You might feel embarassed to bring up the fact that you’ve been coughing lately, with all the COVID stuff we’ve been through these past 2 years. You might not even be sure your cough is from a virus or catching a cold. You wouldn’t be wrong to think that. From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, there can be a few factors that cause an individual to cough. We’re going to dive deep in understanding the different types of imbalances that cause an individual to cough AND discuss some DIY solutions you can use to fix it.
1. Catching a cold/virus:
Often times with this type of cough, your symptoms won’t start off with coughing. You’ll usually experience chills, aches, spike a fever, maybe get a sore throat, and then begin coughing after a week. This is the natural progression of a cold/virus invading the body according to Traditional Chinese Medicine. It first affects the outer areas of the body (chills/skin achiness), runny nose, and as it invades deeper, you’ll notice the sore throat/coughing later on. In this case I recommend to many of my clients to cook up a batch of chicken noodle soup, drink plenty of ginger tea, chai tea, and keep the body warm. You’ll want to sweat it out if you’ve spiked a fever. Be careful around loves ones, and the vulnerable as you may be contagious during this phase.
At home DIY:
A. Chicken Noodle Soup - Chicken is warming and is able to invigorate a person’s vitality on a deeper level, while thyme is drying and warming, and therefore able to dry up the runny nose while warming the exterior aspects of the body (skin).
B. Ginger tea - For reasons similar to above, you’ll want to warm up the body when it’s too cold, ginger is a very hot spice for this purpose.
C. Layer up - By sweating, you are expelling the pathogen, or pushing the pathogen out of the body’s skin layer.
2. Coughs from a digestive imbalance: Liver and Stomach
With this type of cough, you usually won’t experience the fever/chills, but rather it starts after a meal/eating too late. You’ll want to pay attention to what you ate. Was it too sweet? Liver problem potentially. Was it too fatty, creamy or cold? Stomach issue. Do you tend to cough first thing in the morning and is it productive? This could be your liver.
The Liver stores sugar in the form of glycogen and if functioning appropriately, uses it as your body’s cells need. In a dysfunctional liver, it may be easily overloaded by sugar/glycogen, thereby leading to phlegm production in the body, which shows up in the lungs after eating too many sweets. It also shows up in the urine, by making it more viscous than is normal. Don’t forget alcohol is also a form of sugar, and can flare up the phlegm production after a night of drinking.
Liver detox:
A. Up the leafy greens
Arugula, watercress, rapini, bok choy, lettuce leaf, or sprouts. Leafy greens to help detoxify the liver.
B. Eat more carrots and potatoes
Include potatoes as they provide a resistant type of starch, that is digested slowly overtime, and avoids spiking insulin levels. Carrots are good for nourishing the eyes, and foods that nourish the eyes must therefore nourish the Liver according to Traditional Chinese Medicine theory.
C. Cut-out processed sugars, white bread and alcohol.
As the liver’s function improves your body will be able to handle these toxins better, but during the healing process it’s best if processed sugars/alcohol are avoided. You can still include more natural sources of sugar from fruit like pears, or plums in moderation.
Stomach tonifier:
Eat everything hot and cooked
Eat mindfully - Eat without distraction - no cellphones, television, while working, or driving. Try to spend time to enjoy your meals. Eating mindfully also means eating what you feel your body needs/would benefit from at this moment. Sometimes having a cold raw salad isn’t the most appetizing when you live in a cold Canadian climate.
Add mild spices like cardamom, ginger, fennel, parsley, oregano, thyme, nutmeg, and lemongrass. These aromatic spices help to gently stimulate digestion.
Eat more potatoes and simple grains (rice, couscous, quinoa)
Avoid cream/peanut butter/honey
3. A Dry Cough (From Stress)
Dryness can be due to the weather, but often times can be a result of a heightened level of inflammation in the body. The cause of this inflammation? It could be stress, excessive coffee intake, smoking, as well as congenital factors (genes). The excess inflammation can cause areas of the body to dry out and lead to a dry cough. This imbalance stems from the Heart. Surprising right? Traditional Chinese medicine is full of surprises, but wisdom too as it’s been practiced since 1500 BC.
At home DIY:
A. Take a relaxing Lavender bath
B. Chill out with some watermelon
C. Replace coffee with green tea
D. Tomato sauce pasta with garlic
E. Avoid spicy foods
I hope you enjoyed these tips, and have gained a better understanding of how to address the root cause of your coughing. If you have any questions, or would like to schedule an acupuncture session you can book an appointment below. Located in downtown Toronto and the Vaughan area we look forward to serving our community’s healthcare needs using acupuncture.