Physicians characterize a cough as chronic if it persists for eight weeks or longer. Although many treatments are available for chronic cough that usually relate to treating the underlying medical condition, you might also take certain supplements to relieve your coughing. Before you take any natural supplement for chronic cough, consult your doctor to discuss the correct dosage and potential risks.
Identification
Although coughing is normal from time to time, either when you're irritated by something in the air or when you have a cold, chronic coughing can indicate an underlying health problem. Many factors and medical conditions can cause a chronic cough, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD or chronic bronchitis due to smoking, postnasal drip, lung cancer, bronchiectasis and gastroesophageal reflux disease -- GERD, according to the website MayoClinic. Medications called ACE inhibitors that are used to treat heart failure and high blood pressure can cause chronic cough as well.
Prevention/Solution
If you have a chronic cough due to COPD or chronic bronchitis, you might take supplements of creatine monohydrate, L-carnitine or N-acetyl cysteine -- NAC -- to help reduce your coughing, according to the University of Michigan Health System. Supplementation with vitamin C, magnesium, coenzyme Q10, evening primrose oil or fish oil might also help. Chronic cough due to asthma, or caused by GERD, allergies or upper respiratory infections, may be alleviated by supplements like choline, selenium, quercetin, lycopene, beta-carotene, potassium or vitamin B-6, says the University of Maryland Medical Center. Talk with your physician before taking any of these supplements to treat chronic coughing.
Herbal Supplements
In some cases, certain herbal supplements may help ease chronic cough. People with asthma may benefit from taking herbal remedies like boswellia, tylophora, Coleus forskohlii or pycnogenol from pine bark extract, says the University of Maryland Medical Center. A traditional Japanese formula called Saiboku-to is also sometimes used for treating asthma and contains herbs like licorice, ginger, Asian ginseng and Chinese skullcap. For chronic cough due to COPD or chronic bronchitis, you might take herbs like ivy leaf, mullein, anise, eucalyptus, gumweed, lobelia, elecampane or Yerba santa, notes the University of Michigan Health System. Echinacea, plantain and essential oil monoterpenes are also sometimes used in herbal medicine to treat chronic cough, according to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. No widely-accepted medical research supports the use of any herbal remedy to treat chronic cough, however.
Considerations
Conventional treatments for chronic cough typically involve treating the underlying medical condition that's causing the coughing. For instance, if your chronic cough is caused by asthma, your doctor might recommend that you take an inhaled corticosteroid drug, the MayoClinic website states. Decongestants and antihistamine medications are used to treat chronic cough caused by postnasal drip or allergies, and various stomach-acid reducing medications are used to treat chronic cough due to GERD. Your physician may or may not advise that you take certain supplements at the same time as these types of conventional therapies for treating chronic cough.
Warning
Beware that many supplements can cause side effects and interact with other medications. For example, taking selenium supplements over long periods of time can increase your risk for type 2 diabetes, and boswellia can interact negatively with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs -- NSAIDs, warns the University of Maryland Medical Center. Coleus may be unsafe if you're pregnant, if you have thyroid problems or diabetes, or if you're taking blood-thinners like coumadin. Pycnogenol can also interact with blood-thinners and medications for hypertension, while tylophora is unsafe for pregnant women, as well as people with hypertension, diabetes and congestive heart failure. Discuss these and other health risks with your health care provider before taking any supplement or herbal remedy for chronic cough.
