it stick. A humidifier puts moisture back into the air, which keeps mucus thin and easier to clear, especially overnight.

A cool mist humidifier is the safest choice, especially in a child’s room.
Aim for 40 to 60 percent humidity. Too humid and mould and dust mites thrive.
Clean it every day and use fresh water.
No humidifier? A damp towel on the radiator or a bowl of water near the heating helps too.

Read more about humidifiers in our dry cough remedies guide.

What Your Phlegm Color Means

The color of your phlegm is a clue, not a diagnosis. Yellow and green come from white blood cells your body sends to fight an infection, so they show your immune system at work. In people with an acute cough, green or yellow phlegm made a bacterial infection somewhat more likely, but wasn’t a reliable sign on its own: plenty of viral colds turn phlegm yellow or green too.

In pneumonia, doctors do use color as a hint. A 2023 case report in the European Journal of Internal Medicine describes bright golden orange phlegm in a man with Legionella pneumonia, and lists the classic links between color and bacteria: rust colored phlegm with pneumococcal pneumonia or tuberculosis, green with Haemophilus or Pseudomonas, “strawberry jelly” with Klebsiella and yellow with Staphylococcus.

Phlegm color	What it often means	What to do
Clear or white	Normal mucus, a cold starting, allergies or post nasal drip	Fluids, steam, saline
Yellow	Your immune system fighting a cold or infection	Rest, fluids, steam, vitamin C
Green	A stronger immune response, a cold, sinus or chest infection	Same, and see a doctor if it lasts over 10 days or comes with a high fever
Brown	Old blood, smoking, vaping or pollution	Have it checked if it continues
Rusty, orange or pink	Possible pneumonia or blood in the phlegm	See a doctor the same day
Red or streaks of blood	Irritated airways, or something more serious	See a doctor
Black	Smoke, coal or mould exposure, or a fungal infection	See a doctor

Constant Phlegm in Your Throat: Why It Keeps Coming Back

Some people have phlegm in their throat constantly, for weeks or even months, without feeling ill. The most common causes:

Post nasal drip from allergies, a sinus problem or a lingering cold. Mucus drips down the throat, worst in the morning and at night.
Acid reflux. Mucus in the throat after eating, or waking up with mucus and a sour taste, often comes from stomach acid irritating the throat. See GERD cough remedies.
Smoking or vaping, which irritates the airways so they make more mucus to protect themselves.
Dry air and not drinking enough, which make mucus thick and sticky.
Food sensitivities. Some people notice more mucus after certain foods. Keep a simple food diary for two weeks if you suspect this.

Thick mucus in your throat for months is worth a proper diagnosis, so you know exactly what you’re treating. An ENT specialist (ear, nose and throat) is usually the right first step, a gastroenterologist if it comes with heartburn or after meals, and an allergist if it comes and goes with the seasons. Once you know the cause, the natural remedies on this page can do their work.

When Phlegm Points to Pneumonia

Rusty, orange or bloody phlegm with a high fever, chest pain, shortness of breath or fast breathing can be pneumonia. Pneumonia needs a doctor’s diagnosis, ideally with an examination and a chest X-ray, so you know what you’re dealing with.

When pneumonia is confirmed, antibiotics are the most common way to make sure it heals, and taking them is more than reasonable. As a holistic mom, I have supported pneumonia in my family with traditional remedies instead, including clay compresses on the chest, and that has worked for us. But these remedies are very messy and demanding, they need close daily follow up from a doctor, and they are not something to try alone. Babies, young children, older people and anyone who is short of breath always need a doctor first. We explain the natural approach, and its limits, in our guide to natural remedies for pneumonia.

A Cochrane review of vitamin C for pneumonia found the evidence still too limited to draw firm conclusions, but vitamin C rich food, rest and fluids belong in every recovery.

When to See a Doctor

Straight away: trouble breathing, chest pain, blue lips, coughing up blood, confusion, or any baby under 3 months with a cough. In an emergency, call 112 (Europe) or 911 (US).
Your GP or family doctor: rusty, orange or pink phlegm, a high fever, green phlegm for more than 10 days, or phlegm with a cough that keeps getting worse.
A pulmonologist (lung specialist): a cough with phlegm for more than eight weeks, phlegm every morning for months, or phlegm with breathlessness.
An ENT specialist for constant phlegm in the throat with post nasal drip or sinus trouble.
Your pediatrician for children with a chesty cough and fever, fast breathing, or who are very sleepy or not drinking. See cough remedies for children.

More in when a cough needs a doctor and our medical disclaimer.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get rid of phlegm in my throat?

Gargle with warm salt water, rinse your nose with saline, sip warm drinks all day and clear your throat gently with a soft “hm”. Sleep with your head raised so mucus doesn’t pool overnight.

How do you get rid of phlegm in your chest naturally?

Breathe in steam with eucalyptus or thyme two or three times a day, drink plenty of warm fluids, use huff coughing to bring it up, and add thyme, ivy leaf, honey and ginger. A humidifier at night keeps it thin.

What does yellow or green phlegm mean?

Your immune system is fighting something. It can be a cold or a bacterial infection; color alone can’t tell the difference. See a doctor if green phlegm lasts more than 10 days or comes with a high fever.

Why do I have phlegm in my throat all the time?

Usually post nasal drip, acid reflux, smoking or vaping, dry air or not drinking enough. Phlegm that lasts for months is worth checking with an ENT specialist.

Does a humidifier help with phlegm?

Yes. A cool mist humidifier at 40 to 60 percent humidity keeps mucus thin and easier to clear, especially at night. Clean it every day.

Is it better to cough up phlegm or swallow it?

Both are harmless, but coughing it up and spitting it out clears your airways and lets you see its color. Use a gentle huff rather than a hard cough.

Why do I wake up with mucus in my throat?

Mucus from your nose drips down your throat while you lie flat, and dry bedroom air makes it thicker. Reflux at night can add to it. Raise your head, run a humidifier and drink a glass of warm water when you wake up.

When should I worry about phlegm?

When it’s bloody, rusty, orange or black, when it comes with a high fever, chest pain or trouble breathing, or when it lasts more than a few weeks.