There are some less common cases of coughing that require immediate medical attention. Call your doctor if you have:
- been in a contact with someone who has tuberculosis
- sudden weight loss or night sweats (may also indicate tuberculosis)
- severe cough that begins suddenly
- stridor (when you inhale air you have high-pitched sounds)
- fever (that can indicate a serious infection requiring antibiotics)
- thick yellow or green phlegm that may indicate a bacterial infection
- cough that is longer than 10-14 days
- cough in an infant who is less than 3 months old
- coughing with blood
- cough that worsens in a horizontal position (that may indicate congestive heart failure)
- heart disease or swelling in your legs.

Most cases, however, are less severe and they can be solved using a simple home remedy known and used by more than 180 family physicians and medical professionals in Russia. During last 4 decades, these doctors taught over 100,000 asthmatics how to apply simple breathing exercises of the Buteyko breathing technique to stop coughing attacks. The Buteyko technique is officially approved by the Ministry of Health in Russia for treatment of bronchial asthma.

The Buteyko method has been able to eliminate signs and symptoms of asthma in all 6 medical trials (with up to 80-95% reduction in medication), and coughing is the key symptom for bronchial asthma. Thus, these easy breathing exercises can assist other cough-sufferers to decrease their coughing. How do they work?

The major purpose of the Buteyko respiratory method is to make personal involuntary breathing pattern lighter and slower and increase oxygen concentration in the body. Do we need slower breathing? Why could it be beneficial?

Up to 95% of contemporary individuals promote an ignorant myth that CO2 (carbon dioxide) is a poisonous gas. They also suppose that deep unconscious breathing pattern (or chronic hyperventilation) improves O2 level in the tissues. There is no any medical evidence about benefits of breathing more and/or faster than the tiny medical norm (6 L of air per minute at rest for a 70-kg person). In fact, most modern people, asthmatics included, breathe more than 10 L/min. What are the effects?

Hundreds of published medical research publications have confirmed that over-breathing REDUCES oxygen content in all vital organs, the heart and brain included. This happens due to losses in arterial CO2. Low blood CO2 (called hypocapnia) leads to spasm (constriction) of blood vessels and hampered release of oxygen by red blood cells in capillaries (the reduced Bohr effect). Both factors lower oxygen delivery to cells.

Additionally, CO2 performs uncountable significant processes for the human organism, which include the following: control of smoothness, intensity and regularity of respiration, control of blood glucose levels, regulation of stomach pH, sleep regulation, relaxation of muscle cells, normal immunity, blood pressure maintenance, bronchodilation (dilation of airways), repair of alveoli in lungs, release of O2 in capillaries (the Bohr effect), regulation of blood pH and dozens of other essential processes.

Coughing destroys your health

Coughing through the mouth, due to large air movements, is a form of hyperventilation with minute ventilation rate more than 15-20 L/min. Coughing is especially dangerous for people with bronchitis, lung cancer, bronchopneumonia, asthma, COPD, bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis and other pulmonary conditions with present damage to the lungs. During constant cough, you breathing frequency is over 25 exhalations in one min instead of normal 10-12. Your tidal volume for one cough is close to one liter of air instead of 500-600 ml (the medical norm). As a result of coughing, your CO2 losses are huge.

Bouts of coughing cause irritation of the constricted airways due to excessive mechanical friction; cellular hypoxia; chronic respiratory infections and inflammation due to suppression of the immune system; constriction of airways due to hypocapnia (CO2 is a bronchodilator); irritable state of cough-receptors in the tracheobronchial tree/larynx due to hypocapnia (lack of CO2 over-excites nerve cells); possible over-production of mucus; cell hypoxia in all vital organs and other pathological outcomes due to hyperventilation.

Measure your body oxygen content using a DIY test

This is the Buteyko body oxygen test. After your exhalation, close your nostrils and count your discomfort-free breath holding time. Remember that the breathing pattern after the check should be similar to your respiration pattern before the test: no strain in the slightest degree after the test.

This specific trial indicates 2 factors at the same time. To start with, the result evaluates content of oxygen in the cells. Next, it represents how weighty the personal breath pattern is.

Assuming that the unconscious respiratory pattern is standard, they will be able to maintain the breath hold for at least forty sec. If the person has about 20 s, that person breathes approximately two times the scientific norm (and this is 6 L of air in a single min). When it comes to the sick men and women, their test result is much less: normally approximately fifteen seconds or less by reason of chronic over-breathing.

Home remedies for constant coughing

These Russian doctors have been teaching their patients how to apply simple breathing exercises (constant coughing home remedy) to stop bouts of coughing and prevent asthma attacks and other complications and exacerbations. These 3 breathing exercises are provided below (in the resource box), and they involve voluntary restriction of breathing (together with muscular relaxation) in order to increase CO2 content in the lungs and arterial blood.

Long term remedy to problems with constant cough

When your unconscious respiratory pattern is so slow that your cell oxygen level is above 25 s, you will not experience problems with chronic coughing. You should slow down your excessive automatic breathing in order to attain this goal. This is a serious challenge since you need to learn how to breathe less 24/7.

The fastest and easiest way to achieve normal breathing is to apply the Oxygen Remedy therapy. These online courses are organized by Richard Geller and taught by Dr. Artour Rakhimov. The therapy uses lifestyle factors from the Buteyko breathing technique and breathing exercises with application of the Frolov breathing device. Amazing DIY breathing device produces similar effects. The beauty of all these methods is that the person is in control of own health that is measured by the body oxygen test described above.

Resources
Cough: Causes and Most Natural Treatment (Over 90% Success)
Natural Cough Remedies: 3 Very Easy Breathing Exercises
CO2: Best Natural Cough Suppressant - CO2 is most natural and best cough suppressant. This home remedy dilates airways, increases cell O2 and fights inflammation

NormalBreathing.com has hundreds of medical references and quotes, graphs, charts and tables, analysis of numerous respiratory techniques, results of clinical trials, free breathing exercises with lifestyle modules, manuals and techniques, and other resources to increase brain and body oxygen levels and improve health.

Author's Bio: 

Dr. Artour Rakhimov is a health educator. He is the author of books and the educational website NormalBreathing.com devoted to natural self-oxygenation and health education.