Sweeteners
Raw honey / Coffee for Post-infective Persistent Cough (PPC) (e.g. after cold or flu)
Persistent Postinfective Cough (PPC) Coffee/HoneyTreatment
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.
(Raessi et al, 2013)
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.
Patients received the following doses 3 times / day:
Honey/Coffee Group. Received paste of 20.8 grams of
natural honey and 2.9 grams of Nestle™ instant coffee
Steroid
Group. Received 13.3 mg of prednisolone
Expectorant Group (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, 2013)
Expectorant Group
Steroid (Prednisolone)
Group
Honey/Coffee Group
Degree 0 (Low) to 3 (High)
Before
treatment
2.8
3.0
2.9
After 1 week of treatment
2.7
2.4
0.2
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, 2011)
Coffee Group
Honey Group
Coffee + Honey Group
Degree 0 (Low) to 3 (High)
Pre-treatment
3.0
3.0
3.0
Post-treatment
1.8
1.4
0.4
At home honey / coffee treatment dosages
Take 1 tablespoon of
RAW honey
(21 g) mixed with 1 rounded teaspoon (2.5
g) of granulated instant coffee, in ~8oz warm
(not hot) water,
3 times a day (about every 8 hours),
for at least 1 week .
To make this concoction in a way that protects
honey's health beneficial properties : In a glass/cup, first put in
coffee, honey and cold water to ~2/3 full. Next add boiling water to total
8oz (1 cup). This produces a drink that doesn't expose the honey to too much
heat, but is warm enough to dissolve the honey and coffee by mixing with a
spoon.
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, 2011)
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, 2011 )
References Nosalova G, Prisenznakova L, Paulovicova E, et al.
Antitussive and immunomodulating activities of instant coffee arabinogalactan-protein
(2011) Int J Biol Macromol. 49(4):493-497.
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 (2011)Iran J Otorhinolaryngol.23(2):1-8.
Raeessi MA, Aslani J, Raeessi
N, Gharaie H, Karimi Zarchi AA, Raeessi F (2013) Honey plus coffee versus systemic
steroid in the treatment of persistent post-infectious cough: a randomised controlled
trial.Prim Care Respir J.
22 (3):325-330. doi: 10.4104/pcrj.2013.00072.
PubMed
pdf
Yurach MT, Davis BE, Cockcroft
DW. The effect of caffeinated coffee on airway response to methacholine and exhaled
nitric oxide (2011) Respir Med. 105(11):1606-1610.