Homeopathy is very effective for cough and cold. Our homeopathic remedies are highly effective at dealing with cough, colds and asthma and their chronic effects, such as Bronchiectasis.
A cough is a protective reflex action of your body to try to clear mucus or irritants from your airways.
Asthma, allergies, viral infections and bacteria are all common causes of coughs.
Mainly, there are two types of cough dry or chesty coughs:
- Dry coughs do not produce mucus; people may describe them as dry or thick. These coughs are more likely to be located in the larynx but can also be located in the lungs, they are coughs that irritate the lungs and throat.
- Wet coughs produce an excess of mucus or phlegm, also called chesty coughs. However, a cough in the throat can also produce an excess of mucus.
REMEMBER WHEN CHOOSING A REMEDY!
Just remember to know what type of cough you are treating, as it will become important when choosing a remedy.
The remedies we choose in homeopathy need to have a similar sphere of action and similar symptoms to the ones you have, so if you or your child have a dry cough, you will need to choose remedies that are “dry” in nature for those symptoms; but if you are suffering from a very mucusy cold, the remedies you choose will need to be of a “wet” nature.
On the other hand, you will also need to know if a cough is hacking, incessant, or worse in the morning or during the night. Make notes of what is striking about that particular cough.
The most common denominator for a cough is having a cold! Have a look at some homeopathic remedies that work very nicely with coughs if you are suffering from a cold or the flu.
ACUTE DOSING HOMEOPATHY FOR COUGH AND COLD
For acute coughs, you can repeat the remedies 3 times per day or every 3 hours, depending on the urgency and intensity of the cough.
Most coughs respond well to 30c but if using a Banerji Protocol, use the specific potency in that protocol.
BANERJI PROTOCOL ASTHMA AND BRONCHIECTASIS
ASTHMA
Children:
- Calcarea Carbonica 200 one dose every other day
- Ipecac 30 twice daily for phlegm
- Kali Iod 6c every hour or SOS for wheezing
For adults:
- Lachesis 200 one dose daily instead of Calcarea Carbonica
BRONCHIECTASIS
- Calcarea Carbonica 200 one dose every other day
- Ipecac 30 twice daily if there is phlegm or Hepar 6c for a drier cough
- Aconite200+Bryonia 30 if cough is tinged with blood or pain in the chest. Use twice daily or every 3 hours if needed.
Acute colds and flu can produce coughs that last for weeks; some coughs are notoriously annoying at night!
If you are suffering from a cough yourself, you will feel grumpy and tired in the morning, and if your child is the one with a cough, you will get no rest at night either!
And the joy of viral infections! They spread like fire, so the cough is passed from one member of the family to the next.
Many remedies in homeopathy deal with cough and cold symptoms, but here are some homeopathic remedies commonly indicated that can help clear them.
The remedies are the same for children or adults!
HOMEOPATHY FOR COUGH AND COLD-PRODUCING COUGHS
DRY COUGHS
BRYONIA 30
It is suited for dry, hacking coughs that are hard and very painful.
Cough with a feeling that the chest would fly into pieces, must support the chest.
Stitching pain in the chest, worst for inhaling, is another indication of this remedy.
This cough is worse by eating or drinking and moving around, and the person can be very irritable.
ARSENICUM ALBUM 30
This cough comes with shortness of breath. You may be unable to lie down and need to sit up. Whistling and wheezy breathing.
Very little expectoration with the cough. Cough alternating dry and loose.
Better by coffee or drinking sweet things, and cough is worse by odours, laughing, going up the stairs or turning in bed
Feeling very anxious about it.
PULSATILLA 30
This is typically a dry cough during the day and night but a productive loose cough upon waking with yellow or greenish expectoration.
This remedy is also helpful for coughs that feel like oppression on the chest, as you may feel short of breath by a load.
The discharge from this cough is thick, slimy, sweet, saltish, and bitter as it loosens up.
The cough is also worse when coming into a warm room and lying down. You may need to sit in bed to get relief at night.
Children needing this remedy may become quite needy and want “mum time” 24 hours a day! Parents complain they can not put the child down or do anything in the house.
HEPAR-SULPH 30, 200
This is the most commonly indicated remedy for cold and cough in homeopathy at any stage.
Coughs from the chest or the throat.
The cough of this remedy is loose and rattling with slight expectoration of thick yellow phlegm.
The cough is loose but can not expectorate.
The cough tends to come on when any body part gets cold or uncovered. For instance, you may need to cover your mouth with a scarf when you go out to prevent coughing. Hacking cough.
The child or baby may cry before each cough.
