How I cured my bronchitis/chest cold with Ginger

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

I went to the beach recently, and didn't wear quite enough clothes...caught a chill from the cold winter wind. About 3 days later I started feeling tired, and noticed my lungs felt funny.

The next day (last thursday) I noticed I had a bit of a cough. I carried on as normal, but felt really blughhhh the next day. Had a bit of a temperature, and the cough was bad, and had to stay inside on the sofa. On friday night I went to sleep and woke up in the middle of the night with a terrible cough, and low grade fever. Definitely bronchitis.

So yesterday (Saturday) I spent on the sofa under blankets, not doing much. My eyes were sorish, and I could feel there was an infection in my chest. I've had bronchitis before, though usually I get a cold first, not go straight into the cough.

I had read ginger could be good for low-grade fevers. The book on Ginger by Dr. Stephen Fulder was at hand and I had a glance thru it. Apparently Chinese medicine says things like bronchitis and colds are "invading damp", and administering warming spices and herbs will help.

Ginger is a great warming spice. The fresh ginger will warm the peripheral areas, which is usually what you need for colds and bronchitis. The powdered ginger is stronger and hotter, and will warm the core areas of the body to drive out "damp".

I decided to try fresh ginger. I could've used a homeopathic remedy, but the one that fitted the illness (rhus tox.) I happened not to have. So I would have to rely on herbs. I really didn't want a repeat of Friday night!:eek:

Anyways, I diced up a couple of tablespoons of fresh ginger rhizome, put in a pot with 2.5 cups of filtered water, and simmered for 20 min.s. I also added a little bit of sage from the garden ( Fulder says it is good for mucusy conditions as it is "drying"; I also know it was traditionally in old England regarded as good for making you sweat things out...so it sounded like it is quite warming; and anyway, I had some growing in my garden), and a few cloves, which are very warming. I also added a pinch of cayenne pepper for it's ability to make other herbs more absorbed and carried around the body, plus it would bring the brew up to nuclear capability in terms of being warming. Don't worry, I only used a pinch!

The brew was naturally (mainly because of the Cayenne actually) very strong, and hard to drink, but I didn't want to have the terrible coughing again, and be kept awake half the night. It was night and I was already coughing more.

Sure enough last night I slept well. Hardly any coughing, and I didn't wake up with the unpleasant low fever. I started blowing my nose heaps, and had a few coughing paroxysms as I brought up some greenish mucus from my lungs. :cool: This is a great sign....I'm clearing the gunk, the "ama" out of my body. I know I am on the mend because I also feel a lot better, though I still feel bleary eyed, and a bit hottish in the head and chest.

I know the rhus tox would probably have worked, but it is great to know I can just use something I can find in the fridge as a effective and fast medicine against chestcolds and coughs. Ginger is a truly great medicinal remedy, as well as being a tasty spice.:elephant:

[Seaweed]

I cured my beginnings of a cold last week with lamb's fry but ginger may have tasted nicer! I will remember next time :)

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

I might add that I used some olive leaf extract too yesterday, but I feel since that is more of a general immune-system booster, and not specifically a cough remedy, that most of the glory should go to ginger.

I got some rhus tox from a friend today, and have started taking that too, but obviously it couldn't account for my vast improvement overnight.

[Seaweed]

I dunno about olive leaf extract. I tried it when I had swine flu a couple of months ago. I had the comvita brand. It tasted very yummy but did absolutely zilch to the illness. The elderberry tincture did squat too. It did not taste so nice tho' I still say SA all the way for me.

I have found in the past, mustard compress on the chest helps with those rattly chest coughs.

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

For beginnings of cold Seaweed, try ferrum Phos. It is a great homeopathic remedy for snuffing out colds right from the start.

Haven't heard of lambs fry before for that. However, as I am a vegetarian it would be out of the question!

I should add that a hotwater bottle last night helped too.

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

Yeah, I know what you mean about that olive leaf. I've never noticed it do much for me either. I am certain it was the ginger that worked....it was such a powerful brew.

Yes, you've reminded me of mustard compresses. I heard that is super effective. How do you do that?

[Seaweed]

I was a vegetarian & a vegan too for a very long time which is probably why I can eat lamb's fry :giggle: None of the life long meat eaters I know will touch it. I'm quite fine with it as I feel it is wildly disrespectful to waste part of an animal that has been killed so you can eat it.

