Honey/Coffee Remedy for Persistent Post-Infective Cough (PPC)

Treatment beats conventional medicine

Who hasn't had one of those irritating, sleep-depriving, hang-around coughs following an upper respiratory infection or cold?   Maybe you resort to steroids, antihistamines, bronchodilators, codeine, antitussives/expectorants (eg. Dextromethorphan) or other drugs with all their unwanted side-effects - but the cough still won't go away!

A surprisingly successful treatment For Persistent post-infective Cough (PPC) - from your own kitchen!

An article published in the Primary Care Respiratory Journal, detailed an Iranian double-blind, randomized, controlled study conducted 2008 -2011 comparing the effectiveness of 3 treatments for reducing severity of persistent coughs that followed upper respiratory infections. The study found that a coffee/honey combination could be more effective at treating PPCs than a commonly-prescribed systemic steroid or expectorant.

97 patients with PPC lasting more than 3 weeks were randomized into three groups.    Individuals with other causes of chronic cough or systemic disease, smokers, and individuals who had abnormal routine lab tests were excluded. Mean age of participants was 40, and mean duration of illness was 2.9 months.

Group “HC”- received paste of 20.8 grams of natural honey and 2.9 grams of Nestle instant coffee

Group “S” - received 13.3 mg of prednisolone

Group “C” (control group) - received guaifenesin, an expectorant

All products were prepared and packaged by pharmacists to have similar appearance, flavor, and packaging.

Each participant was instructed to dissolve their substance in warm water and drink it every eight hours for a period of one week, and then to measure the frequency of their cough before, during, and one week after treatment.

Raeessi MA, Aslani J, Raeessi N, Gharaie H, Karimi Zarchi AA, Raeessi F. Honey plus coffee versus systemic steroid in the treatment of persistent post-infectious cough: a randomised controlled trial.Prim Care Respir J.2013;22(3):325-330. doi: 10.4104/pcrj.2013.00072.[PubMed][Cross Ref]

Another study by the same authors compared the effect of both honey and coffee individually to honey and coffee combined in 84 subjects with persistent cough. The combination of coffee and honey was significantly superior at reducing persistent cough than either ingredient alone.

Raeessi MA, Aslani J, Gharaie H, Karimi Zarchi AA, Raeessi N, Assari S. Honey with Coffee: a new finding in the treatment of Persistent Postinfectious Cough.Iran J Otorhinolaryngol.2011;23(2):1-8.

At home Honey / Coffee Treatment dosages

Take 1 tablespoon of honey (21 g) mixed with a half teaspoon (3 g) of instant coffee, in ~8oz warm (not hot) water, 3 times a day (about every 8 hours), for at least 1 week.

Why do honey and coffee calm a cough?

Honey

Various properties of raw honey may be responsible for its medicinal effects:

✔Acidity

✔Osmolarity

✔Hydrogen peroxide production

✔Reduces prostaglandin synthesis in the area of application

✔Increases nitric oxide levels

✔Antioxidant effect.

COFFEE

Arabinogalactan-protein extract from instant coffee has an antitussive effect

Nosalova G, Prisenznakova L, Paulovicova E, et al. Antitussive and immunomodulating activities of instant coffee arabinogalactan-protein.Int J Biol Macromol.2011;49(4):493-497.

Unknown if coffee efficacy relies on caffeination.   Caffeine may act as a bronchodilator, but the above studies involved very small amounts of caffeine -probably not enough to cause bronchodilation.

Yurach MT, Davis BE, Cockcroft DW. The effect of caffeinated coffee on airway response to methacholine and exhaled nitric oxide.Respir Med.2011;105(11):1606-1610.