How To Relieve Cough With Phlegm (Dos and Don’ts)

how to relieve cough

Coughing is one of the most persistent sicknesses if it is not addressed in time. Left unattended, it can cause a person to keep coughing for months resulting in the weakening of the lungs. This post will share how you can relieve cough with phlegm quickly (in a matter of days).

Why Coughing Occurs?

There are many reasons why coughing occurs.

One of the most common reasons is that when a person just recovers from the flu and the virus residue needs to be purged out from the lungs, during this time, coughing will occur.

Another cause is when a person has eaten something that is not suitable for his/her body’s constitution, then coughing will occur as it wants to purge out the stuff that the body can’t absorb.

Regardless of the reason, it is always better to know what kind of cough it is at any given time.

The Different Types of Coughs

Heaty Cough – Heaty cough is very common and it is shown by yellow and/or thick phlegm. If a person is having a heaty cough, he/she should avoid eating or drinking foods with warm thermal nature like ginger, longan, and red dates.

Cold Cough – Cold cough is also very common and is shown by white phlegm and is pretty easy to cough out. A person having a cold cough should avoid eating foods or drinks with cooling thermal nature such as bitter gourd and almost all types of herbal tea (Chrysanthemum, Monk fruit, barley drink etc).

Dry Cough – While heaty and cold cough normally happen in the beginning stages of coughing, dry cough mostly happens when a person ignores the heaty and cold cough for too long. Dry cough is shown by no sound of phlegm when coughing or phlegm is very difficult to be coughed out. Dry cough will take a longer time to recover.

Coughing should not be left untreated or unattended because the longer time a person is coughing, the harder it is to recover.

It is pretty easy and fast to recover from heaty and cold cough so I always encourage people to act promptly as soon as coughing starts.

Foods To Avoid If You Are Coughing

While the remedy is important, it is also important to know what food to avoid so that the recovery will be faster.

First, avoid oily and deep-fried foods. These foods will contribute to the production of phlegm and thus, coughing a lot more than normal.

Second, avoid taking cold drinks and raw foods. These food will weaken your spleen and lungs and hence, delay the time to recover.

Third, choose low-sodium foods and avoid eating dessert for the time being. Sugary stuff will promote the development of phlegm in people who have weaker spleens. So it is best to avoid eating dessert when you are coughing.

What To Eat When You Are Coughing

Regardless of what type of cough you are having, the following two pieces of advice work:

First, you would need to drink more water (not iced or cool water), particularly warm water. Water will help your body to dissolve the phlegm. So reducing the intake of caffeine drinks and replacing it with water is a wise choice when you are coughing.

The second piece of advice is to you can eat more white radishes. White radish has a strong property of dissolving phlegm. You can cook white radish as soup or steam it to eat. White radish is effective for all types of coughing with phlegm.

A Fast Remedy: Phlegm-Dissolving Cough Syrup

If you can’t follow the above dietary advice 100% and still want your cough to recover soonest, you can consider getting the following cough syrup. This particular brand of cough syrup is one of those rare ones in the market that is effective for almost all types of cough.

You can get a bottle of this cough syrup in most TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) retail shops.

The reason why this cough syrup works for almost all types of cough is that it contains both cooling and warm herbs that can treat heaty and cold coughs.

It also has lung-strengthening herbs for people having dry coughs.

Most importantly, it contains herbs that help to dissolve phlegm so it will help to stop your coughing.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Not all cough syrup works for all types of cough. If you are drinking a different type of cough syrup, do consult a physician if that is suitable for your cough.

Hope you find this post useful and just let me know if you have any questions (by posting in the comments below).

TCM Foods to Eat to Relieve Constipation

constipation

The purpose of defecation is to help get rid of toxins inside our bodies. If the waste stays in our intestines for too long, these toxins will be absorbed by the body, causing undesired health conditions.

Thus, it is very important to maintain a regular bowel movement habit. If you are currently bothered by constipation, perhaps this article will help you relieve the condition.

Avoid This Mistake!

A lot of people thought that in order to treat constipation, they just need to eat lots of fiber (from vegetables or fruits). This is only partially right.

What Is Required For Good Bowel Movement?

Besides eating fiber-rich foods, you also need to consume foods with water or oil-based foods in order to help in bowel movements.

Consuming water is the most direct way but note that the water you consume will not go directly to the large intestine.

A good way to make sure your large intestine is well-lubricated for bowel movement is to consume oil-based foods regularly.

Some examples of oil-based foods are nuts, seeds, coconut oil etc. A good way is to eat your daily breakfast with bread and nut/seed spread. Take note that only purchase those spreads with original content (like 100% black sesame seeds etc) and not those that have many other ingredients.

Black sesame seeds are a very good source of oil-based products to help relieve constipation.

Foods That Will Help In Relieving Constipation

The following foods can help to relieve constipation effectively. Do your best to include them in your diet. For sweet potatoes, do not eat them too frequently as they may cause stomach bloating.

  1. Aloe Vera – Aloe vera is a good food to relieve constipation. You can read this blog post on how to prepare a dessert to relieve constipation using aloe vera and papaya.
  2. Sweet Potatoes – Sweet potatoes promote fluid flow in the body and hence, can relieve constipation to some degree. Read here for more details.
  3. Radish – Raw radish has very good effects on bowel movement. Just make sure you do not overly consume raw radish as it can be too cooling, especially for elderly people. Read here for more details on radish.
  4. Green Vegetables – Most green vegetables are a good source of fiber, do make sure you also drink enough water or consume oil-based foods such as nuts or seeds to make the fiber work well in your intestines.
  5. Mixed Grains – A lot of times, just eating more greens may still not be able to satisfy the fiber amount. A good way to ensure you have enough fiber intake is to replace white rice with brown rice + mixed grains. There are a lot of mixed grains products in the market nowadays that you can add a bit to your brown rice and you will not need to worry about the fiber intake anymore.

