How to Get Rid of a Cough in 1-2 Min: Easy Breathing Exercise

How to get rid of a cough can be a very hard challenge, if you do not know certain simple but very important rules related to breathing. This breathing exercise "How to get rid of a cough" improves body oxygen levels since coughing has a profound negative effect on brain oxygenation due to reduced CO2 (see the brain image below).

Effects of overbreathing and coughing on brain oxygen levels

The durations of bouts of coughing are usually reduced 2-5 times, if you follow these guidelines. There is also a permanent solution and strict criterion (a simple breathing test result for you to achieve) so that you can get rid of coughing for good.

Steps to follow to get rid of coughing fast

When you cough, you irritate your airways, destroy alveoli of the lungs, reduce CO2 and NO content in your lungs, reduce CO2 level in all body cells, reduce oxygen content in all vital organs, suppress the immune system, generate free radicals or reactive oxygen species, and cause many other problems for your body. Hence you live in a vicious circle: coughing --> CO2 loss --> irritation of airways + inflammation + infections --> more coughing --> more CO2 loss ....

Your first step in turning this negative cycle of CO2 loss around, is to learn how to cough only through the nose.

This is the most basic and most crucial requirement of the Buteyko Emergency Procedure and the Buteyko method in general. You simply cannot expect to improve your health without coughing only through the nose and inhaling through the nose as well.

The second step is the breathing exercises itself "How to get rid of cough". Sit down in a comfortable position, preferably at the 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, and also as a result of long term asthma. 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 (and 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.

More information about this vicious circle (when coughing causes multiple pathological effects and these effects accumulate and reinforce each other causing more coughing): Cause of Cough.

How to get rid of a cough at night or during sleep fast and naturally

Woman: peaceful night sleep, cough stopped If you have persistent cough at night, there is a different exercise (with other important details) "How to Stop Cough At Night"

How to get rid of a cough permanently

If you achieve over 25 s for the body oxygen test 24/7, all your coughing symptoms will disappear. This criteria has been tested on thousands of people with asthma, bronchitis and many other conditions.

Here is a YouTube video that explains how to get rid of cough fast.

YouTube Video "How to Get Rid of 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
CO2: Best Natural Cough Suppressant and "home remedy" since it calms urge-to-cough nerve receptors located in the tracheobronchial tree and larynx
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. The most common response was a group of coughs. Phase relationships between coughing and spontaneous respiration during the cough initiation and resolution periods were categorized as either synchronized or unsynchronized. We defined the synchronization as the coincidence of an expiratory thrust and the early-expiratory phase of respiration. During the cough initiation period, the incidence of synchronization increased as central respiratory activity was enhanced by hypercapnia or as the cough center's activity was suppressed by deep anesthesia. Synchronization decreased as central expiratory activity was enhanced by expiratory threshold loading. During the cough resolution period, synchronization occurred in conjunction with a gradual decrease in the cough center's activity. Coughing could be evoked when the dog was made apneic either by hyperventilation or by the Hering-Breuer reflex. In either case, apnea persisted after coughing subsided. These findings suggest that mechanical stimulation directly activates the cough center rather than the respiratory center; and that synchronization is determined by the relative strengths of the respiratory and cough center's activities.

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. Cough receptor stimulation is gated into suprapontine brain systems. In the proposed cough motivation system, the cough stimulus would produce an urge-to-cough which then matches with the cognitive desire for a response to the urge. If a cough is produced by the motor action system, the descending cognitive drive modulates the brainstem cough neural network. Receptors within the respiratory system provide sensory feedback indicating if the cough occurred, the motor pattern, and the magnitude. The limbic system uses that information to determine if the coughing behavior satisfied the urge. Cough is stopped if the urge-to-cough is satisfied; if the urge has not been satisfied then the urge-to-cough will continue to motivate the central nervous system. The central component within this cough motivation system is the intrinsic brain mechanism which can be activated to start the cycle for motivating a cough, the urge-to-cough. Eliciting a cognitive urge-to-cough is dependent on the integration of respiratory afferent activity, respiratory motor drive, affective state, attention, experience, and learning.

Pulmonary Pharmacology and Therapy, 2007; 20(4): p. 416-422.
The problem of cough and development of novel antitussives.
Barnes PJ.
Department of Thoracic Medicine, National Heart and Lung Institute, Dovehouse Street, London SW3 6LY, UK.
Cough is a very common clinical symptom and current therapies are largely ineffective, indicating a major unmet medial need. There is a pressing need to develop novel and safe antitussive therapies. This is likely to arise from better understanding of the sensory nerves involved in cough and the signalling pathways that are activated...

Minerva Med. 2005 Feb;96(1):29-40.
Pathophysiology and therapy of chronic cough.
Chung KF.
Department of Respiratory Medicine, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, London, UK.
Cough is an essential protective mechanism for the airways and lungs. Cough receptors are situated in the larynx and tracheobronchial tree, and are mediated by rapidly-adapting (irritant) Adelta fibers, although other receptors such as C-fiber receptors may contribute. Cough plasticity and interactions of cough pathways may occur centrally to enhance the cough reflex. The presence of an increased cough reflex as measured by a tussive response to capsaicin or citric acid in patients with a chronic cough indicate that there is sensitisation of the cough reflex. The most common cause of acute cough is that after a common cold, which usually lasts for less than 2 weeks. Cough that persists longer may be due to asthma and its variant forms (cough variant asthma and eosinophilic bronchitis), rhinosinusitis (postnasal drip), gastro-esophageal reflux, bronchiectasis, chronic bronchitis, and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor therapy. Chronic persistent cough can contribute to a significant worsening of quality of life measures. Bronchial tumors must be excluded with a chest radiograph. The management of chronic cough includes investigation and treatment of any associated causes, which sometimes leads to control of cough. In a proportion of patients, cough may be idiopathic and remain uncontrolled. Currently-available antitussives such as dextromethorphan or codeine are modestly successful in controlling cough. New antitussives may be developed that act on the sensory receptors or prevent their sensitisation.

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