Hoarseness, loss of voice. Recurring bronchitis with every cold.
This type of cough is worse by cold, dry air and draughts and uncovering.
RUMEX 30
This is for tickly coughs that feel like ” a feather or dust” in the throat pit.
Dry, teasing cough during the day or at night prevents sleep.
The type of sound with this cough is often a barking cough.
This cough is often aggravated by cold air, such as when taking a breath of cold air, talking, or changing temperatures from warm to cold or cold to warm.
HOMEOPATHY FOR WET COUGH AND FROM AN ESTABLISHED COLD
PHOSPHORUS 30
This cough can be dry or loose, and people needing this remedy tend to suffer from colds that quickly descend to the chest.
It is first dry and tight, then with a lot of expectoration and a feeling of constriction in the chest.
The dry cough is hard, tickling in the throat, and it is worst by cold air, laughing, talking or going from warm into cold air.
The Phos cough is very irritating to the trachea.
The wet cough brings up transparent mucus in the morning after rising or the mucus, in general, can be purulent, rusty or blood coloured.
They may also be feelings of tightness across the chest.
ANTIMONIUM TARTARICUM 30
With this cough, there is a lot of rattling in the chest, but there is little expectoration.
This remedy affects the bronchi and lungs, causing a significant accumulation of mucus.
The chest feels full. This is a loose cough where the bronchial tubes seem to be overloaded with mucus. This cough can be accompanied by nausea.
Respiration can be difficult and laboured.
This remedy is for well-established chesty coughs. It is not a remedy that you will think of at the beginning of a cold. You will use this more towards the end when the person can not clear the amount of mucus and is pooling in the bronchi making it more prone to developing bacterial infections.
This is a good remedy for chest infections in conjunction with other remedies.
Ant tart is the chronic counterpart of IPECAC. So if your wet cough has now gone deeper, think of ANT TART.
IPECAC 30
These coughs are incessant and violent, which tend to end in gagging and vomiting.
There is so much mucus that the cough is suffocative, with a constrictive feeling in the chest. Ipecac can sometimes benefit a long-standing neglected cough.
This is a good therapeutic remedy for wet asthma. Specially asthma that is worse when talking.
Therapeutic remedies are those specific to treating the particular symptoms of a given disease. They can act curatively in acute diseases and are more likely to work by relieving symptoms in chronic cases.
In chronic cases, they tend to assist the main remedies that work at a deeper level.
If you have a chesty cough due to a cold, these remedies may be sufficient to relieve it. However, if your cough is caused by asthma, the remedy can help clear phlegm but won’t manage the asthmatic attack. However, it can significantly alleviate the situation by clearing the airways.
DROSERA 30
For periodical fits of rapid, deep barking or choking prolonged incessant cough that takes your breath away.
Spasmodic coughs with retching and vomiting caused by ticking or dryness of the throat.
A deep hoarse voice that requires exertion to speak. Asthma when talking.
Retching and vomiting of ingesta, then mucus.
Tickling like a feather or crumb in the larynx.
Dry irritating cough can be worse after talking or laughing, after midnight and lying down.
And if the cough is brought by a viral infection and you are on the first couple of days with it, these remedies for first-stage fevers and viral infections may be helpful.
This is also a good remedy for whooping cough.
HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES FOR WHOOPING COUGH AND MUCUS-FILLED COUGHS OR INCESSANT COUGHS
Coccus Cacti 30
The remedies help with coughs that occur suddenly and are characterized by brief, recurrent episodes or intensifications, such as spasms.
This remedy helps with intense and exhausting coughs. Mucus-filled coughs result in vomiting a ropy substance hanging on long, thick strings from the mouth.
This is often where there is so much mucus that there is profuse postnatal discharge. You may feel like a thread was hanging at the back of the throat.
The attacks often come in the morning after waking up and often end up with clear vomiting or ropy mucus.
A sensation of irritation in the mucus membranes. You may feel as if “a hair or crumb were lodged behind the larynx”.
Coccus Cacti is also a good remedy for prolonged bronchial catarrh after whooping cough.
Why would it be Coccus Cacti related to this type of coughs? Let’s find out.
This remedy source originated from the insect Dactylopius coccus, a Cactus parasite. The main host of the insects is Opuntia Ficus-Indica, also referred to as the prickly pear. They feed on the Cactus, preferably the pear.
The stem of an Opuntia plant is the main organ for food storage and manufacturing. It contains thin-walled storage cells that store mucilaginous substances to prevent moisture loss.