Hope you find this post useful!

How to Get Rid of Dampness in Body (TCM)

If you would like to get rid of dampness in your body using TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) food therapy, then this post might be useful for your reference.

First, what is dampness and how is it formed in our body? In a perfect body, there will be no dampness because every food and fluid we consume will be either 100% absorbed through our spleens or pass out through the intestines and bladder.

However, no one has a perfect body, and especially with the weakening of our spleen (when we eat foods that are too oily, sweet, and cold), there will be parts of the fluid and foods that we eat are not 100% absorbed or pass out from our body. These things stay in our body and are known as phlegm or ‘dampness’ generally.

While it is fine to have a small bit of dampness in our body, it can cause other health issues after a prolonged period of time. For example, if dampness occurs in the lower part of the body, the result will be water retention (水肿) in the legs.

If the dampness were to stay in the middle part of our bodies for some time, it will cause our spleens to further weaken and causes loss of appetite and stomach bloatedness even if you were just drinking water.

If dampness were to stay in the upper part of our body, it can affect our lungs and causes issues in respiratory system such as long-term coughing.

Thus, it is essential to reduce dampness in our bodies for the sake of long-term health and not neglect it even when it does not bother you so much now.

How To Know If I Have Dampness In My Body?

You can visit any TCM physician to find out or take my online TCM body constitution test to see if you have the Phlegm and Dampness Body Constitution type, if yes, then you have quite significant dampness in your body.

Two Types of Dampness

In order to get rid of dampness effectively, you need to first determine if your dampness is due to heat-type (湿热) or cold-type(寒湿). You can use the following as a general guide to find out:

You have heat-type dampness if:

  1. The tongue coating shows yellowish and thick.
  2. Urine is yellowish or feels warm and/or painful when urinating.
  3. Sticky stools.
  4. Have oily face and acne-prone skin.
  5. Your body constitution test is Tropical or Phlegm and Dampness Body Constitution type.

You have cold-type dampness if:

  1. The tongue coating shows white and thick.
  2. Frequent urination (clear color).
  3. Have diarrhea easily when eating cold or oily foods.
  4. Face skin looks darker and area around the eyes are more swollen.
  5. Your body constitution test result is Phlegm and Dampness Body Constitution type.

TCM Food Therapy Advice For Heat-Type Dampness

For people with heat-type dampness, you need to quit smoking and avoid eating spicy foods. Also, avoid eating mutton meat as it is very heaty in thermal nature.

You are highly encouraged to eat bitter gourd, luffa, and winter melon.

You should also drink more Chinese barley water as it is an effective drink for getting rid of dampness.

TCM Food Therapy Advice For Cold-Type Dampness

You should avoid eating cold and raw foods and drinks.

You can eat more ginger, chinese yam, red dates, and dried tangerine peel.

You can also drink Chinese barley water but for the barley, you would need to pan-fry (without oil) it until it shows a bit brownish before making it into a drink.

I hope that this post is useful in helping you get rid of the dampness in your body!

Dengue Fever Symptoms & What Most People Don’t Know In Singapore

dengue fever singapore

Recently there is a huge spike in dengue cases in Singapore and in fact, just the first 5 months into 2022, the dengue cases this year are already more than last year!

Unfortunately, my wife also came down with dengue recently and it was during this period that I realized how serious is dengue fever!

My wife first started with fever and muscle aches on the first day. We didn’t suspect it was dengue because there were no rashes (in fact, the rashes only start to appear after the fever subsides on the 5th day).

We also noticed that dengue fever is very persistent in the first 5 days. The fever will keep coming back after the paracetamol (fever medicine, commonly known as Panadol to most people) effect wears off. So this is a sign to look out for.

During the first 5 days, my wife experienced poor appetite and abdominal pain (she can’t sleep on her side because of the abdominal pain).

Her eye area was painful, and the joint and body aches badly affected her sleep quality.

dengue rashes

From the 6th day, her fever has subsided but rashes start to form on the body. It gets itchier from day 6 but it is more bearable (according to her) compared to the feverish symptoms in the earlier days.

However, according to the polyclinic doctors, it is after the 5th day that things can get more serious! This is something we were caught off guard for!

Apparently, the dengue virus will decrease the platelet count in the blood and if the platelet falls too low, internal bleeding may occur and it will require emergency medical attention if it happens!

Dengue patients (with low platelet count in the blood) may experience bleeding in some areas such as during brushing teeth, passing motion, and even washing face. You should seek medical attention when this happens!

Personally, I would suggest anyone to visit your nearby clinic if you suspect you have dengue fever based on the above symptoms. It is important to take a blood test to make sure your platelet count and other blood measurement are not too low.

My wife diligently went for blood test for four times before the doctor cleared her after the platelet count increased to the normal level. That was on the 10th day after she experienced the fever.

As you may already know, there is no medicine for dengue fever, even the doctors in polyclinic can only prescribe you paracetamol and anti-itch medicine and the rest depends on your body to fight the virus.

Based on our experience, there are some things that will help during this period:

  1. Water – lots of it to keep your body hydrated. If you can’t drink a lot at a time, then make sure you take small sips throughout the day. It is very important to keep your body hydrated during the dengue fever period!
  2. Dried orange peel – It helps to calm the stomach and improve the appetite. 
  3. Vitamin C – We believe it helps to increase platelet count. It can also help to relieve some stress during this period.
  4. Milo – This is a comfort drink and also provides some basic nutrients for the body.

My wife and I hope that this blog post will help someone out there who is experiencing dengue fever or don’t know if they are infected with dengue or not.

Take care and stay safe!