Homoeopathic remedies for cough

The Treatment of Coughs With Homeopathy

by Laura Paris, O.M.D., L.Ac.

Now that the flu season is upon us, it is not uncommon for practitioners to see patients with viral and respiratory infections of all kinds.  Some are return visits where a prescribed antibiotic hasn't eliminated the problem.  If only one pill could cure everyone; but everyone is different and every cough the doctor treats has a different story.

When treating with homeopathy, regardless of the diagnosis (be it croup, pertussis, laryngitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, or pleurisy), it is the story that leads us to the right remedy and a cure.

"Doctor, it came on so suddenly after skiing one day."  (Aconite)

"Doctor, I'm so thirsty and irritable, my cough is dry and my chest hurts when I move" (Bryonia)

"Doctor, my throat hurts and I can hardly speak.  Do you have some ice-cold water?" (Phosphorus)

"Doctor, the baby starts to cry before the cough and it's a violent, dry cough."  Fever? Red face?" (Belladonna)

"Doctor, there's a lot of thick, sticky phlegm, I have a hacking cough and it hurts behind the sternum."  (Kali bichromicum)

"Doctor, the baby starts coughing at night as soon as her head hits the pillow." (Drosera)

"Doctor, my whole chest is sensitive, and I'm coughing up little hard lumps of phlegm.  The cough wakes me up at 3 am." (Kali carb)

"Doctor, she's as sweet as can be, but she has so much yellow mucus!" (Pulsatilla)

Obviously, there are hundreds of remedies for hundreds of stories.  The more commonly used homeopathic medicines for coughs are listed in Table 1 in this Technical Bulletin and Table 2 in the The Treatment of Coughs With Homeopathy - Part II.  If no single remedy is clear to new users of homeopathy, some of the low potency combination remedies for coughs often prove effective.  As always, the best way to find the best remedy is using the repertory, the cough section can be very enlightening.

Dry Coughs are covered in Table I.  Productive Coughs are covered in Table II. 

Table I - Dry Coughs

Homeopathic Remedy	Nature of Cough	Other Facts
Aconite	Constant Short, dry cough.  Hoarse, loud cough.  Dryness of chest.  Feels like suffocating with each inspiration	Anxiety, restless, worse at night.  After exposure to cold wind.
Belladonna	Cough with dryness of larynx.  Red throat with scraping in larynx.  Tickling and burning spasmodic, barking, short cough.  Great whooping cough remedy with spasms in larynx causing whoop and difficult breathing.	Red Face, dilated pupils.  Child cries before cough comes on.  Cough ends with sneezing
Bryonia	Hard, dry, spasmodic cough.  Pain in chest, must press hand to sternum.  Cough shakes whole body, must spring up in bed.  Hurts to breath deeply.	Irritable, worse with movement, worse after food or drink.  Thirsty.
Phosphorus	Dry, tickling, tight cough that is exhausting.   Violent, shaking cough.  Must hold chest and abdomen while coughing.  Trembles with cough.  Cough worse laughing, talking or eating.	Chilly with thirst for ice cold drinks.  Anxious, nervous.  Worse in open air or going from cold to warm room.
Causticum	Dry, raw, hoarse cough.  Aphonia.  Chest seems full of mucus and "if I cough a little deeper I could get the mucus out".	Better with ice-cold water.  Inability to expectorate.  Escape of urine with cough.
Spongia	Hoarseness.  Dry, barking, croupy cough.  Worse during inspiration and before midnight.  Irrepressible cough from spot deep in chest.  Feels like plug in throat.	Better after eating or drinking warm drinks.  Worse lying with head low.

Table II - Productive Coughs

Homeopathic Remedy	Nature of Cough	Other Facts
Drosera	Spasmodic Cough dep in the chest.  Violent tickling in the larynx brings on cough.  Cough impulses so violent cannot catch breath.  Cough as soon as head hits pillow.  Principal remedy for whooping cough.	Pain in the hypochondrium must hold while coughing.  Worse at night.  Cough can be dry and irritative.
Hepar Sulph	Croup.  Loose, rattling cough worse in the morning. Suffocating, choking cough.  Hoarseness with loss of voice.	Better breathing warm air.  Worse when any part of the body gets uncovered or cold.  Better sitting up and bending head backwards
Kali Bich.	Voice hoarse with hacking cough.  Profuse white or yellow expectoration, sticky and stringy.  Cough as a brassy sound.	Worse in the evening.  Pain in the sternum that extends to the shoulders.
Stannum	During the day, loose cough with heavy, green mucus.  Dry cough at night.  Weakness of chest or chest feels empty.	Worse using voice, laughing or singing.  Worse with warm drinks.
Antimonium tart.	Great rattling of mucus, but very little is expectorated.  Burning sensation in chest.  Bronchial tubes are overloaded with mucus	Cough worse with eating palpitation and hot feeling in chest.  Better sitting up.

SPASMODIC CROUP

There is a celebrated group of homeopathic remedies for Spasmodic Croup, sold for years as Boeninghausen's Croup Powders.  The remedies are:

Aconite, Hepar Sulph., and Spongia

Give in that order as required at two to four hour intervals, according to the urgency of the case.

Laura Paris, O.M.D., L.Ac. is a Doctor of Oriental Medicine and Licensed Acupuncturist with a private practice in Santa Monica.  She is a graduate, of the IFH Post Graduate for Professionals and has studied classical homeopathy for many years.