Cold Winter Coughs
Do you suffer from coughs that linger for weeks in winter? Have you had antibiotics for the flu, got better, but then left with a debilitating cough? Knowing the energy and nature of foods helps you prevent coughs to linger. Traditional Chinese medicine gives you this knowledge of dietary restriction to prevent disease.
We often eat or drink the wrong things that perpetuate the cough without knowing it. The majority of the coughs people get in Australia are “cold” coughs. Coughs can be cold, hot, windy, phlegmy, deficient and a combination of these factors. If you have a cold and phlegmy cough, consuming cold or “cold-natured” substances will make your cough worse. Warm agents, on the other hand, will help your body’s immune system fight better.
What’s a Cold Cough?
A “cold” cough in traditional Chinese medicine typically presents with cough in the early morning and late at night. You may have an itchy throat, clear phlegm or no phlegm. You may have a tongue with a thin white coat and a pale tongue body. Of course, clinically there are many complications and variations of this type of cough. Though it seems simple, cough is one of the most difficult illnesses to diagnose correctly. It is best to consult a Chinese medicine doctor who knows what they are doing.
Why You Don’t Want Your Cough To Linger
You might say it’s just a cough & I’ll put up with it. But did you know that incessant coughing weakens your lung energy, makes you breathless and can potentially hurt your ribs. A chronic cough that is not completely cleared makes you more susceptible to repetitive attacks every winter.
Simple Remedy To Assist Cough Recovery
Put these ingredients together and you have a strengthening & warming remedy that boosts the immune system and soothes the throat.
- Warm water – supports your digestive and respiratory system
- Fresh Ginger – Expels external pathogenic factors
- Lemon – Provides Vitamin C and antioxidants
- Honey – Provides antimicrobial agents and also soothing to the throat
- Cinnamon (Optional) – Expels external pathogenic factors
Warm Water Always Help
Drink only warm water – It’s that simple. Though warm water doesn’t kill virus or germs, it warms your body to assist the immune system to fight bugs. It’s good practice even when you don’t have a cough. Our digestive system functions optimally when it’s about 23 odd degrees Celsius. Think of your tummy as a cooking pot. Can you ever cook a pot of pasta if you keep on adding icy cold water into it? It would never cook properly. It’s like that with our digestive system. It doesn’t digest properly. It might be OK if you’re a robust teenager with a lot of heat. But as we get older, our fire (or Yang energy) declines and so we need to warm up our body systems for better performance.
What Prolongs A Cough?
Did you know that eating the wrong thing at the wrong time can make your cough linger for weeks or months? According to traditional Chinese medicine, dietary restriction plays a important role in aiding cold and cough recovery. They are mainly food or drinks that are cold, spicy, phlegmy and deep-fried. It looks like a long list but it is worth trying if you want to speed up your recovery.
1. Cold foods & drinks
Beer
Ice-cream
Cold Juices
Most fruits except apples, *oranges, lemons, mandarins
Raw Salads
Most green leafy vegetables, except stir fried Choy Sum & Gai Lan
Soy milk, even when consumed hot
Cooling teas, such as mint, green tea, Oolong, chrysanthemum
*Oranges aggravate the cough of some individuals
2. Phlegmy-producing foods clog up the respiratory & digestive passages
Milk, cream, ice-cream, cheese, yoghurt
Sweets, desserts
3. Spicy foods irritate the throat.
Chillies
Curries
4. Deep-fried foods have a drying and hot nature.
Chips
Spring rolls
Knowing food energies help us keep the lingering winter coughs away.
Stay warm, drink warm and have a happy winter!