I never had much joy with homeopathy for some reason. I've spent alot of $s taking the kids to homeopaths & they've never been much use. Funnily enuf I was talking to a friend tonight who has a friend who went to one of the more useless homeopaths we visited & her friend's kids are doing really well with it. So it must just be us. We do far better with cranio sacral & energy work & nutritional remedies.

Saunas are good for knocking colds on the head if you have access to one. A nice sauna with a cup of hot ginger tea would be awesome right now :)

[Seaweed]

Yes, you've reminded me of mustard compresses. I heard that is super effective. How do you do that? It was actually many years ago now. Then husband had had a collapsed lung when he was a teen. He had something & had a real nasty chest with a horrid rattle when he even breathed. I got the only mustard I had in the house at the time with was french grainy mustard. I only do the real thing so it was literally just mustard seeds ground up. Spread a thick layer on his chest. Covered it with a hot towel & waited for the skin on his chest to go red. Then washed it all off. Covered warmly & he was much better the next day. I am sure you can do mustard foot baths too with that colman's mustard powder?

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

Pity you stopped being a vege.....it is a great thing for the planet, and good spiritually too (less karma).

Funny with the homeopathy. I've had wonderful results with it. It has literally saved my life. Ferrum phos. would be one of my most used remedies. I've alleviated a lot of people's colds with it. But nevermind, there are so many options out there...and cranial, and energy work etc. can be so good. I've had a lot of help for various conditions from cranial, that's for sure.

Not sure I'd try a sauna for a cold actually. I love saunas, but I have heard that the cold will go away and then come back viciously if you use a sauna for it. But you're going to tell me that hasn't happened to you, right?

Anyway, I can't seem to handle them nowadays, because of another health cond.

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

I think there are probably loads of herbs you can use successfully for bronchitis.



I'm not personally acquainted with the TV newsman Walter Cronkite, but he and I have something in common. Over a decade ago, on independent trips to China, our hosts gave both of us honeysuckle tea. I was given the tea for flu. He got the tea for bronchitis, the inflammation (http://www.bodyandfitness.com/Information/Health/Research/bromelain.htm) of the bronchial tubes that causes persistent cough, chest congestion and often the production of a lot of thick, sticky phlegm.


Both of us recovered quickly, and I'm inclined to believe that this ancient herbal remedy helped. Doctors tend to scoff at such statements. Our two case studies are merely what the scientists often dismiss as anecdotal evidence.
http://www.bodyandfitness.com/_themes/blends/blebul1a.gif Study Confirms Folk Cures
All right, so our cases don't really prove anything. But there's more to honeysuckle--and other herbs--than just anecdotes. And these days, there are a lot of scientific studies to back that up. In 1993, for example, Chinese researchers divided 96 children with bronchiolitis, a children's form of bronchitis, into three groups. One-third of the children were given the herbal formula shuang huang lian, which consists of honeysuckle, forsythia and skullcap (http://www.bodyandfitness.com/Products/Health/herbal.htm#skullcap). Another third got only antibiotics, and the remaining third were given both herbs and antibiotics. The children who were given the herbs alone showed improvement in chest symptoms, cough, fever and wheezing. Compared with those on antibiotics, the herbs-only group fared better in some ways: They had fewer days with fever and less wheezing and coughing. No adverse reactions to the herbs were noted.
That's the good news. The bad news, to my way of thinking, is that the herbal infusion was administered intravenously for seven days. Nowhere do I recommend herbal injections. For treating bronchitis, taking herbs in the form of tea or tinctures is safe and often quite effective. And tell your doctor to save the antibiotics for emergencies. The downside of antibiotics is that they make any "bugs" that survive more resistant to treatment.
This Chinese study is good enough to give me confidence in suggesting honeysuckle and forsythia as treatments for respiratory problems because it confirms centuries of folkloric use. But apparently it hasn't budged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which does not list either honeysuckle or forsythia on the list of herbs generally regarded as safe (GRAS), let alone as treatments for bronchitis. The ways of the FDA are a mystery to me. I regard honeysuckle and forsythia as safe and effective, and I wouldn't hesitate to use them for bronchitis and the chest congestion of colds and flu. But because they are not GRAS, all I can say to other people is, try them at your own risk. Bronchitis has several possible causes. It may be bacterial or viral, or it may be caused by some chronic irritant such as cigarette smoking or exposure to certain chemicals. Children are more likely to develop bronchitis (and asthma) if their parents smoke or if they are exposed to high levels of formaldehyde, one of the chemicals that give cars and home furnishings that "new" smell. Sometimes the germs and irritants work together: A smoker catches a cold and the cough turns into bronchitis.
http://www.bodyandfitness.com/_themes/blends/blebul1a.gif Natural Supplements For Bronchitis
Bronchitis may clear up by itself without any treatment, but it can also linger and sometimes become chronic. That's why I favor treating it. Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) and forsythia (Forsythia suspensa) are two of my favorite natural bronchitis remedies, but there are many others.

