Home Remedies for Phlegm

No one likes phlegm. It drips from the nose, gets stuck in the throat, makes you cough when you don’t want to and uses up boxes of tissues. But that sticky stuff is nature’s way of expelling nasty germs from our bodies. There are several home remedies for phlegm that we can use to help Mother Nature do her job.

The body’s natural response to a phlegm build-up is to expel it through coughing. While coughing may be unpleasant, if measures are taken to prevent it, then the phlegm will stay in your body and cause other problems, contributing to such conditions as an upper respiratory tract infection, bronchitis, pneumonia or pleurisy.

But if that phlegm can be thinned so that it drains away more easily then the coughing will gradually stop of its own accord. However, when the lining of the throat becomes irritated this may cause excessive, unnecessary coughing. It is fine then to take a product that will stop coughing.

Meanwhile, there are several home remedies for phlegm that are easy to prepare and quite pleasant to take.

Soak orange slices in wine overnight, then in the morning cook them until soft. Eat small amounts throughout the day.
Eating pears will help.
100 gm of ground ginger root cooked in 1 liter of sweet wine and strain. Then drink 3 tablespoons a day.
Soak one tablespoon of chopped onion in a cup of boiling water for five minutes, strain and drink any amount throughout the day.
Make a tea from ½ a teaspoon each of ginger, cinnamon and carnation. Strain before drinking.
Mix black pepper with crushed raisins and eat.
Another home remedy to help remove phlegm is that good old standby, the steam inhalation. Add some eucalyptus oil to hot water in a dish and inhale the steam. Covering your head and dish with a towel will help keep the steam near so that you can breathe it in.
Taking lots of orange and lemon juice will help if your phlegm if it caused by a cold or flu.
Drink plenty of fluids. Hot chicken soup is good, but all kinds of fluid, from plain cold water to hot tea will help your body cope with phlegm.
Hot tea with honey and lemon in it is good.
Avoid milk drinks that often make phlegm feel stickier.
If you have a juicer then juice one onion with one lemon, add 1 cup of boiling water and 1 tablespoon of honey. Drink it all at once. Do this three times a day.
Equal amounts of honey and grapefruit juice mixed together and sipped throughout the day will also help. Grape juice is useful as an expectorant.

As you can see, there are many home remedies for phlegm, but if your phlegm is green or has blood in it, then this would indicate the presence of a severe infection that should be seen to by your doctor.