Cough, Chronic - Editor's Choice

My 18 year old son had a cold many weeks ago. Since then he has had a cough. At first we thought it was from the cold, but it has lingered and he is wondering if it is allergies. He has been taking Vitamin C and turmeric, and was using a nebulizer with colloidal silver. But he isn't very consistent with treatment, especially with an odd work schedule.

I noticed here at Earth Clinic that sometimes the apple cider vinegar and baking soda tonic works for a cough. I was thinking about this while making dinner and I heard him cough. I thought about how the tonic would be alkalizing. And then I recalled that this son drinks a lot of coffee, which can make you pretty acidic. So I fixed him up a glass of the apple cider vinegar and baking soda tonic - 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda and 12 ounces of water. He skeptically drank it down.

At bedtime, rather sheepishly, he asked, what was in that drink? I think it really helped. I have hardly coughed since dinner. Usually I hear him coughing in the morning when he is making his breakfast before work. Today is an early work day. I heard him scrambling eggs at 4 am and did not hear a single cough, though his cough usually sounds pretty bad in the morning.

I don't know if his cough was from his cold, an allergy, or something else. But I know that the apple cider vinegar and baking soda tonic worked very well for his cough!!

~Mama to Many~

Hello everyone – I see lots of things to "take" for a cough, especially a wheezing phlegmy cough - and those are great if they work. But if you can find someone to do what I call "back whacking" and what the professionals call "pulmonary cupping" I highly recommend it.

Years ago I had pneumonia and even though after one week I felt better I was actually worse as all the crap in my lungs had sunk to the bottom. They put me on a new antibiotic that in the end did the trick, but when I asked my doctor "what else can I do?" she said "find someone to slap your back". I didn't then, but in the past few years I have had many many simple colds that turn into chest colds (I'm a smoker, have to quit that I know) and as everything else improves, my cough is persistent for a long time after. Unless I call my nurse friends over to whack my back that is. They can tell by the sound when they're cupping where the congestion is. Sort of like knocking on a wall to find the stud, the sound density is different. Once they find the spot or spots where the mucus is, they go to town and I hack it up. I can't recommend it enough, it always works and gets rid of the cough in 48 hours or less. You have to do it a few times, but it always works.

Coughing, bronchitis, pneumonia:

I thought would share with you what I did to cure myself of a terrible cough I got last fall.

My history

I have had pneumonia 3 times in the past years and it was very scary. I was diagnosed w/ adult onset asthma 15 or so years ago and used inhalers for a few months and then the asthma mysteriously went away. I used to have really bad allergies so you can see I have had a few lung congestion issues. I am a woman aged 62 and in good health.

What happened-

Last year after a trip to Colorado where I spent a lot of time above 10, 000 ft elevation in cold, dry air I came home with the most severe cough I have ever had. I was concerned that I might break a rib I was coughing so hard. I was never sick on this trip, never even had a fever so I couldn't figure out why I had this cough, what it was or where it came from. Not only that but I was very healthy and in good shape when I began the trip.

After 2 exhausting weeks with no let up and being nearly unable to talk or go anywhere because of the coughing fits I went to an urgent treatment center and was told by the Dr. that he didn't know what it was but he sent me off with antibiotics and an inhaler. I also took prednisone. NOTHING helped. I was the same. Coughing up stuff and coughing so badly I could hardly breathe.

What I discovered

At this point I knew I had to help myself so I began looking online. I found out about mountain climbers cough due to cold, dry air. It is called HAC (High Altitude Cough) or khumbu cough after some mountain peak somewhere. I read TWO very important pieces of information about our lungs. I found out about this by researching bronchitis, pneumonia and coughing as there is very little info online about HAC.

BTW, This how I found Earthclinic.com.

The FIRST important thing I learned was about inhaling Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2)
There is a video of a man named Bill Munro and the link is here
https://www.earthclinic.com/remedies/hydrogen_peroxide_inhalation.html

He inhaled hydrogen peroxide and it cured him of all kinds of things. He used it straight from the drugstore bottle. You can see how he did this by watching his video.

The SECOND thing I learned was about how important being consistently well hydrated and eating sea salt is.