This corresponds with the remedy in Wooping Cough and mucus coughs. Mucus-filled coughs result in vomiting a ropy substance hanging on long, thick strings from the mouth. The same substance that insects feed on on the plant, the mucilaginous substance, is the keynote that you will know and remember when prescribing this remedy!
Drosera 30
Periodical fits of rapid, deep barking or choking, prolonged incessant cough that takes your breath away. The fits are so fast that you can scarcely breathe.
In some cases, the fits are so intense that you may feel shortness of breath, and in very young children, such as babies, this can result in blueness of the face and lips.
You may feel as if you are choking with the cough.
The cough may end up with vomiting of ingested food and mucus.
Relentless cough.
The child may have a red face while coughing and a hoarse voice.
BANERJI PROTOCOL TIP WHOOPING COUGH
- Ipecac30+Cuprum Met 6c every 3 hours
COUGHS WITH DIFFICULT EXPECTORATION
CAUSTICUM 30,200
The cough is hollow, dry, and hard, and there can be pain in the chest.
Purring in the chest. Better by drinking sips of cold water.
Worse at 3-4 am or in the evening.
It feels like you can not cough deep enough to expect or bring up phlegm. The phlegm slips back again.
Short of breath before coughing and chest tightness
HEPAR-SULPH 30, 200
The cough of this remedy is loose and rattling with slight expectoration of thick yellow phlegm.
BANERJI PROTOCOLS TIP FOR A COUGH OR BRONCHITIS
1-Ipecac 30 for wet or chesty cough and asthmatic coughs
2-Hepar Sulph 200 for drier coughs on the throat
3-Bryonia 30+Aconite 200 for bronchitis. This is also a good remedy for painful coughs, productive coughs and Bronchiectasis.
4-Cheledinium 6x for coughs that are deep-seated on the chest. This is a good remedy for coughs in Pneumonia or coughs that arise from infection.
5-Kali Iod 6c to alleviate asthmatic coughs in conjunction with any other remedy
6-Ipecac 30+Cuprum Met 6c for whooping cough
BOENNINGHAUSEN’S TRIO OF HOMOEOPATHIC REMEDIES FOR CROUP
Croup refers to an upper respiratory infection characterized by a barking cough.
A child with croup typically exhibits this cough and may produce a high-pitched sound known as stridor when inhaling. This condition is quite common in children aged 6 months to 3 years and can be alarming for parents, as it may appear that the child is struggling to breathe.
Croup is caused by a viral infection that leads to inflammation of the airways, resulting in the distinctive cough.
*if the child is in distress and you do not get relief from the remedies, you should get medical attention*
KEYNOTES OF THE TRIO OF REMEDIES
ACONITE 200
This is always the 1st remedy for the beginning of croup.
The child is suddenly awake out of sleep with that barking cough. It is dry, loud with no expectoration. The onset of the cough is sudden at night and can also start with a fever.
The breathing is loud, especially the inspiration effort.
This remedy should not be stopped soon, or the cough will return the following night.
One dose every 2 hours for a couple of days until the cough is gone.
SPONGIA 200
This one is always coming after ACONITE.
The breathing is harsh, making a sound like a saw going through wood or a seal bark.
It looks like the child is breathing through a sponge.
Hoarseness with the cough. The child may grasp his throat when waking up at night from sleep. At this point, the cough brings very little expectoration making the chest feel tight.
Cough better drinking or eating especially warm drinks. The cough is worse before 12:00 am at night.
HEPAR SULPHUR 200
This is the 3rd remedy that follows Spongia if the croup is not improving.
The cough at this point will be worse in the morning.
The cough will have a certain amount of moisture and the cough has a “loose edge”.
Here must be some looseness of the cough to indicate Hepar.
HOW TO USE THE BOENNINGHAUSEN’S TRIO
Above are the keynotes of the most indicated remedies in croup and the following protocol proves to be very useful This is the protocol as per Boenninghausen’s instructions.
The protocol was sold as the 5 croup powders and required to be taken in a certain order: Aconite- Aconite- Spongia- Spongia- Hepar
These are his instructions in The Lesser Writings; O. F. Boenninghausen ‘MY TREATMENT OF MEMBRANOUS CROUP’
- Give Aconite 200 first, this is the first remedy to take from this trio.
- Wait and if necessary, give another dose every 2 hours.
- After 2 hours, give Spongia 200 if needed.
- Repeat Spongia 200 after 3 hours if needed
- If cough returns and does not change, move to Hepar S 200
This may not happen all in a sequence, but it can happen in one night, over a few nights or repeated for several nights.
It should improve, and each night it should get better.
