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Lessons Learned From An 80 Year-Old Nurse
Breathe steam! You can do that just by taking a hot shower, of course. Or pour steaming-hot water into a bowl and lean over it, draping a towel over your head. Inhaling the steam will help loosen the secretions in your lungs.
To make the steam treatment even more effective, add a few drops of eucalyptus or pine oil to the water. Eucalyptus helps to soften mucus in obstructed airways and has some antibacterial properties. (If you want to use eucalyptus leaves, simply boil them in a pot of water, then remove from the heat and inhale the steam.) Pine oil acts as an expectorant, so it will help you “bring up” phlegm from the bronchial tubes.
What did our Grandparent's use?
From Merck's 1899 Manual of the Materia Medica – Steam Inhalants
List of plant oils uses as inhalants for respiratory problems.
Note: 1 dram = about ¾ teaspoon
- Eucalyptus oil – Bronchitis pg. 95,1 dram inhaled from hot water eases cough and lessens expectoration.
- Pine (Pinus Sylvestris) – Bronchitis pg. 95,1 dram inhaled from hot water eases cough and lessens expectoration.
- Thyme oil (Thymol) – Bronchitis pg. 95,1 dram inhaled from hot water eases cough and lessens expectoration.
- Benzion – Acute Bronchitis pg. 95,1 dram inhaled from hot water eases cough and lessens expectoration. Chronic Bronchitis pg. 96, as inhalation or spray.
- Turpentine oil – Acute Bronchitis pg. 96, when expectoration profuse: also as inhalation or stupe.
- Myrrh – Chronic Bronchitis pg. 97,1 dram inhaled from hot water eases cough and lessens expectoration.
The Merck Manuals are medical references published by the American pharmaceutical company Merck & Co, that cover a wide range of medical topics, including disorders, tests, diagnoses, and drugs. The manuals have been published since 1899, when Merck & Co. was still a subsidiary of the German company Merck.
The first Merck Manual, Merck's Manual of the Materia Medica (1899), was a small reference book that became widely used: by the 1980s it had become the world's best-selling medical text.
