It is been known for centuries that hot, spicy, pungent foods can help clear the lungs and breathing passages. They do so by thinning mucus and encouraging it to move along. When a person eats a hot food, his eye starts watering and his nose begins to run. The same thing happens in the lungs. It is considered that hot food activate nerve endings in the oesophagus and stomach, causing the watery reactions. These age-old food remedies, passed down for centuries by medical practitioners and grandmothers, have stood the test of scientific investigations, especially inrespect of respiratory problems, like colds and flu.
Dr. Irwin Ziment, M.D., professor of Medicine at UCLA has made comprehensive studies about these remedies. His study of early medical literature has lead him to conclude that foods used to fight respiratory diseases for centuries are very similar to the drugs being now used. They have a common action. They thin out and help move the lung’s secretions so they do not congest air passages and can be coughed up or expelled in a normal way. Such foods and drugs are called “mucko-inetic”, meaning mucus-moving agents, and include decongestants and expectorants.
The most important of such foods for respiratory diseases are the chilli pepper and other hot and pungent foods. Even Hippocrates, the father of medicine prescribed vinegar and pepper to relieve respiratory infections.
FOODS THAT CONTROL RESPIRATORY DISEASES
Aniseed, Asafoetida, Bishop’s Weed, Bitter Gourd Root, Chilli Pepper, Clove, Endive, Fennel, Figs (Dry), Garlic, Ginger, Holy Basil, Honey, Indian Gooseberry, Linseed, Mustard Seeds, Onion, Orange, Safflower Seeds, Sesame seeds, Spinach, Tamarind, Turmeric and Vitamin C-rich food.
Aniseed
This popular spice is a valuable mucus clearing food. It possesses expectorant property and helps remove phlegm from the bronchial tube. This property emanates from the essential oil contained in it. It can thus be beneficially used in respiratory system diseases like asthma, bronchitis and emphysema.
Aniseed is mostly used as a flavouring agent. It should not be boiled too long as it may lose its properties and essential oil during the process.
Asafoetida
Asafoetida possesses expectorant properties and it helps remove catarrhs and phlegm from the bronchial tube.
It thus helps control respiratory disorders like whooping cough, asthma and bronchitis. About 3 to 6 centigrams of this gum, mixed with 2 teaspoons of honey, a quarter teaspoon of white onion juice and 1 teaspoon of betel leaf juice, taken thrice daily will be highly beneficial in prevention and treatment of these disorders.
Bishop’s Weed
This popular spice is a mucus clearing food and hence highly beneficial in the treatment of respiratory diseases. The seeds, mixed in buttermilk, make an effective medicine for relieving difficult expectoration caused by dried up phlegm. The seeds are also efficacious in bronchitis. A hot fomentation with the seeds is a popular household remedy for asthma. Chewing a pinch of ajwain seeds with a crystal of common salt and a clove is a very effective medicine for cough caused by acute pharyngitis in influenza.
Bitter Gourd Root
The roots of the bitter gourd plant possess mucus-clearing property. They have been used in folk medicine for asthma since ancient times. A teaspoon of the root paste, mixed with an equal amount of honey or juice of the holy basil, acts as an excellent expectorant medicine for this disease. It should be given once every night for a month.
Chilli Pepper
Hot’chilli pepper is the best mucokinetic food among all hot spicy foods. According to Dr. Ziment, since antiquity, the flavoured foods for treating pulmonary and respiratory diseases have been mustard, garlic and hot chilli peppers. The active agents in these foods may work by several mechanisms. However, Dr. Ziment believes that they generally activate a flash flood of fluids in air passages that thin out mucus, so that it flows more easily. As the hot stuff hits the mouth, throat and stomach, it touches nerve receptors that send messages to the brain, which in turn, stimulate the vagus nerve controlling secretion-producing glands that line the airways.
The glands instantly release waves of fluids that can make the eyes water and the nose run. Dr. Ziment says that common pharmacological traits of all hot, pungent foods break up congestion, flushing out sinuses and washing away irritants. He prescribes hot foods for any condition in which secretions in the airways are thicker than normal, including sinusitis, a lump with congestion, asthma, hay fever, emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Dr. Ziment also advises those who already suffer from chronic bronchitis and emphysema to eat hot food regularly, at least three times a week. He says that his patients who do so breathe more easily and require less treatment. Further, in surveys, he finds that those who eat more hot spicy cuisine are less likely to develop chronic bronchitis and emphysema, even if they smoke.
Dr. Ziment says, “A lot of drugs for colds and coughs and bronchitis do exactly what chilli peppers do, but I believe more in peppers. Peppers don’t cause any side effects. I am convinced that 90 per cent of all people can tolerate hot food and get a benefit”.