Try a Cup of Tea!

When I first got married my husband informed me that he had a serious bout of pneumonia as a teenager and ever since then, he gets bronchitis every fall. Well, that did not sit right with me! I love a challenge, so I decided I would figure out how to prevent that yearly occurrence.

As you might imagine, that first year, he was true to his word and got bronchitis as soon as the weather began to change from summer to fall. Chicken soup made him feel better (so did ice cream, but that's only because he considers it his own personal "medicine"), but did nothing to protect him. We tried different things I was learning about - echinacea, larger than normal doses of vitamin C, bee propolis. They were all helpful to a degree and I believe his colds were less severe, but he still got bronchitis the first few years of our marriage.

I came across some interesting information about a natural substance I'd never heard of at the time - Fenugreek Seed. What I read said it would help keep the lungs clear and was used for bronchitis and other respiratory problems. It was certainly worth a try. I found Fenugreek Seed tea bags at my local health food store and bought a box.

My husband came home from school (he's a teacher) and said he felt miserable - headachy, scratchy throat and as if a cold was brewing. Of course, with him, once that first cold took hold, it developed into bronchitis. I started him on vitamin C, bee propolis and brewed him a good, strong cup sweetened with some honey (since honey also has antibacterial and antimicrobial properties). It has kind of a unique, unusual flavor, but he drank it and actually said it made him feel better. So he drank 2 or 3 more cups that first night. He slept well and woke up feeling pretty good. I filled a travel mug for him to take to work and he had a couple more cups upon returning home that night. He never did develop bronchitis! I was thrilled and from that time on (we've now been married for 25 years) the first thing he does when he feels a cold coming on is put the tea pot on and make a couple of cups of Fenugreek. I always keep several boxes in the house and even my children have used it as well.

Several years later a close friend called and sounded awful - in fact I didn't even recognize her voice. She could barely breathe and had the worst, deep cough I'd ever heard. She said it was her third bout with bronchitis in the last 6 weeks (she smoked at that time) and she asked the doctor to please put her in the hospital but he would not. I asked her to have her husband buy a couple of boxes of the tea and told her to drink a cup every hour for the rest of the night and as many as she could manage the next day and see what happened. She had nothing to lose and so she did what I suggested.

She called me the next day in amazement saying that she felt wonderful - she could breathe, she'd been able to cough up the phlegm and clear her lungs (it was black!). She sounded like herself again! She told me she was going to buy several boxes of the tea to keep at home, in her car and at work - she never wanted to be without it. It seemed amazing to me as natural remedies usually work more slowly - but this seems to work it's magic quickly as long as you drink enough.

What I do is steep a tea bag in boiled water for 10 minutes and then sweeten with honey. If you suffer from respiratory problems like frequent colds, especially if they develop into bronchitis - try Fenugreek Seed Tea.