We’ve all known the misery of a nagging cold and cough. Trying to get a good night’s rest when you are coughing can be very difficult and sleep medications can leave you feeling unrested and groggy.
Does a humidifier help with coughing?
One of the best ways to get relief from cough and cold symptoms is running a humidifier near your bed.
Table of Contents
What does a humidifier do for a cough?
Humidifiers can help a dry cough by adding moisture to the air that helps loosen phlegm in the lungs.
Also many humidifiers come equipped with compartments to add essential oils like eucalyptus that dispersed in the air can sooth your lungs and reduce coughing.
Vaporizer vs. Humidifier for cough?
The best Humidifier for a cough is a combination vaporizer diffuser and cool mist humidifier.
Diffusers can disperse cough reducing essential oils like peppermint and rosemary but they do not add the humidity to the air needed to to help with dryness that is helping aggravate the cough.
On the flip side, a humidifier alone will only add moisture to the air.
Though there is a lot of different opinions on whether you can add the essential oils straight to the water on a humidifier,
It is best to look for one that has a compartment built into it so that you do not have any issues with clogging the machine up with oils
Warm or cool mist humidifier for cough?
Though both a warm mist humidifier and a cool mist humidifier basically achieve the same result of adding humidity to the air,
Cool mist humidifiers tend to add a level of comfort when you’re trying to sleep than you cant get from a warm mist humidifier.
Don’t forget that humidifiers also add a blanket of white noise to the room that can be soothing when your down with a cold and cough.
Best essential oils for coughs
Many humidifiers come ready made to add oils that can help soothe a cough and add additional aid to loosen up mucus.
Eucalyptus for cough
Eucalyptus oil is a very popular is a night time relief product. Many of the salves that you buy to rub on your chest contain eucalyptus.
Oregano oil for cough
Oregano has become popular as a supplement because it contains
- Carvacrol
- Thymol
- Rosmarinic acid
Carvacrol is a natural antibiotic that helps fight bacteria. Thymol is a natural fungicide.
Using oregano oil for a cough and cold is an excellent way to fight off a bug.
Peppermint for cough
Peppermint contains menthol. Menthol is an ingredient in most cough drops.
Using peppermint oil for a cough in your humidifier is a great way to add to your relief suffering from a cold and cough
Rosemary for cough
Rosemary contains Cineole. A study in the US national library of medicine concluded that ” Cineole actively and significantly reduces a cough frequency after 4 days”
Frankincense for cough
Frankincense is an ancient remedy for all sorts of inflammation and diseases in the body. For a cough it can used as a steam inhalation, bath, or massage
It is also used for:
- heart disease
- Asthma
- Skin irritation
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Brain tumor
- Diabetes
- Antimicrobial effects
- Memory
- Fertility
Thyme oil for cough
Like oregano oil, thyme oil contains an abundance of carvacrol. A antimicrobial that can aid in the reduction of bacteria.
Can a humidifier make a cough worse?
A humidifier is a simple machine that adds water to the air. If you feel like the humidifier is making you cough, the odds are that it has not been maintained and cleaned properly.
A dirty humidifier not only can grow mold and other organisms, it’s job is to disperse mist into the air. If the humidifier is dirty, the mist is a delivery system for bacteria that can make you cough.
There are actual medical names for this phenomenon. “Humidifier Sickness” , humidifier fever, and “Humidifier lung.
Humidifier sickness symptoms
The US national library of medicine
states that humidifier fever is an influenza like illness with pyrexia (fever) and malaise as the main symptoms.
Other dirty humidifier symptoms include:
- Coughing
- Chest tightness
- Dyspnoea
- Weight loss
- Chills
- Lung inflammation
- Shortness of breath
- Body aches
- Asthma triggers
Humidifier fever treatment
The number one treatment to reduce mold in humidifier symptoms is to clean the humidifier thoroughly and often.
Water you can become stagnant and a breeding ground for mold and bacteria in as little as two days.
And those people who pre-existing conditions like asthma and allergies, also copd, should take extra precautions to ensure that their humidifier is clean by using white vinegar to disinfect the machine before using it again.
Once the source of the bacteria and mold in the air is removed, then the symptoms related to the dirty humidifier should subdue.
Recap
One of the best things you can do to reduce a cough is to run a humidifier.
Humidifiers add moisture to the air that can help reduce soften and reduce phlegm and mucus.
When the air is dry, having a cough can be that much more annoying and painful.
Also many humidifiers come ready-made to add essential oils that can help ease and reduce a cough much faster.
For instance, Rosemary oil when vaporized can reduce the life of a cough down do only 4 days when it is utilized.
Many other essential oils like eucalyptus, peppermint, and tea tree oil have natural soothing qualities the can make having a cough much more bearable.
But for every good review of a humidifier, there needs to be a Stern warning that a humidifier needs to be cleaned and maintained more thoroughly than your average appliance.
A humidifier that is allowed to hold standing water can become a health hazard in as little as two days.
Running a humidifier that has mold and bacteria growing inside of it can make the humidifier a delivery system spreading the bacteria through the air.
It is such a common problem that there is actual medical names attached to it.
Humidifier sickness, humidifier lung, and humidifier fever or all references to
Illness that occurs from not maintaining a humidifier adequately.
