Bronchitis

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BRONCHITIS

Bronchitis can last just a few weeks-the result of a hard-to-shake cold or flu. When bronchitis drags on for more than three months or occurs once a year or more often, it's considered chronic.

Toss the cigarettes

If you smoke, consider that lingering cough as an early warning signal of lung damage. Smokers are much more likely to develop bronchitis than nonsmokers.

Ask others not to smoke in your vicinity

Breathing someone's else's cigarette smoke can make your bronchitis worse. Stay away from secondhand smoke.

Get misty

When you breathe in moist air, you help thin out mucus, which makes it easier to clear out the lungs. Taking a hot shower or bath, draping a towel over your head and breathing the steam from a bowl of hot water or running a humidifier in your bedroom as you sleep can all provide the moisture that your airways need to stay clear.

Drink your fill

Imbibing water also helps thin mucous secretions in the lungs.

Try a cup of mullein tea

A brew of this herb is said to soothe mucous membrances and help remove mucus from the lungs. To make the tea, steep a handful of dried with an adjustable valve that exercises the lungs the same way as blowing up balloons.

Eat onions

Onions contain a number of ingredients, including quercetin, a compound in the bioflavonoid family that may help protect the lungs from infection.

Add some spice to your life

Red peppers, curry and other spicy foods that make your eyes water or nose run can help thin mucous secretions.