As the temperatures start to drop and colder months are approaching, you might be wondering when the first bout of bronchitis might hit. If not bronchitis, a nasty cough from the common cold can even stop you in your tracks. However, traditional prescription and over-the-counter medicines are not only costly but who wants to take them? If you have any doubt, check out the arm’s length list of ingredients in some of those “cures”.
An all-natural home remedy, on the other hand, could save you time and money, as well as potentially harmful ingredients going into your system.
I am going to share a recipe that could be made with ingredients currently in your home. If not, they are readily available…and none of them are difficult to spell or pronounce.
It might not even be bronchitis or a cold. Your cough might be stemming from allergies, asthma, smoking, or other various reasons. So, if you have a cough and want to avoid going into the doctor, or take unnecessary chemicals, this recipe is worth trying!
Homemade Remedy to Help with Bronchitis and Cough
We are fortunate that we are able to tap into previous generations and their wisdom of natural medicine. For many of them, it was a necessity. For us, it’s a wonderful option. Our grandparents and great-grandparents most likely were often treated with homemade natural remedies for bronchitis, asthma, and other various coughing ailments.
The following homemade remedy is an easy recipe that can be made quickly when you feel that you are developing bronchitis, or a cough stemming from something else. However, you don’t need to take this treatment from the onset to provide relief for it to be effective like other treatments require.
The Ingredients
- 1-2 red organic onions, chopped;
- 1 lb brown dark sugar;
- 6 cups of water;
- 2 lemons (juice only);
- 7 tablespoons honey;
If you are a vegan, you can substitute the honey with molasses.
The Reasoning Behind the Ingredients
The combination of these ingredients might seem odd. But, each ingredient is chosen for a specific reason, with some due to their medical component.
The onion is good for strengthening the immune system. An onion is also known to work as a natural antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, and expectorant.
Honey and lemons are both great for soothing an irritated throat. Honey is also known for building the immune system and working as an antifungal, antibacterial, and antiviral agent.
Brown sugar? Well, it just helps it taste better.
Related: How To Make Sauerkraut – The Most Effective Probiotic
Preparing the Homemade Remedy
The instructions are easy but do require a bit of constant stirring and a careful eye at times, such as when the brown sugar is melting. For example, it’s not melting, then blink and it’s melted…yes, that quick.
So, here are the instructions…
#1. Melt the brown sugar over medium heat, stirring continuously.
The color should turn a reddish tone when it’s ready.
#2. Add the chopped onion.
#3. Add the water.
#4. Bring this mixture to a boil until approximately ⅓ of the water has evaporated.
#5. Remove from the heat and let it cool, then add the lemon juice.
#6. Add the honey, and stir thoroughly.
#7. Pour the liquid, along with the cooked onion, into a glass container with a lid.
Let it sit for the night (or a few hours) before using.
How to Use the Bronchitis Remedy
For adults: Take 1 tablespoon before every meal. You should repeat this until bronchitis or cough has resolved.
For Children: Use no more than 1 teaspoon, in the same manner as you would for adults. However, since it contains honey, you should consult with a physician before giving to a child under the age of 6, and never before the age of 1 due honey containing spores of bacterium that can cause botulism in young children.
This mixture actually tastes better than you might think. The onions are cooked, so they are not as pungent, and the brown sugar, honey, and lemon juice combination have a decent flavor. However, this should not be made in advance and put on the shelf for later. This should be made about a day before starting to use it. In other words, there isn’t anything in this process that would give it long shelf life.
A Bonus Remedy for Sleeping at Night
Bronchitis can be stubborn and linger a bit longer than normal. And, that can often keep you up at night with all the coughing…even if your life goes on with work, school, or any other plans. And, lack of sleep can not only be aggravating but hinder the recovery as well.
So, if you have a stubborn case, or can’t stay home to rest while recovering, you might consider making yourself a hot toddy before bed. It’s easy to make and should help you achieve a better night’s sleep than you would without it.
