I’ve been popping dextromethorphan (aka, DM), which works OK for me, and is OTC, but I got an Rx for Tessalon (benzonatate), which works even better. Codeine works for me too, but I don’t prefer it, because it constipates me, and by the third day, it starts giving me migraines. I know some people who swear by alcohol, and take swigs of whiskey. I know that old cough suppressants did have a lot of alcohol, and since it’s a CNS depressant, it probably works to an extant, but it doesn’t zero in on coughing, like DM and Tessalon are supposed to.
I also know some people who insist on natural remedies, and drink warm whole milk with honey. I guess it could produce phlegm, and make a cough more productive, and so, less irritating, but it doesn’t make it go away.
Anyway, I’m thinking about this, because I’m up at 1:20 with a cold, after falling asleep at 7pm, because I’m sick. I’m watching some TV and posting, until I start yawning, then I’m going to take a PRM, and get up at 7.
Oh Good Grief! I read your post and said “Ah Ha! I’ve got just thing for you” I have a package of those sore throat lozenges with benzocaine in them (OTC strength) that are the best thing in the world for quieting a cough. If its a productive cough, it won’t stop that, but that dry hacking cough, just cause your respiratory tract is irritated, it works wonders to silence that cough. Sigh, I don’t have the orginal outer box (bought them last winter for a cough) and the inner bubble pack doesn’t have the brand printed on it anywhere.
I wonder if Benzonatate and benzocaine are the related, nosing around the internet, it seems like there is an attempt to imply that, but it’s not really clear.
Nothing does anything for me for a cough, except some kind of opiate my doctor prescribed for me years ago when I had a bad cough. It wasn’t codeine, it was something else that I think someone figured out in a recent thread we had about cough syrup. At any rate, it’s the only thing that does anything for me, and I’ve only had it that one time. I’ve tried lozenzes, honey, all the OTC medicines, to no avail. Or if they did have an effect, it was minimal enough that I didn’t notice.
Wild Turkey 101, say about a small shot, and swish it around my mouth for a while and then swallow a little at a time. Especially when I get one of those really hacking coughs that are worse when you lay down.
Hot peppers - specifically ramen noodles with spicy broth - the hotter the better - this typically loosens up the cough so I can expectorate and be done
Also, Sloe gin - I tend to use that to sooth a tickly cough
What I came to post is that the worst thing was when a cough would make it impossible to sleep. My remedy for that was/is to create a graduated, stair-stepped hill of pillows so that my upper body is elevated. I’ve tried the wedgie back pillows and those don’t work as well–you just slide down. But making a pile of three pillows with the bottom one positioned so that it hits right at the top of my hip, the second one so it hits at my lower rib cage, and the top one (really fluffy) for my head has usually made it possible to sleep at night.
Last time I had a really bad cough, the only thing that worked (and it took a few weeks at that) was 2 nights in the Emergency Room, getting loaded up with IV Prednisone, inhaled Xopenex (Levalbuterol) mixed with some other inhaled corticosteroid, followed by Prednisone pills for a week and I-don’t-even-remember what all else pills. And that Guiafenasin/Codeine cough syrup too.
That was about two years ago. (Some readers here may remember I had that happen also about 4 years ago, at which time I blogged it cough-by-cough here.)
I’ve been huffing Dulera (combined corticosteroid and bronchodilator) every day ever since.
Nothing works very well. Codeine can usually knock a cough back enough so I can sleep, but even then I still cough. I hate getting colds because even though I only get them once or so a year, every cold sets up shop in my chest for 2 to 3 weeks. Last year I had two colds, so that meant I spent more than five weeks of 2016 coughing.
Ricola cough drops have been doing it for me since the mid-1990s. Sugar-free for most of that time, no appreciable difference in results between them and the regular Ricolas. I’ve practically forgotten what a persistent cough is like.
The active ingredients in honey-lemon strepsils are amilmetacresol and 2,4-diclorobenzylalcohol. So apparently those. That’s for persistent cough; often something which simply wets my throat and is warm will do (tea, warm milk, consomme).
Lately, my coughs seem to be dry-throat coughs, and chewing a stick of gum helps a lot. But when I have a crap-in-the-chest cough, I chug generic Nyquil and hope for the best.
No over-the-counter remedy advertised and labeled for cough has ever done me a damn bit of good. However, Aleve (naproxen sodium), which is labeled as an analgesic, sometimes provides a modest benefit if I take enough of it. I’ve never tried codeine. In the US, it’s prescription-only and I’ve never had a cough bad enough for long enough that I’d go to the doctor for it.
Dex works for me, but only if it’s pure DM and isn’t paired with an expectorant because those work at cross-purposes to each other. If I take a cough suppressant it’s because I don’t want to cough.
I imagine codeine would work well for me because opioids work well on me as an analgesic but i’ve never taken them when I’ve had a cough.
Alcohol helps a tiny bit in bed due to reducing the stress from sudden coughing when trying to sleep. It doesn’t help during the day because I notice the cough anyway.