Most of us need home remedies for bronchitis some time in our lives. Bronchitis is usually caused by a viral infection, typically when the body has been weakened by a cold or flu. Just when we think we have gotten over an illness, bronchitis shows up in the form of chest congestion, a cough, yellow/green mucous, and a fever. Antibiotics do not work against viruses or most of the other irritants that cause symptoms of bronchitis. So home remedies for bronchitis are particularly useful.
There are three things that need to be done:
- thin the mucous
- expel the mucous
- prevent re-infection
Home remedies for bronchitis focus on each of these three objectives, as described below.
Thinning the Mucous
The first thing to do is to make sure you are properly hydrated. Adults should be drinking on average eight eight-ounce glasses of pure water every day. Tap water is not recommended for optimum health and longevity! You can add sliced lemon to the water when you have bronchitis symptoms. You can also warm the water and add honey and additional fresh lemon juice to it. Some people like to add a pinch of cayenne to increase the effect.
Next is to inhale the warm vapors of essential oils. Eucalyptus and lavender are particularly effective. You can use traditional methods with a bowl of hot water and a towel, or personal steam inhalers, or add the essential oil to the heater in a sauna or steam room. The basic idea is to introduce warm, moist air into the airways to soothe and open them and to thin the mucous.
After that, specific therapeutic herbs can be used. Some people use a tea made from fresh thyme. It can help to break up mucous. I make a tincture of Lobelia and Fenugreek specifically for this purpose. It is taken with hot tea and helps to thin and break up mucous.
Expelling the Mucous
“Productive coughing” is the exit route! You want to encourage, not suppress coughing.
Lobelia and Fenugreek are particularly useful home remedies for bronchitis because they not only thin the mucous, they also stimulate coughing. They work as expectorants that stimulate productive coughing.
There are also physical maneuvers to increase productive coughing, especially if you do them in conjunction with the other bronchitis remedies I am describing here. A simple one is to lie on your bed, on your stomach, with your upper body off the bed supported by your elbows on the floor and your head close to the ground over a bowl. This will help you to cough up mucous!
Preventing Re-infection
Increased attention to your personal hygiene is helpful. Use disposable tissues, wash your pillow-case and keep your hands clean – all of these actions will help with the current infection.
That is how home remedies for bronchitis address the important question: how can I get rid of these horrible symptoms? But there is more! A deeper question is “why did I get sick?” — and this is especially important if colds, flu, bronchitis and similar opportunistic infections occur with any regularity. They are all signs of a body that is out of balance. Fortunately, while uncomfortable, they are not serious health challenges. But the underlying condition, which they are signaling to you, can create serious problems if left unattended.
My practice of natural medicine has been predominantly with patients who have very serious conditions. For almost all of them, if they had paid attention to the signals their bodies were sending, and taken steps to restore optimum health and longevity, their pathway back to full vitality would have been a lot easier.
That is why I recommend that you consider taking care of yourself more deeply and completely than simply by taking home remedies for bronchitis, and that you pursue a protocol that will set you on the path to radiant health. One of the first signs that it is working is that you will stop getting bronchitis and similar conditions.