All you need to do is boil some water, and then pour it in a mug with a tea bag. Allow it to steep for about 5-10 minutes, then add the following:
- A pinch of cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1-3 tablespoons of whisky (depends on your tolerance)
Stir the above ingredients until the honey is dissolved. Next, simply drink it to soothe your throat and suppress the coughing. If you don’t want that much liquid before bed, just mix the honey, lemon, and whiskey and drink the smaller amount. My grandma gave this to us kids when we were young, and it works to help with sleep and cough.
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Can this be made ahead and frozen ?
Try it and see if it works.
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If you dont have lemon juice after the SHTF because you are not in a citrus growing area, what do you use instead?
I would try vinegar, tart apple juice, or cranberry juice. I think it’s for the acidity as much as the vitamin c .
It’s easier to just drink some Mullein tea or take a dropper-full of tincture. Mullein is AWESOME for respiratory problems.
“All you need to do is boil some water, and then pour it in a mug with a tea bag. Allow it to steep for about 5-10 minutes, then add the following:
A pinch of cinnamon
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1-3 tablespoons of whisky (depends on your tolerance)”
Sounds like my father’s recipe for any time he had either a cold or the flu. HIs recipe was sans the tea and the cinnamon. His booze was Old Overholt. I remember that bottle from the time I was old enough to recognize it until I went into the Marine Corps.
Just take three shots of whiskey and call it a night
I believe that is the main ingredient in Nyquil. It was also my belief that was the important ingredient in my father’s cold remedy. The honey and lemon juice was just to disguise the fact that he had a healthy belt of warm booze which went quickly into his blood stream and he was unaccustomed to alcohol, so he got a good night’s rest.
Sounds like a good remedy left coast
Hey, been using this all my life and a lot of friends around me use this. My gramma came from Souix Reservation in 1906 or so and always used this plus others.This is old English recipe for bronchitis and pneumonia. Plan old catnip, Boil water,take off heat, steep a stem full of leaves, I leave them together and they pull out without straining. I use that for 3 cups and some times leave them over night for super strong. Hang them and dry them for winter use. Check it out admin, would love to see an article about it.
Catnip is a great herb. Mullein though is a bit better in this case. I will say though that the onions in this article are better served by warming them in an oven until just soft. Letting the cool a bit then placing warm on the chest as a poultice. It breaks up congestion quickly.
Bronchitis can be caused by a virus, bacteria, or environmental factors such as dust, smoke, and pollen, and herbals list a wide variety of treatments for it, the article giving a good recipe to try and a great starting point to explore from. I have allergic bronchitis and treat it with one of the behind the counter treatments like Bronkaid. These contain an expectorant called guaifenesin, and ephedrin which eases inflammation in the airway. There are many herbal expectorants like the various mints and milkweeds (Asclepias), but I never see a preparation from Ephedra antisyphillitica for airway inflammation, Ephedra obviously being the natural source for ephedrine (and of a nicely stimulating tea prepared by the old Mormons in place of the prohibited coffee). Anybody heard of herbal Ephedra for bronchitis?? In the Southwest at least combining Mountain Monarda and Ephedra might be a great natural treatment for Bronchitis.
As for the alchohol, cheap Cien de Agave white Tequila is good for everything, but I am fonder and fonder of Tito’s Vodka and fresh squeezed lime, for medicinal purposes only.
We used to buy Mormon tea from a grower up near Bishop, CA. I think the feds got after them because they stopped selling it. I also think that the feds thought that some kind of illicit drug could be made from the natural ephedra. I don’t know if that is possible or not, but it did make a nice hot drink for a cold winter night — well, as cold as it gets in SoCal which is “Let’s go to the park” weather in other parts of the country.
Ephedra still grows wild up around Bishop, and I suppose other areas in the eastern Sierras and I suppose private land owners would give one permission to harvest it. You probably can’t get a permit from the Forest Unservice to harvest it from national forests for the same reason those folks from Bishop had to stop selling it.
sounds almost like a recipe for onion pie. Me, when bronchitis strikes, a quarter teaspoon of ground cloves (whole ones tend to blow up like mini firecrackers 🙂 in the first half of a cigarette. Usually, four are plenty to knock out any bacterial infection. My case is thins, when living in the swamps of Penna, I caught that and pneumonia on a regular basis. The last time, 4 days puking pus out of the lungs by the bucketful. I am not joking. That finished me on cloves, I stopped worrying about them. A few clove cigarettes killed the infection. NOTHING else worked.
