Persistent Cough Home Remedies: 3 Easy Breathing Exercises

Woman with persistent cough These easy breathing exercises for persistent coughing and persistent dry cough were developed and used by more than 170 Soviet medical doctors. These exercises are the most natural home remedies. You cannot get anything more natural since they do not require anything at all: no pills, no syrups, no special mixtures or solutions, no herbs or "magic" extracts to prepare or buy. Moreover, these cheapest possible remedies have exceptionally high success rates since they have been used by more than 30,000 Soviet and Russian patients learning the Buteyko breathing technique.

The success of these natural cough remedies is based on physiology of coughing and its key causes: low body oxygen levels and overexcited urge-to-cough receptors. Why do people with asthma, bronchitis, COPD, cystic fibrosis and some other conditions suffer from chronic coughing? Consider medical facts.

Minute ventilation rates (chronic diseases)

Condition	Minute ventilation	Number of people	All references or click below for abstracts
Normal breathing	6 l/min	-	Medical textbooks
Healthy Subjects	6-7 l/min	>400	Results of 14 studies
COPD	14 (±2) l/min	12	Palange et al, 2001
COPD	12 (±2) l/min	10	Sinderby et al, 2001
COPD	14 l/min	3	Stulbarg et al, 2001
Asthma	13 (±2) l/min	16	Chalupa et al, 2004
Asthma	15 l/min	8	Johnson et al, 1995
Asthma	14 (±6) l/min	39	Bowler et al, 1998
Asthma	13 (±4) l/min	17	Kassabian et al, 1982
Asthma	12 l/min	101	McFadden & Lyons, 1968
Cystic fibrosis	15 L/min	15	Fauroux et al, 2006
Cystic fibrosis	10 L/min	11	Browning et al, 1990
Cystic fibrosis*	10 L/min	10	Ward et al, 1999
CF and diabetes*	10 L/min	7	Ward et al, 1999
Cystic fibrosis	16 L/min	7	Dodd et al, 2006
Cystic fibrosis	18 L/min	9	McKone et al, 2005
Cystic fibrosis*	13 (±2) l/min	10	Bell et al, 1996
Cystic fibrosis	11-14 l/min	6	Tepper et al, 1983

Mechanism of persistent cough and dry cough We see that people with persistent cough breathe too much air at rest. The same is true for people with persistent dry cough. Overbreathing reduces oxygen levels in tissues of the body.

This chart on the right explains the mechanism of persistent coughing: it is a self-perpetuating activity that naturally leads to more persistent coughing unless one learns how to cough correctly and corrects lifestyle risk factors leading to hyperventilation. (Each arrow on this chart has supporting medical studies that are presented on other pages of this website: see CO2-related links below.) How can we deal with persistent cough and persistent dry cough?

Most natural remedies for persistent cough

Remedy No. 1. Learn how to cough only through the nose (i.e., with your mouth closed all the time). It will help you to reduce irritation of airways and bronchospasm, and increase oxygen levels in body cells and the brain.

Remedy No. 2. After you have mastered Remedy No. 1 (it may take 1-2 days), learn how to cough with the mouth and nose closed. You simply need to keep the mouth closed and the nose pinched. This will further increase your body and brain oxygenation.

These 2 easiest remedies are often sufficient to stop or reduce bouts of persistent coughing and gradually to recover. However, you can subdue coughing even faster if you use the most potent anti-coughing breathing exercise called "reduced breathing".

Remedy No. 3. Sit down in a comfortable position, preferably at an ordinary table on a straight chair. While having the bout of coughing, try your best to relax and at the end of your usual exhalation, pinch your nose and hold your breath (the mouth should be closed all the time) until you experience moderate discomfort.

If you cannot hold your breath due to severe coughing, pinch your nose and keep mouth closed while coughing without any air exchange. Why? Your goal is to increase the CO2 content in your airways so that you calm down the cough receptor-cells that become irritated due to several mechanical and biochemical factors during acute coughing bouts. These nerve cells stimulate the breathing centre in the brain both to initiate and to continue coughing.

After the breath hold, when you get a moderate or distinctive desire to take a breath, take only a small (or short) inhalation (one small sniff) and do it only through your nose. After this small inhalation, focus on relaxing all body muscles again, especially in the upper chest and shoulders in order to exhale slowly. If coughing is present, your goal is to limit your air or gas exchange to very small amounts. Ideally, the exhalation must be natural and unforced. Then take another (smaller) inhalation and again completely relax to exhale.

Reduced breathing to get rid of cough fast

With each breath, your goal is to take a small or reduced inhalation and then completely relax even though you still have a cough. You should gradually self-suffocate yourself creating a more and more distinctive air hunger while relaxing your body muscles. You will soon experience a strong desire to breathe more. Maintain this desire until your coughing subsides.

Your breathing can be quite frequent during this reduced breathing exercise (frequent short inhalations). If you do the exercise correctly (you will breathe up to 30-50% less air while being relaxed), you will notice 2 signs:
- Your arms and feet will get warm in about 1 minutes after starting this exercise
- The nasal passages will become more open and moist in about the same 1-2 minutes.

Permanent remedy for persistent cough

Physicians smiling After testing thousands of their patients, these Russian medical doctors found that persistent cough is possible only in those people who have less than 20 seconds for the body oxygen test. As a result, the permanent persistent cough remedy is to slow down the unconscious or automatic breathing pattern closer to the medical norm in order to get more than 20 seconds for the body oxygenation test.

This is possible with the use of breathing devices or correct breathing exercises and smart lifestyle changes so that to achieve permanent changes in automatic breathing patterns. Therefore, use these home remedies and other techniques to get normal body oxygen levels and solve problems with persistent cough or persistent dry cough.

