Home Remedies for Cough Relief

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Tea from the mullein flower can be a helpful natural remedy to use against coughs.

Natural Remedies: How to Get Rid of a Cough

Written By: Heidi Stonehill Executive Editor
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Coughs, while rarely serious, can be really annoying. Some of these natural remedies can provide great relief from a cough—especially when you’re having difficulty sleeping!

Natural Remedies to Relieve Coughs

  • Lemon juice, sweetened with loaf or crushed sugar, will relieve a cough. –The 1852 Old Farmer’s Almanac. Find more household uses for lemons.
  • The root of the sweet flag was often powdered or sliced and used as a ginger substitute or throat lozenge.
  • Mullein, with its large, soft leaves, makes a wonderful flower tea. (As an aside, its fluffy, absorbent leaves have also been used for toilet paper in a pinch!)
  • Catnip tea helps reduce mucus.
  • To suppress a night cough, put 1 teaspoon of black pepper and 1 teaspoon of sugar into a mug. Pour in boiling water and let steep. The pepper will settle to the bottom. Sip, as needed.
  • Horehound drops, made with the extract of the leaves of the bitter mint Marrubium vulgare, can be combined with honey for a soothing cough drop, or served as a tea with lemon.
  • Hot and spicy foods act as expectorants, loosening up the lungs’ secretions.
  • A reader told us that a teaspoon of mustard will relieve a cough for up to four hours. See if it works for you!
  • Some of these natural remedies might also be helpful to relieve anxiety and stress.

Find some recipes for making herbal teas!

Folk Remedies for a Cough: The Dirt Cure

Now, here’s a cure for a severe winter cough that comes from The Old Farmer’s Almanac archives: The Dirt Cure! Here’s how it works:

  • Find a piece of land covered with bushes and small stones.
  • When the land has a foot of snow but is not frozen solid, shovel off the snow.
  • Then, cut down the bushes and dig out the stones, turning up fresh and pure soil.
  • Bring fistfuls of soil to your face and inhale the scent of fresh earth.
  • Continue until you have cleared half an acre, and you will find yourself strong and hale, and entirely rid of your cough!

Learn how to cure a sore throat and more natural remedies for colds.

About The Author
Heidi Stonehill

Heidi Stonehill

Executive Editor

Heidi Stonehill is the Executive Editor for The Old Farmer’s Almanac, joining the team in 2001. As such, she manages the content development of the Almanac’s line of wall, engagement, box, and special...