For bronchial asthma, also very common, causing strangling deaths in people (the windpipe swells shut and you pass out), scotch snuff stops the attack. A small pinch inhaled into each nostril opens wind passages and stops the drainage that the body inhales with each cough. Scotch snuff is finely ground tobacco (almost a dust) moistened with some camphor and peppermint oil. If you can’t find camphor, use Vicks, which is all natural, as part of it. It can be stored in an airtight container for years–if you use the peppermint oil, not the flavoring!
To stop a cough, one very small sprig of chewing tobacco kills all germs in the throat. He’s a healing herb. It was never meant to be inhaled except as a medicinal such as for the bronchitis.
I highly recommend reading Health Benefits of Tobacco by Dr. Campbell. Much of the book is studies about tobacco, how they lied to us for decades in a PC scam. Any studies done in the US or Manchester U, UK, are recreated in other nations, and all have failed to prove tobacco is bad, evil, the devil’s weed, and that Hitler lied when he claimed it caused cancer. What Hitler wanted done, the dnc and the uk obey. Do not inhale except as a medicinal! Note that people who chew or dip, like the Amish, rarely suffer stomach viruses, sore throats, bladder infections and so on. niio
I humbly suggest you cook the ingredients as recommended, except add the honey after the cooking is done. This is assuming you would use raw local honey, cooking it ‘voids’ all the ‘good stuff’ in the honey.
I usually make a hot tea with mint, ginger root and lemon juice, sweetened with honey.
Hot French onion soup, chicken soup with extra onion and garlic (Jewish penicillin! ?) are good too.
Our family used to use ginger brandy in a hot Toddy.
Just Love this website! I am 84 and remember as a child, my Grandmas remedy for colds, and coughs. was whiskey, lemon and honey in hot water. We went to sleep and woke up feeling a lot better…
Do you refrigerate this once made?
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Garlic, Lemon and Honey are three powerful ingredients from nature. All of them have strong anti-microbial properties and are great as a home remedy for fighting both colds and the flu.
This tonic is very popular in Russian and German Herbal Medicine. The combination of these ingredients are extremely powerful. This solution has it’s roots in ancient Egyptian medicine.
Daily Single Batch Mason Jar Method
Ingredients
– 1/2 lemon
– 3 cloves of garlic
– 1-2 tablespoon honey
– 2 cups of hot water
Preparation
Peel the garlic and mince them and place them into a 1 quart mason jar (they will need to set exposed the the air for 20 minutes. While you are waiting for the garlic. Meanwhile, put on a pot of water and let the water boil. Wash a lemon. Once the 20 minutes has past, pour the water over the mixture and steep like a tea. Next, make sure the water is cool. Use a kitchen strainer to filter out the pulp.
Add honey and lemon juice to garlic tea and stir til uniformed. Keep it in the fridge.
How to use: It is recommended to pour the elixir into a cup with straw and sip through out the day. You will get use to the taste. Make a fresh batch of this elixir as needed.
Note: If you want to increase the potency add ¼ to 1 tsp cayenne pepper (according to tolerance) to your cup, stir and sip slowly.
Mustard Seed Oil topically for Chest Congestion: My buddy from Bangladash says that in their country, you take about a teaspoon of MSO in a small bowl, heat it up for a few seconds in the microwave til it is warm “not hot”. Soak it up into a cottonball and spread it over the chest, back and neck of the sick person. Repeat 2x daily.
Glucosinolate, available in mustard oil which accounts for antibiotic, fungicidal and cancer prevention qualities, serves as a therapeutic for human health. Ally Isothiocyanate serves as an anti-fungal agent, which protects from fungal growth and reduces infection.