[Seaweed]

Not sure I'd try a sauna for a cold actually. I love saunas, but I have heard that the cold will go away and then come back viciously if you use a sauna for it. But you're going to tell me that hasn't happened to you, right?
Well interestingly I was pretty sick when I say I had swine flu. Kind of head cold but all above the chest. I went for a gentle 15 min run to warm up then sat in the sauna until I felt too hot. I got better after that. However the next few days I got another real nasty cold which went to my chest. It hurt to breathe. I tried all the elderberry etc to no avail but kept on the SA & got on with it. All up I was probably sick for 2 weeks which is unheard of for me. I kept doing everything I usually do ( except less gym ) but it was very irritating.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

How do you know you had the swine flu seaweed? did they test you for it?

[Seaweed]

How do you know you had the swine flu seaweed? did they test you for it? I was being silly as I was sick for so long. No doctors got anywhere near me.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

ah... :D ....

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

Well interestingly I was pretty sick when I say I had swine flu. Kind of head cold but all above the chest. I went for a gentle 15 min run to warm up then sat in the sauna until I felt too hot. I got better after that. However the next few days I got another real nasty cold which went to my chest. It hurt to breathe. I tried all the elderberry etc to no avail but kept on the SA & got on with it. All up I was probably sick for 2 weeks which is unheard of for me. I kept doing everything I usually do ( except less gym ) but it was very irritating.

Aha, you have confirmed what I heard. I was told that by a man I met once in a sauna. He was really into saunas but told me that if you had a cold and went in a sauna, that is what would happen. He said it like he really knew, and I took him at his word.

Saunas act pretty powerfully on us energetically. If you get bowen treatment don't ever go in a sauna for at least 2 weeks afterwards. I made that mistake, after having bowen treatment for a clicking jaw. Boy did the sauna aggravate my jaw!! Caused a lot of discomfit for a few days, until someone who knew a bit of bowen undid the damage.

[Seaweed]

Thankfully I am hardly ever sick. I do like saunas but I will remember that.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Hate saunas. they crash my blood pressure to just about nothing.

[Sarah]

Hate saunas. they crash my blood pressure to just about nothing.

Thats interesting, I have low blood pressure and have never been able to handle saunas either. Always feel like I am going to pass out :giggle:. Now I know why :LMAO:

[Seaweed]

I have very low blood pressure as well but I love them. I do get out when I start spinning but I love the heat. I also only really jump in the sauna if it is a horrid nasty cold wet windy day outside. I want to make a sauna to put in my front yard. Or out the back in the bush.

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

I have had low blood pressure myself in the past, but never noticed anything when I went in a sauna. The only time I used to black out was when I stood up suddenly after sitting or something.

That doesn't seem to happen anymore. B/P naturally increases a bit as you get older, so maybe that is why. I'm in my early 40s, and my b/p is about 110/70, when it used to be 100/60 or something. When you guys say low, just how low is low?

[Seaweed]

I haven't had it taken for probably 6 years but it always used to be 90/60 sort of area. I can still sometimes get dizzy if I stand up too quick.
ETA: I am a year older than you I think?

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

Well low is much much better than high Seaweed. Come to think of it, I think I used to get 90 over 60. I'll have to check old diaries.

I heard some big US body of doctors have come out recently and said anything over 120/80 is high.

Funny how it is; I have a friend of about 40, and she is 140/90. She is perfectly healthy in every other way. In fact I'd say she is pretty strong. She does yoga a lot, and is one of the most flexible people you could ever meet! They tried to put her on b/p pills but she refused.

[Seaweed]

I am sure I read the top number should be 100 plus your age?

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

Yes, that is what they have said. But I heard this on good authority that some bigwigs in the USA have come out and said anything over 120/90 is bad. Seriously, the bottom dystolic no. is the most important, and I think you're in some trouble if that goes over 90, no matter what age you are.

Of course it probably doesn't matter if you're in your 90s!

