In September’s physical exam, the doctor suggested to me: “You should get a flu shot this year. Before the winter comes, pay attenuation and moisten your throat, it reduces the chance of respiratory tract infection.”
I knew of a few remedies to moisten the throat and some that cure a cough, along with a line of story.
When we were little and were coughing, Yeyi, our nanny, burnt a whole tangerine and let us eat the burnt tangerine meat; she also made loquat leave tea for us to drink; sometimes she fried a mixture of wild grass and egg for us to eat. It is interesting that I recently saw the wild grass my nanny used in my hometown Zigong, on some hill in Waltham.
Eating honey soothes the throat, although the internet said this is a lazy remedy, and it will not cure a serious cough symptom.
Sliced lemon marinated with honey can cure a chronic cough, this remedy was given by my old cousin to my daughter, when she saw my daughter was coughing badly. At that time she told me: “I coughed often when I was little, my father found this remedy, which worked well for me.”
Asian pear and steam cooked Asian pear with rock candy are well known coughing remedies among Chinese. When one of my Caucasian friend heard that eating Asian pear is good for one’s throat, he was amazed. Sharing remedies across culture boundary may bring pleasant surprise often.
Recently, I accidentally experimented on a Chinese and Western combination of food that is very good for throat and lung.
In March, my son was coughing. I cooked rock candy, tremella, and BaiHe soup for him, but he didn’t like the taste, the soup was left in the refrigerator. A few days ago, because a bottle of milk was soon to expired, I tried to mix the milk with the soup by volume 3:1 to pour on cereal. Cereal with this mixture has a new jelly and smooth feeling, very unique. After eating this cereal mixture, my throat felt good. This western style cereal carried the Chinese remedy, a simple way to benefit throat and lung with rock candy, tremella, and Baihe soup, not bad!
Of course, occasionally eating home made alcohol marinated garlic also can protect respiratory tract.
Wish we have a peaceful winter this year.
Little Episodes
1. Oh, in 2016, I coughed badly, and the remedies I used were very effective.
【Stop Coughing】After coughing for several days, During the weekend, I drank homemade cough tea and ate sugar steamed eggs for two days. Now I’ve basically recovered. Cough tea: GanCao, Ginger, PanDaHai, chrysanthemum flower, rose bud, LuoHanGuo. Steamed egg with sugar: sprinkle a layer of sugar on the raw egg and eat it while it is hot(04-06-2016）.
How to make steam cooked sugar coated egg: sugar coated raw egg after cracking and discarding the egg shell, steam cook the sugar coated egg for 8 minutes, let it cool down, then serve.
Cough remedy tea: GanCao, Ginger, PanDaHai, chrysanthemum flower, rose bud, LuoHanGuo all together, use boiling water to make tea.
2. 【cough water】Cut pears into pieces, cut white radishes into strips, and cut green onions into white sections. Boil them with water and simmer them over low heat for a few minutes. Drink this water two or three times a day. I am volunteer to be the white mouse(2019-12-13).
Cough water relieved cough effectively.
3. If you are coughing vey badly, the suggested over-the-counter Western medicine that was given at the beginning of this year regarding to COVID-19 is very powerful.
The suggestion are: “Thick mucus caused by COVID-19 need to be discharged. When you buy over-the-counter cough drug, looking for ingredient of guaifenesin which helps cough out phlegm. Do not buy cough drug contains only dextromethorphan (DXM) which acts on the brain to suppress cough.”
Wish we have a peaceful winter this year.