Reference Web Pages: Breathing norms, Medical Graphs and Tables about Breathing Rates (Minute Ventilation) and Body Oxygen in Healthy, Normal and Sick People
Breathing norms Parameters, graph, and description of the normal breathing pattern
6 breathing myths 6 myths about breathing and body oxygenation (prevalence: over 90%)
Hyperventilation Definitions of hyperventilation: their advantages and weak points
Hyperventilation Syndrome in the Sick. Table 1. Western scientific evidence about prevalence of CHV (chronic hyperventilation) in patients with various chronic conditions (34 medical studies)
Normal Minute Ventilation in Healthy Subjects: Easy and Light Breathing (14 Studies)
Hyperventilation Prevalence Present in Over 90% of Normal People (24 medical publications)
HV and hypoxia How and why deep breathing reduces oxygenation of cells and tissues of all vital organs
Body oxygen test How to measure your own breathing and body oxygenation (a simple DIY test)
Body oxygen in healthy Table 4. CP (body oxygen level) in healthy people (27 medical studies)
Body oxygen in sick Table 5. CP (body oxygen level) in sick people (14 medical studies)
Buteyko Table of Health Zones with clinical description of most common zones
Morning HV Morning hyperventilation effect or how and why critically ill people are most likely to die during early morning hours

References: CO2 Effects Web Pages
Vasodilation: CO2 expands arteries and arterioles facilitating perfusion (or blood supply) to all vital organs
The Bohr effect How and why oxygen is released by red blood cells in tissues
Cell Oxygen Levels and oxygen transport are controlled by alveolar CO2 and breathing
Oxygen Transport depends on breathing and these two effects (Vasoconstriction-Vasodilation and the Bohr effect) are parts of two diagrams that summarize influences of hypocapnia (low CO2 content in the blood and cells) on circulation and O2 delivery
Free Radical Generation takes place due to anaerobic cell respiration caused by cell hypoxia. Hence, antioxidant defenses of the human body are also regulated by CO2 and breathing
Inflammatory Response is controlled by breathing since hypoxia leads to or intensifies chronic inflammation through over-expression of the hypoxia-inducible factor 1, while normal breathing reduces these processes
Nerve stabilization takes place due to calmative or sedative effects of carbon dioxide in neurons or nerve cells
Muscle relaxation or relaxation of muscle cells is normal at high CO2, while hypocapnia causes muscular tension, poor posture and, sometimes, aggression and violence
Brochodilation - dilation of airways (bronchi and bronchioles) by carbon dioxide, and their constriction due to hypocapnia
Blood pH regulation and regulation of other bodily fluids
CO2: Lung Damage Healer: Elevated carbon dioxide prevents injury and promotes healing of lung tissues
CO2: Skin and Tissue Healer
Synthesis of Glutamine in the Brain, CO2 fixation, and other chemical reactions
CO2 myth "CO2 is a toxic waste gas" myth
Breathing control How is our breathing regulated? Why hypocapnia makes breathing uneven and erratic

References

J Assoc Physicians India. 2000 Mar;48(3):343-5.
The role of cough and hyperventilation in perpetuating airway inflammation in asthma.
Singh V, Chowdhary R, Chowdhary N.
Department of Pulmonary Medicine, SMS Medical College, Jaipur-302 016, India.
Air flowing through a pipe exerts frictional stress on the walls of the pipe. Frictional stress of more than 40 N/m2 (velocity equivalent of air 113 m/s) is known to cause acute endothelial damage in blood vessels. The frictional stress in airways during coughing may be much greater, however, since the velocity of air may be as high as speed of sound in air. We suggest that high levels of frictional stress perpetuate airway inflammation in airways which are already inflamed and vulnerable to frictional stress-induced trauma in patients with asthma. Activities associated with rapid ventilation and higher frictional stress (e.g. exercise, hyperventilation, coughing, sneezing and laughing) cause asthma to worsen whilst activities that reduce frictional stress (Yoga 'Pranayama', breathing a helium-oxygen mixture and nasal continuous positive airway pressure) are beneficial. Therefore control of cough may have anti-inflammatory benefits in patients with asthma.

Jpn J Physiol. 1991;41(6):879-91.
Influence of central respiratory activity on the cough response in anesthetized dogs.
Suzuki H, Kondo T, Yamabayashi H, Kobayashi I, Ohta Y.
Department of Medicine, Tokai University School of Medicine, Isehara, Japan.
Cough responses evoked by mechanical stimulation of the tracheobronchial mucosa in anesthetized and tracheostomized dogs were studied... Coughing could be evoked when the dog was made apneic either by hyperventilation or by the Hering-Breuer reflex...

Handb Exp Pharmacol. 2009;(187):263-76.
Clinical cough I: the urge-to-cough: a respiratory sensation.
Davenport PW.
Department of Physiological Sciences, Box 100144, HSC, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA.
Cough is generated by a brainstem neural network. Chemical and mechanical stimulation of the airway can elicit a reflex cough and can elicit a cognitive sensation, the urge-to-cough. The sensation of an urge-to-cough is a respiratory-related sensation. The role of the respiratory sensation of an urge-to-cough is to engage behavioral modulation of cough motor action. Respiratory sensations are elicited by a combination of modalities: central neural, chemical, and mechanical. Stimulation of respiratory afferents or changes in respiratory pattern resulting in a cognitive awareness of breathing are mediated by central neural processes that are the cognitive neural basis for respiratory sensations, including the urge-to-cough. It is proposed that the urge-to-cough is a component of the cough motivation-to-action system. The urge-to-cough is induced by stimuli that motivate subjects to protect their airway by coughing...

Or go to Hyperventilation Symptoms

HTML Comment Box is loading comments...