Honey and Coffee Shown as Superior Cough Treatment

Have you ever heard of combining honey and coffee for a cough? While we usually put honey with tea, actual studies have revealed that mixing the sweet sap with coffee could have its own unique benefits – including cough suppression.

According to work published in the Primary Care Respiratory Journal, this natural combination could be more effective at treating certain coughs than the commonly prescribed systemic steroids.

The study was specific to something known as a post-infectious cough, or PPC. PPC is a cough that can stick around for weeks after an upper-respiratory infection or common cold. Not only can that nagging cough that doesn’t seem to go away long after your cold is gone can be irritating, but it also can lead to a lack of sleep, irritated throat and airways, and general malaise.

Conventional treatments for PPC often include steroids, codeine, antihistamines, bronchodilators, and even narcotics. These drugs all can come with a laundry list of negative side effects that can sometimes be worse than the PPC they intend to treat.

Coffee and Honey Better than Steroids for Post-Infectious Cough?

The study looked at 97 patients in Tehran Iran, who had PPC for more than three weeks. The pool was randomized into three groups.

• Group “HC” received a paste of 20.8 grams of honey and 2.9 grams of instant coffee
• Group “S” received 13.3 mg of prednisolone
• Group “C” received guaifenesin, an expectorant

Each participant was told to dissolve their substance into warm water and drink it every eight hours for a period of one week. Before, during, and one week after treatment, the participants were asked to measure the severity of their cough based on frequency.

Here’s what happened following the treatment:

• For the Honey-Coffee (HC) group: The score went from 2.9 to 0.2 (a significant improvement).
• For the Steroid (S) group: The score changed from 3.0 to 2.4 (a slight improvement).
• For the Control (C) group: The score was almost the same, moving from 2.8 to 2.7.

When comparing the HC and S groups, the Honey-Coffee treatment showed a much better result in reducing coughs. In fact, the combination of honey and coffee was found to be the best treatment for persistent post-infectious cough (PPC).

The researchers concluded:

“A combination of honey and coffee can be used as an alternative medicine in the treatment of PPC.”

Why the Coffee-Honey Combo Works

PPC is often the result of persistent inflammation of the upper airways. How exactly does the inexpensive combination of coffee and honey work against this?

Multiple studies, such as this one, have showcased coffee’s anti-inflammatory properties. Caffeine was found to block caspase-1 and therefore production of interleukin-1beta, a common inflammatory cytokine.

Caffeine may also relieve asthma by “acting as a bronchodilator” (albeit a weak one), as even small amounts have been shown to improve lung function, measured by forced expiratory volume and mid-expiratory flow rates.

“Caffeine appears to improve airways function modestly in people with asthma for up to four hours. People may need to avoid caffeine for at least four hours prior to lung function testing,” researchers said.

Honey is also a known anti-inflammatory food. The effects of honey come from its prostaglandin-inhibiting abilities, antioxidant effects, and its ability to speed up healing, which reduces the “need” for inflammation.

Further, some propose honey has the ability to increase nitric oxide levels – which has also been shown to be anti-inflammatory. However, there is conflicting evidence on honey’s ability to increase nitric oxide levels.

Interestingly, while some propose honey DOES increase NO levels and therefore helps a cough, other studies have found that there is no increase and that the lack of NO increase actually plays a part in increased anti-inflammatory effects.

“The results obtained from the study confirm that honey has an anti-inflammatory effect which may be due in part to inhibition of NO release.”

Honey and coffee are natural edible substances that are safe, agreeable, inexpensive, and easily available. Moreover, they have proven to be effective in a short period of time.

For more natural cough solutions, check out these 8 home remedies for cough.