NOW, and this is important, I read on Earthclinic one comment about a book called The Bodies Many Cries for Water by F. Batmanghelidj M.D. which explains how our bodies miraculously direct the available water in our system to keep us alive. I got the book and also several other books by Dr. F. Batmanghelidj M.D. one in particular called ABC of Asthma, Allergies and Lupus: Eradicate Asthma Now!

(FYI-I have no connection whatsoever to these books, that is to say I don't sell them or anything. They just helped me get well.) This book explains that we die if our blood isn't hydrated so water must go there first. That means water is diverted from other parts of our bodies like our lungs. Water is also diverted from our joints, our brains and all other parts of our bodies but that is something to consider if you have any other ailments.

Our lungs MUST be moist or 1. worst case they dry up (desiccate), and fall apart and we can't breathe so we die, best case it we find it really hard to breathe with dried up lungs 2. Aren't able to shed or cough up bacteria, pollution and other toxins, 3. the mucus becomes thick, difficult to cough up and is more susceptible to bacteria and viruses (Hello pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma etc).

The book also explains that salt is absolutely essential to our being alive. We are made of salt water. Think about it - saline solution is used in many cures including re-hydration, tissue flushes, eye flushes etc.. Our medical community directing us to cut back on salt is a death directive. If you have ever had horses or cows you know that a salt block in the field is essential to the health of the animals just as eating salt is to humans. Salt was once used as currency because it is so valuable to our very being alive.

How I recovered

At that point three weeks had gone by and I was desperate and had nothing to lose. I was fighting for my life. So I began inhaling H2O2 and within a a day I saw relief (ONE day) and within a week I was markedly better. I stopped inhaling at that point as I began to think maybe I would have gotten better on my own which I actually thought was going to happen anyway. BUT after I stopped inhaling H2O2 I stayed at exactly the same place with my cough about half as bad as it had been when I started the H2O2. My cough stopped getting better. It stayed the same miserable hack.

That is when I KNEW it was the H2O2 that helped cure my cough so I started inhaling again and got steadily better. Some days I would forget and only inhale once or twice but the days I would do it 3 or 4 or 5 times I could tell I was better faster. It took me a while to get this inhaling down pat but basically I just jumped in and went for it. I can't remember exactly how long it took but I think 3 weeks or so. I kept after it. I practiced a couple of quick sharp inhales and then sprayed the H2O2.

The other absolutely essential thing I began doing was drinking water and eating good healthy sea salt or Himalayan salt, (not table salt which has evidently been stripped of minerals and has toxic additives).

Our lungs LOVE salt. Mucus contains of salt. I started putting a pinch of salt on my tongue after drinking a glass of water, letting the salt mostly dissolve and then drinking another glass of water. It really helps clean the lungs, cause a most amazing and satisfying release and coughing up of stuff. The salt also greatly facilitates re-hydration.(think sports drinks, with sodium). 1/4 teaspoon a day is recommended to be ingested throughout the day on food or whatever.
SO I would drink half my body weight in ounces (ie if you weigh 140 pounds drink 70 oz of water ) at the very least 8 cups (think measuring CUP) of water a day. Drink 2 cups in the AM when you get up to begin re-hydrating. Dr. Batmanhelidj's book explains it all. The water helps everything feel better from your mood and outlook to your digestion, skin, breathing, sinuses, joints, back, heart, thinking and on and on. I could tell the water/salt was the factor that went hand in hand with the H2O2 to allow my body to recover. I needed both.

Follow up

I am so thankful for the internet, for Dr. Batmanheldj, for Earthclinic, Bill Munro and for the people who took the time to comment so I could figure out how to get better. I am well. Not only that but I have an arsenal of weapons for good health.

Other info and my thoughts
1. I ignored everything I read about "food grade H2O2". What I used came from the drugstore in a brown bottle just like Bill Munro.
2. I did not dilute the H2O2 I used.
3. Inhaling H2O2 did not hurt me at all. The back of my throat might sting a tiny bit but frankly felt rather cleansing.
4. I got a tiny bit dizzy when inhaling sometimes but I would just sit down for a couple of seconds and it would go away. I really think it was the quick, rapid breathing that caused that.

5. I bought a tiny brown glass spray bottle at a health food store and used that but I have seen H2O2 in squirt bottle at the drugstore. that might work.