Update on the bronchitis. I must admit I am still in recovery from bronchitis. It has lingered on and lingered on (been one week since i came down with it). I still believe the ginger-cloves-sage, with a wee pinch of cayenne tea helped me heaps last weekend when it was at it's worst.

But it has knocked me back, and last night I could hardly breath thru my nose in bed. I felt emotionally labile, and pretty weak too. I've still been going through my hankies, blowing my nose too, though that's slowed down the latter half of today.

I feel hottish and seedy, and am absent-minded, and blocked up. So I went and bought Malcolm Harkers "Euphemasol", his deep lung elixir. I feel a bit better already from taking it. I'll keep you posted.

[Seaweed]

I always get into the SA when I am sick. For me & the kids anyways I have found the nutritional approach has always worked. I did do some liposomal vit C last week when I started getting a runny nose, headache & a sore throat. The liver I did for the vit A. I can't remember off hand vege sources of vit A other than carrots? Carrot & ginger juice maybe? The runny nose kinda hung around a tiny bit the next day but then was gone by lunchtime. My friend who I got it from was sick for a week. I was taking zinc as well as I felt my cold sore trying to appear. It didn't either.

Hope you feel better soon!

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

Thanks Seaweed.

Trouble is this was no ordinary cold. It was a kind of bronchial chest-cold, which I am prone to getting once in a blue moon.

It came on slowly but surely over 2 or 3 days, but because there was no sniffles, no sore-throats etc. (just a funny feeling in my chest really) by the time I realized what it was it was too late...it had really set in.

I've been up and about since Sunday, but there has been this underlying weakness, this inner heat in my body that along with the chesty cough, and blocked sinuses marks it out as quite different to an ordinary cold. I'd be driving along and suddenly have to hoik up a small wad of green jelly like phlegm. I'd open the car door at the next set of lights and spit it out on the road (better out than in!). Never had to do that before.

Malcolm Harker's "Emphymasol" stuff has made me feel a lot better. I can still feel a funny prickly feeling in my chest, and am still "expectorating", but I feel better within myself. Magic.

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

Interestingly, in the Harker formula ginger figures prominently, so there can be no doubt it is an excellent spice in chesty bronchial kinds of conditions. But Harker's mixture also contains elecampane, one of the very best cough herbs, and other good stuff like peppermint, manuka, liquorice, menthol, and eucalyptus.

I just wish I knew what herbs were used on me back in 1992 when I got bronchitis in a holiday camp in Malaysia. I had a constant cough.

The Chinese owner of this backpackers place got me to buys some special chinese herbs, and a lot of brown sugar. She boiled it all up, and then let it cool down. In the day previous she got me to put a towel over my head and breath in over a bowel of steaming hot water with eucalyptus oil in it. Did this a couple of times.

Then the next day I had to drink about 2 pints of this dark sweet-bitter concoction. Then I was playing chess an hour or two later outside when I suddenly had to get up and I coughed up this wad of mucus that was the size of my fist. It was like a big jellyfish! I had no cough after that.

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

Too much information??!:jaw:

[Seaweed]

no I am just resisting an urge to tell you to up your protein & animal fats ;) I cannot tell you how many former veges did it to me when I used to get sick & how mad I used to get with them :giggle:Actually I have been running up & down big hills so I have been distracted. My new love is down hill bush running. Totally zens you out to anything else. We're having awesome weather down here so if you are having it too, get out in the sun to get some vit D. That helps hugely with colds & flu type things. Total gut instinct here but some dandelion root coffee could help as well. Acupuncture is good too & I am sure you will have some decent chinese acupuncturists up where you are. We're not so lucky down here :(

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

Nah, I get plenty of protein. You don't need that much anyhow. I have plenty of muscles, and am well above average for muscular strength for a guy, and have been a vegetarian for 16 years.

Hell, look at how strong gorillas are!!! Wussy vegetarians the lot of them.:D

Hey, running up hills sounds like fun. I'm still coughing a bit, and hoiking up, so not a good idea at all methinks. The sun is good, but you know if you have just got over a fever, or still have it slightly, going out in the sun, even during winter, is not a good idea. Ayurveda counsels against that, says you will bring back the fever, which is a pitta condition. The sun is pitta aggravating.

I know it's true because I once got over a bad flu, had no fever for a few days, was seemingly well, and then walked quite a bit outdoors on a fine winter's day. I came down with a small but uncomfortable version of the fever again that night!

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

Seaweed, where's down there btw? I'm in Auckland. You're right, there are plenty of acupuncturists and TCM doctors up here.

