The difficulty in breathing along with chest tightness and occasional chest pain is the hall mark of chest congestion. You are also likely to have stuffy nose and sore throat. Chest congestion is caused by cold, air borne flu virus or bacteria.
When foreign body like virus or bacteria enter your body through respiration the defense system of your body tries to resist it and that results in inflammation of the lower respiratory tract. The immune system produces more mucus to wash away the foreign body. This leads to accumulation of excess mucus in the lungs and precipitates chest congestion.
Traditionally infections are cured by using antibiotics, but there are side effects of such medicines. The mucus can become dry and that will worsen your condition. You can try herbal remedies. There are a lot of herbal remedies that can give you much relief from congestion as well as cure the infection. Let us explore some of these herbal remedies for chest congestion.
6 Herbal Remedies For Chest Congestion
Onion
The sulphur compounds and querecetin present in onion are very useful in breaking up the mucus. For this reason you can use onion to loosen the phelgm and expel it by coughing.
This will give you quite a relief from chest congestion. You can have some onion sautéed in olive oil which is also anti-inflammatory in nature.
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus oil has been used since a long time to treat chest and nasal congestion. The essential oils in eucalyptus have expectorant as well as antibacterial properties. For best results you can inhale some eucalyptus oil along with steam.
Peppermint
This herb is a notch above other herbs in that it not only relieves you of congestion, but can treat headaches, muscle aches and also nausea. You can inhale peppermint oil through steam.
Once the essential oils enter your respiratory tract through the steam it loosens the phlegm, opens up the congested bronchial tubes and relieves the congestion due to mucus.
Herbal Tea
A cup of warm tea has been found to be a great remedy for chest congestion. It can loosen the mucus and help you to expel it.
Moreover, tea has some antibacterial properties which are helpful in subjugating the infection causing agent to some extent. Take two cups of hot tea every day to treat chest congestion.
Garlic
Household spices like garlic have been found to be of great help in relieving the symptoms of chest congestion. It can fight sinus congestion, defeat bacterial infection and help loosen mucus.
You will be able to expel the mucus with cough and breath freely. You can chew on two cloves of garlic regularly to clear chest congestion.
Lobelia
Lobelia is a pain relieving herb. It also stimulates the respiratory system and loosens mucus. You can prepare tea with lobelia, but you should remember that too much of heat can destroy the medicinal quality of this herb.
For this steep some dried lobelia leaves in a cup of boiling water for about 15 minutes. Strain the solution and drink. Take three such cups regularly. You will be relieved of the pain immediately and congestion within a few days.
Caution: Please use Home Remedies after Proper Research and Guidance. You accept that you are following any advice at your own risk and will properly research or consult healthcare professional.