Are there any natural remedies for chest congestion?

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Blue_and_Orange
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10 Feb 2012, 2:51 pm

In the past, I've had bronchial asthma, and since then, my body makes way too much mucus every time I get a cold or something. It often gets to the point that I wheeze heavily. I have a cold now, and have been taking a lot of cayenne pepper, and while that is helping, it's not enough.



ouinon
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10 Feb 2012, 3:26 pm

Cutting out dairy ( for a week or more ) is probably the most potent way to reduce catarrh for most people, and avoiding mixtures of concentrated protein and conc. carbohydrate until cold is over is often very effective too, and eating raw garlic chopped into dips, salad dressings, or in mayonnaise on sandwiches etc/with vegetable sticks, is a very powerful expectorant, ( ie. it makes you cough very productively/clears the chest ). :) Good luck.
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10 Feb 2012, 3:32 pm

PS. I discovered very recently, to my complete astonishment, that wheezing/a congested chest/a crackling sound when breathing and a tight/breathless feeling when making an effort physically is also a surprisingly common symptom of congestive heart disease/heart failure ... and that this may be slowed/halted perhaps even reversed by completely cutting out refined sugar/sucrose and high-fructose foods/additives and cutting down on salt and most fats ( apart from those in oily fish ).
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10 Feb 2012, 4:09 pm

Try chest percussion.


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Blue_and_Orange
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10 Feb 2012, 4:54 pm

Ouinon, all I eat is produce, and currently eggs. (When I run out of the eggs I have now, I will eat nuts instead of eggs from that point on.) Therefore, no dairy or other processed foods. Now that I'm sick, I've barely been eating. I recently ate meat, but it was minimally processed, and before I got sick. I eat whatever I want once a month, and the last time I did was January twenty-seventh. I've only been sick a couple days.



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10 Feb 2012, 11:59 pm

I recommend deep breathing exercises on a regular basis to expand your lung capacity, meditation to help you maintain a more relaxed state, and, if your doctor approves, some aerobic activity to strengthen your muscles to make breathing easier. When I began to work up to a greater aerobic capacity, I noticed less trouble with phlegm, which I've had a bit of an excess of for many years, and which had caused me to need an inhaler for a while after being very sick in my late 20s. I was surprised at this unexpected result, and it's one of the things that's kept me interested in pushing myself since.

My girlfriend has asthma and small lungs, and she jogs in the mornings. She built up the same way I did. Neither of us is fast. That's not the point. We simply began with walking, then did little intervals of jogging periodically along the way (between two driveways or telephone poles), then began to stitch together our little jogs. From my own experience, I told her when she began running in the beginning of the year one year, that she'd be running with me by the time the year was out. She had her doubts. But she got a nice surprise when she accomplished it by that autumn.

If possible, checking with your doctor is smart. I'm not a medical expert. But go with it once you get the go ahead. It may help a lot more than you think. Oh, and I don't know how old you are, but I'm 43, and my girlfriend is 53. We've only been jogging for the last few years. So, however old you are, don't let your age stop you. We're not the oldest to ever start doing it.


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ouinon
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11 Feb 2012, 5:24 am

Blue_and_Orange wrote:
Ouinon, all I eat is produce, and currently eggs. (When I run out of the eggs I have now, I will eat nuts instead of eggs from that point on.) Therefore, no dairy or other processed foods. Now that I'm sick, I've barely been eating. I recently ate meat, but it was minimally processed, and before I got sick. I eat whatever I want once a month, and the last time I did was January twenty-seventh. I've only been sick a couple days.

Well maybe what you need in that case is a boost of vitamin D and/or zinc, which studies have shown are both very important for healing chest infections, influenza, etc, so some oily fish ( crucial fatty acids too ), mussels or other shellfish, and some sunshine if you can get some might help. Hope you get better soon. :)
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11 Feb 2012, 11:51 am

Oh, I forgot to ask if you're sure you're drinking enough water. You may be, but I thought I should ask, just in case.

Also, my girlfriend takes herbal tablets for her asthma that may also help you. I think they're called Mullein Lung Formula, and they're made by Planetary Herbals. That made a really huge difference for her, but you have to take herbal remedies of that sort consistently for a few months before you see the results. She takes them every day, and her asthma hardly bothers her anymore. Even when she gets sick, it's nowhere near as bad as it was before. And the whole reason she started with them was because she got sick over and over one spring and couldn't seem to get well, no matter what the doctor threw at the problem. So, I think they've been put to a hard test in her case and passed quite well. She's been taking them for years since then, and they keep right on working, so that her asthma is better now than it was when I met her. You might want to look them over and consider giving them a try.


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Jojoba
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12 Feb 2012, 1:15 pm

I've had good luck with preventing colds by taking vitamin D3 also. Since doing so, and making a point to get a little bit of sun on sunny days, with avoiding being burnt, I've yet to have a cold. The last fight it the flu bug was 5 years ago.

This article might be of help. It is about observations a physician has noticed in patients that take vitamin D, not catching the flu as often being one of them.

"Unique vitamin D observations"

http://www.trackyourplaque.com/blog/200 ... tions.html



Blue_and_Orange
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12 Feb 2012, 1:17 pm

It's sunny today, but also 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Too cold to go outside.