A cough is one of your body’s protective reflexes. It’s the way your respiratory system attempts to rid itself of irritants, excess mucus, or protect against invasive pathogens. The trouble is that a lot of those defenses don’t distinguish between your cells and the invading enemies the body is trying to attack. So you can often feel like you’re paying the price for warfare taking place in your throat. A cough that sticks around for weeks after a cold has cleared can add a lot of misery to the start of the day, the end of the day, and especially the middle of the night.
The first question you should answer before you reach for anything is whether your cough is productive (bringing up phlegm, or as the experts call it, sputum) or nonproductive. A productive cough could still be one that you want to calm slightly (so you’re not coughing until you’re sick), but not shut down entirely. The coughing is the body’s way of trying to expel the phlegm. A nonproductive cough is the kind where you just want to stop the tickle and hack. Adapt your strategy to the kind of cough you’re dealing with.
The Science Behind Onion And Honey
The human body knows how to respond to irritants – it’s one of the prime directives of the immune system. When your upper respiratory tract gets infected or inflamed, the nerve endings become hypersensitive to the increased secretion and the prostaglandins released by cells in response to the infection. Coughing is your body’s way of keeping phlegm out of your lungs, lashing out at unwanted intruders who are stimulating nerves that cause the problem, and ridding your throat of irritants. It is truly the body’s first self-defense mechanism.
Of course, all reflexes can become conditioned or excessive over time. Sometimes, a person will have an inappropriate or irrational cough, which can hinder sleep, work, study, and socialization, leading to more mental health disorders. But generally, a cough should be permissible in most cases.
Making The Syrup: The Osmotic Extraction Process
The way that old-time remedies accomplish this is through good old osmosis. When you alternate slices of raw onion with either honey or sugar and let it be, the osmotic pressure goes to work, coaxing the medicinal juices out of the onion cells and into the surrounding sweet stuff. Within a few hours, you’ll have a syrupy tonic with all of that wonderful quercetin and those beneficial sulfur compounds in a nice easy-to-digest form.
That’s exactly what’s going on with the honey onion cough syrup recipe developed by Barbara O’Neill, whose method for doing this has caught on because it’s so simple and because you likely have all these items in your kitchen right now. Steeping time matters with this syrup: Four hours will do it, but if you let it sit overnight, you’ll really notice the potency.
You’ll get the most benefit from the syrup using red or yellow onions instead of white, both of which have a much higher concentration of quercetin than their paler cousin.
How To Use It Effectively
The natural tendency is to try a tablespoon and wait to see the results. Demulcents don’t work that way. The coating effect of honey is short-lived – it coats the mucosa for a while and then is excreted.
It’s more effective to take small, frequent doses than a big one. 1 teaspoon every 2 to 3 hours keeps the protective film on the affected area for more time, increasing the exposure of quercetin and sulfur compounds to the mucous membranes of the throat. If your throat bothers you at night, take a dose immediately before going to bed to decrease the cough reflex while you’re lying down.
Supporting Remedies To Try Alongside
Many people go directly to the solution without considering the simple things that help the solution be effective. Drinking more fluids plays a vital role in controlling a cough that won’t go away. Mucus becomes thicker when the body is slightly dehydrated, and as a result, post-nasal drip leads to more coughing. Warm water, as well as herbal tea and thin broths, can also facilitate this.
Another step you can take is to inhale steam. By spending 10 minutes near a bowl of hot water with a towel over your head, you’re able to put more moisture directly into your bronchial tubes and help to loosen the mucus before it gets a chance to harden. If you do this before bed, you’ll probably notice that your nighttime coughing will decrease.
While these may not be the most glamourous suggestions, the truth is that if you have moist airways and your mucus isn’t stuck and dry, the herbal cures will work more efficiently.
Working With The Body, Not Around It
Home remedies are most effective when the intention is to assist the natural mechanism of our body instead of inhibiting it. Let a cough, which helps in expelling phlegm from the body, perform its task without interference. On the other hand, a cough that only leads to a sore throat, can be soothed, rather than stopped altogether.
The components of old-fashioned syrups have been passed down through generations as they help in achieving both these objectives, without causing any hindrance to the work of the immune system.
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