Honey Plus Coffee Beats Steroid for Treating Cough

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A remarkable new study looking at natural alternatives to medications found that compared to a systemic steroid, a combination of honey and coffee was superior in reducing symptoms associated with a post-infectious cough (PPC).

PPC is a cough that remains after a common cold or an upper respiratory tract infection for more than three weeks, and in some cases as long as several months. Conventional treatment may involve any number of powerful drugs, many of which have serious side effects, including codeine and dextromethorphan (so-called centrally acting antitussives), antihistamines, narcotics, and bronchodilators.

The new study, published in Primary Care Respiratory Journal, was conducted by researchers at Baqiyatallah University Hospital, Tehran, Iran from 2008 to 2011. 97 patients who had experienced PPC for more than three weeks were randomized in double-blinded fashion into three groups:

1. A jam like paste was prepared which consisted of 20.8 grams of honey plus 2.9 grams of instant coffee for the first group (‘HC’).
2. 13.3 mg of prednisolone for the second group (steroid, ‘S’).
3. 25 mg of guaifenesin for the third group (control, ‘C’).

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