[Seaweed]

Dunedin. Way down south in the blazing sunshine :D

I do a lot better on animal protein. Not much plant protein grows here anyways. I guess I could be hardcore & just eat the possums instead of burying them. I always feel I should but I've just never gotten around to it. Don't gorillas eat meat?

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

Now that is South! I went to Uni there, so know it well. Lovely place.

I bet you could grow plenty of plant protein down there. Did you know that broccoli is 49% protein, in terms of calories? Then there is goat and cow's milk...I'm sure you must have those creatures down there. Eggs are a fantastic source of protein.

But I get all the protein I need from having a small handful of nuts and seeds every day. I eat a few lentils, peas, quinoa and rice too, which have a goodly % of protein. I don't bother with eggs.

Nope, gorillas eat mainly vegetation. They don't eat meat at all. Chimps on rare occassions go cannibal, but apart from that are vegetarian too.

[Seaweed]

Most of the protein in my brocolli would be from the bugs :LMAO:I get my milk from a cow farm & that is what truly put me off vegetarianism. They are a nice little farm too but all those calves get taken away at 24hrs. Luckily for them, they don't get sent to the works immediately. Anything unproductive gets bumped off. It made me realise I was fooling myself by drinking milk. Lamb has a better life & they all have the same end. Well unless you can find someone who homekills & then it is illegal for them to sell or give you any meat :rolleyes: I do have a couple of friends with goats who have been continuously milking them for 3-4 years now so I guess that could be a possibility. My fencing is not good enuf for goats tho & I am not into tethering them. I have chooks. All those excess roos have to go somewhere too & I don't consider leaving them over port a good somewhere. Chooks are very theatrical to bump off. Thankfully my roosters are all nasty so I have never had to deal with eating a pet. My nice roo, who I saved in my vegan days, is gonna die of old age. He's too cool & is so pretty. The kids can pick him up like a teddy bear. Lentils, quinoa & rice very definitely don't grow down here. I can grow flour peas, broad beans & pod peas. Beans are marginal. I'm not really into legumes at all so I do tend to avoid them. I can grow oats, rye, wheat & barley but we are gluten intolerant so I don't bother. Corn doesn't grow so that is out. One of the horses "pruned" my hazelnut grove. I am suspecting it is the one who is left so my money is on them suffering again in the spring if I don't put something around them. Very partial to nuts here. Especially roasted hazelnuts :D I still would not go back to being vege, even with a full on hazelnut grove. I am also very stuck up about what meat I do eat & regularly still abuse people in supermarkets about battery farm chicken & sow crate pork :giggle:

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

Good stuff. Yes, lot of cruelty involved in many farming practices. I don't drink cows milk myself, nor eggs. I drink a bit of goat's milk, that's all. Don't even eat cheese.

Nuts are great as protein sources. Tell me one thing...I thought oats didn't contain gluten. I am gluten intolerant too, and have been wondering about oats as I read somewhere they don't contain gluten. Is this wrong?

[Seaweed]

I can only get the UHT goats milk from the supermarket so I don't bother. Oats have a gluten-like substance in them. Some people are OK with them, some aren't. The kids seem not to be, so I don't bother with them. I do miss my porridge :(

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

Yes, I know a scotswoman who is caecialac (sp.?), and she can not tolerate oats.

Update on bronchitis: Still blowing my nose, and still feeling a bit run down and slightly feverish. I am definitely on the tailend of it now, but my stamina is flagging a bit. I am so near yet so far to being well it seems!


I found one useful thing. I found out on the net that an old trad. way in England of cleaning hankies is to put them in a bowel of salted water and soak them overnight. Then boil them to sterilise.


I've been going thru so many hankies and having to constantly wash them has been a real pain. I tried this new-old method this morning...just soaked 4 hankies in a bowel of cold water with 5 tsps salt for a few hours. When I took them out I noticed all the snot and goo was gone from them. Then I simmered them in an old pot no-one ever uses for 20 min.s. I doubt whether I had to boil them that long actually.

Anyway, they were totally clean after that. Much cleaner smelling than when I've washed them by hand with loads of soap in warm water. So I am chuffed.

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

I'm all ears Momtezuma Tua. ! What ruined your spare keyboard?

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

Final update on bronchitis: Well it has been just over 2 weeks since I started getting sick. I'm down to using only one hankie a day these last 2 days, and am not coughing much, so I am pretty much better.

