Ayurveda home remedies for cough

What is cough?

It is the technically forceful expulsion of air from the lungs through the throat. The peculiar coughing sound is produced when air forcefully passes through the epiglottis which is a flap cover like organ on your windpipe. Sometimes it is often caused by irritation in the throat.
Commonly the cough which occurs as a result of throat irritation is self-limiting but in certain cases, it can be a symptom of an underlying disease. There are some diseases which cause acute and sub-acute cough like cold, flu, acute bronchitis, sinusitis, pneumonia, whooping cough, asthma, allergies etc.
In Ayurveda, Acharya Sushruta has described cough as Kasa, in which abnormal Prana Vaayu along with Udaan Vaayu gets expelled through the mouth making a peculiar sound like a broken bronze vessel. The Kasa is mainly caused by Vata and Kapha dosha.
​In Ayurveda Kasa (cough) is described as a separate disease. There are different types of Kasa enlisted   Like Vataja, Pittaja, Kaphaja, Kshataja and Kshayaja.

  Ayurveda home remedies for cough are as follows (Reference taken from Sushruta Samhita)-

1. Take 4 pinches of black pepper (Piper nigrum) powder, half teaspoon rock sugar, 1 teaspoon ghee (clarified butter) and half teaspoon honey and mix it. Take this mixture orally to get rid of the cough.
2. Take Amla (Indian gooseberry), pippali (Piper longum), dried ginger and sugar in equal quantity and prepare a mixture. Take this mixture of about half tea or 1 teaspoon with curd water (Dadhi mand) according to the symptoms. Dadhi mand is the Anupan here.
3. Take dry ginger, black pepper and pippali (Piper longum) in equal quantities and grind them into fine powder. Take this mixture daily along with honey as Anupan until the symptom subsides. This provides relief in cough due to Kapha dosha.
4. Taking jaggery water mixed with 1 teaspoon honey and half teaspoon black pepper powder is one of the best Ayurvedic home remedies.
5. Cook 1 teaspoon amla (Indian gooseberry) powder in 1 teaspoon ghee and take fortified ghee with milk to get benefit in Kasa (cough).

      If the cough persists then consult your Ayurvedic doctor. It may be a way of signalling by the body for an underlying                  disease.