6. This is just my story and what worked for me. You may want to read some of the comments regarding H2O2. Amazing stuff.

7. I add a pinch of salt to my coffee in the AM and you can't taste it, in fact the coffee is delicious and it really helped my lungs release stuff.

8. Stop consuming ALL soft drinks. Fruit juice is better if you need a dose of sugar but still isn't so great for you. Sugar feeds fungus.

9. Sugar and aspartame are as debilitating and as addictive as heroin. They are also dehydrating.

10. Sodium and salt are 2 different things somehow/kind of. Read the books for a good explanation or do the research.

11. Coffee and caffeine are also dehydrating so I only drink one cup in the AM.

12. I am not recommending or advising anyone to do what I did. I just wanted to share in case anyone could be helped. And since I am only sharing my experience I am not interested in anyone's critical comments. Helpful comments yes.

13. Watch Bill Munro's video and if you have any questions watch it 5 more times or until you have no more questions.

14. Same with the books.

15. Last (unless I think of something else) and MOST importantly, drink water every day even when you travel. I cut back during my trip to Colorado to keep from having to stop and find a bathroom etc. and I think that absolutely contributed to the onset of the cough.

I thought that I would mention having some considerable success at using just plain old sea salt and water against a fairly serious build up of phlegm in my lungs that made me cough at night and which continually disturbed my sleep. This has been going on for several months.

I figured that, with such an unusual build up of phlegm and mucus in my lungs, there just had to be an infection involved. This problem wasn't due to a cold or flu, this was something entirely different because only the lungs were affected.

I tried nebulizing with hydrogen peroxide and, at different times, I also nebulized with with either lugol's iodine or potassium iodide in water. None of these regimens worked to get rid of my excessive lung mucus or coughing problem.

Then, two or three days ago, I remembered another pearl from Ted. He advises that just taking sea salt and water will greatly reduce heavy mucus or phlegm build up in the lungs. So I tried it.

Why is Ted always so right? I swear that if there was a Nobel Prize for Medical Honesty then Ted would win it -- hands down -- every time.

Anyway, back to my problem. So, 3 days ago, I took 1/2 level teaspoon of sea salt mixed with a a glass of water. I took this at about 8:00 pm at night. That night, I had the best sleep than I've had in months. No coughing. No mucus.

It's now been three days since I started the sea salt regimen(I now add drops of magnesium oil to the mix as well) and I can now say pretty confidently that I am cured of this annoying problem which has been dogging me for months.

Some more relevant information. Several months ago we had the aircon in our bedroom cleaned. And lo and behold we found a large, dead and festering gecko inside the aircon that was in the air output path. Well, there's the source the lung infecting pathogens for sure. My partner also had a coughing problem, but she got over it after a while but I couldn't get rid of this problem.

Until I took Ted's advice.

I've also read that, before biblical times, there were Ethiopian desert tribes in Africa who truly realized and appreciated the value of salt. To them, salt was life or death. They used to trade and buy natural salt for it's equivalent weight in gold. And I think they had that dead right.

I was so impressed with the effects of sea salt, sea salt is also now part of my night regimen, since I reckon that my average daily salt intake was way too low in the first place and that's not a clever habit for a guy like me living in a hot and humid country like the Philippines.

In reference to the cough...I have a friend here at work, age 58 who had been suffering from a bacterial respiratory infection since April of 2008. We work of different floors and I hadn't seen her in a while until she stopped into my office in the middle of January (Tues 1/13) of this year. She was still very, very ill. Whenever she tried to talk she would cough. It was bad.

I suggested she do the Vitamin D3 treatment....50,000 ius on the first day followed by 10,000 ius each day for a week and then 50,000 more for the following 2 weeks plus the daily 10,000. Guess what. She is cured. She had been on antibiotics and everything imaginable to get rid of this. She was sick for over 8 months.

Not only is her respiratory infection gone but she told me that she is no longer depressed and she has a great outlook on life again. Mind you, when I saw Cindy in January her skin was gray and she couldn't talk without coughing. Today looks completely healthy. I just went upstairs on a errand and I saw her in the classroom with students and the teacher she assists and she was laughing and healthy for the first time in almost a year. Vitamin D is an amazing thing.