Many may not know that cough­ing can help clear ir­ri­tants and in­fec­tions from the body, but when it per­sists, a dry cough can de­vel­op and be­come quite an­noy­ing. Some of you are prob­a­bly try­ing phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal drugs for your cough, while some may be in­ter­est­ed in a more nat­ur­al rem­e­dy. If you’re plan­ning on us­ing nat­ur­al reme­dies, it is im­por­tant to re­mem­ber that herbs and sup­ple­ments can af­fect med­ica­tions and cause un­want­ed side ef­fects. If a cough per­sists for a few weeks then you should seek med­ical ad­vice.

Here are a few nat­ur­al reme­dies that you can try to kick that stub­born cough.

Hon­ey and lemon

This com­bi­na­tion has been a time-ho­n­oured way to soothe a sore throat. If Granny ever heard you were ill, she’d pull out the tea­spoon and give you a dose. Re­cent re­search has shown that hon­ey is the main star of the show for this nat­ur­al rem­e­dy, as this sim­ple in­gre­di­ent is enough to soothe a stub­born cough. Stud­ies have shown that hon­ey can be just as ef­fec­tive as the com­mon cough sup­pres­sant dex­tromethor­phan, giv­ing us a nat­ur­al way to get rid of flu symp­toms.

Ze­bapique

Be­fore there was mod­ern med­i­cine, there were Grannies, and bet your bot­tom dol­lar, they had a go-to rem­e­dy for every­thing. Ze­bapique, com­mon­ly used in Trinidad and To­ba­go, is ex­treme­ly bit­ter (and gross) but is said to have a num­ber of health ben­e­fits. To help with your cough, it is sug­gest­ed that you boil a few dried leaves and sip it slow­ly to en­sure there are no side ef­fects. An­oth­er way to use it is to soak the ze­bapique in pun­cheon for a few days. Trinida­di­ans say that this rem­e­dy can bring up mu­cus and get the cold out in­stant­ly.

Gin­ger

Gin­ger is an ef­fec­tive rem­e­dy for in­fec­tion and ir­ri­ta­tion. Con­ven­tion­al cough med­i­cines can make you feel drowsy, lethar­gic and may be too strong for some peo­ple, so gin­ger tea may be a lighter al­ter­na­tive.

Flu­ids

Stay­ing hy­drat­ed is a vi­tal part of life and when you have a cough or cold, it can be an es­sen­tial part of get­ting bet­ter. Re­search in­di­cates that drink­ing wa­ter at room tem­per­a­ture can work won­ders for your cough or cold, but if you’re ex­pe­ri­enc­ing oth­er symp­toms, you can al­so heat it. Hav­ing a nice, warm cup of tea, a broth or even a warm fruit juice can al­le­vi­ate symp­toms al­most in­stant­ly.

Steam

A cough can be tied to hav­ing a lot of mu­cus buildup in your chest. A good way to break up the mu­cus is by steam­ing. Boil some wa­ter to a com­fort­able tem­per­a­ture and put it in­to a bowl, place your face about three to four inch­es above the steam­ing wa­ter and cov­er your head with a tow­el. This can help break up the mu­cus in your chest and get rid of that stub­born cough.