Still a bit weak though. I get tired more easily than usual. I was talking to a herbalist yesterday, and she reckoned wild cherry bark would've been good to use as it dislodges mucus out of the lungs. I must admit, I think the eucalyptus oil in the hot water ( breathing it in as it evaporated, with a towel over my head ) seemed to help do that too. Eating a raw garlic clove occasionally seemed to help a lot too.

I guess I could've gone to the doctor and got antibiotics...and I might've gotten better sooner. But at a cost. I believe antibiotics are suppressive, and on a deep level would've weakened me for the long-term. I feel like possibly all that mucus that came out was a kind of spring cleaning of my body.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

And antibiotics napalm the commensal flora throughout the body, leaving the body open to colonisation by bacteria which are potentially even more dangerous.

[magical1]

Antibiotics, what are they again? ;)

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

They're a bit like borrowing from a loan shark to pay off a debt. Often you'd be better off just paying off the debt yourself slowly.

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

Well, it is now a full 3 or 4 weeks since I recovered from what was a pretty strong case of acute bronchitis. I hadn't had an attack for about 20 years.

I now believe it was part of a healing process. I have noticed my lungs feel a bit more powerful, and clearer. I practice some yoga breathing techniques and have definitely noticed it is easier to practice some of the more advanced techniques. :cool:

A friend of mine is psychic and I was telling her a couple of weeks ago that I was waking up at 5 or 6 am a lot of mornings, which wasn't like me. She immediately told me that it was because my lung energy was too strong...that 5 am or so is the lung time according to Chinese medicine. I was a bit non-plussed by this at first, but since then have realised she was probably right. Probably my body wasn't quite used to, at first, my lungs new "energy". I believe I coughed up a lot of old mucus that was just sitting in there clogging me up, without me knowing it.

This reminds me of how a lot of parents who are into holistic stuff and aren't deathly afraid of childhood illnesses, have noticed how once a child had had whooping cough their lungs got stronger. Some said w.c. cured their child of asthma.:)

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

Just reading thru all this again. I've had bronchitis again recently. This time it was tougher I think. Initially I couldn't move the mucus off my chest. After a few days I was feeling really bad. The whites of my eyes were so yellow and bloodshot, and to cough was agony because of the constant throbbing headache.

The turn around came when I started taking a whole lot of supplements: large doses of vitamin C, D, zinc, and bromelein (a pineapple extract). The bromelaine was to help break up the sticky mucus. It seemed to work and I started coughing up at last small amounts of discoloured mucus. I noticed my headache started getting a bit better. I was scared of coughing because of the pain, but a friend, who hangs out on these forums a bit I believe, gave me the advice of clutching my head hard to lessen the pain. It worked! I coughed as much as I could as I didn't want to leave that stuff on my lungs, leaving myself open to getting pneumonia. And slowly started clearing them.

I ate raw garlic on toast every day and I am sure that helped. Ginger tablets for travel sickness were given to me by my flatmate, and I took those as well. I did not take antibiotics. Two weeks since it started I am more or less better now. My lungs are still a little bit phlegmy, and I have had drenching nightsweats the past two nights for some reason, but the cough is nearly gone, and I feel better. Bit weak still though.

Hey thanks Hilary for your great advice!

[Mr. Beyondtheory]

I have to admit that ginger again contributed to me fighting off the bronchitis naturally, but it was only one of many things I did. I have been reliably told that low vitamin D has a lot to do with being susceptible to lung infections like bronchitis and pneumonia. That's why most people get them during winter.

It is also a time when the air gets colder and the lungs are vulnerable as they adjust. As Hilary cleverly pointed out I stopped sunbathing about 5 or 6 weeks before I came down with the bronchitis, so I was almost certainly very low. A yoga teacher I know gets vit. D injections during winter to stave off respiratory illnesses. She reckons there is even a low vitamin D "look", which she reckons I have! The artificial form of vit. D seems to work well for her she told me.

I've learnt a lesson alright. Bronchitis can be quite a powerful scary illness at it's height. The sickly seedy feeling and accompanying depression with headache was something else. I had glimpses of my mortality. I could see how bronchitis could morph into pneumonia, and why that illness used to kill a lot of people. If I had developed pneumonia I would not have hesitated I think to use antibiotics....but thankfully it never got to that stage.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

I KNOW pneumonia can be treated with lipospheric vitamin C and I also suspect vitamin D as well.

No need to resort to antibiotics IMO>..