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Heart of Herbs Herbal School Podcast
Breathing Easy: The Wonders of Herbal Expectorants for Respiratory Health
Curious about how age-old herbal remedies can support your respiratory health? Join me, Demetria Clark, as we uncover the secrets of herbal expectorants, time-honored allies in thinning mucus and easing your breath. This episode offers a deep dive into how these natural wonders work—boosting mucus production, reducing its stickiness, and enhancing the natural ciliary action to help you breathe easier. We’ll explore the benefits, uses, and precautions of popular herbal expectorants like licorice root, thyme, mullein, and eucalyptus, ensuring you have the insights needed to incorporate these into your wellness routine effectively and safely.
From licorice root’s soothing properties to thyme’s powerful antimicrobial benefits, we’ll guide you on how to use these herbs for optimal respiratory health. Whether you’re making herbal teas at home or seeking personalized blends from your local apothecaries, this episode is packed with practical tips and expert advice. Discover the multiple roles of mullein for soothing respiratory tissues and the potent congestion-relief offered by eucalyptus. By the end of our discussion, you’ll have a comprehensive understanding of how these herbal expectorants can enhance your body’s natural ability to clear mucus and maintain healthy airways. Tune in to enrich your herbal education journey and breathe easy with nature’s help.
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Hi, welcome, thank you for listening. So today we're talking about expectorants. Hi, I'm Demetria Clark, the director of Heart of Her Observable School, and you're listening to the Heart of Her Observ Herbal School podcast. So today we're talking about expectorants and I'm trying to add in, along with our interviews, some really valuable and useful herbal information that will help you on your herbal education journey. These are lectures, but they're kind of in a shortened like kind of podcast format. They're not really academic, they're for fun, but they have lots of great information in them.
Speaker 1:Remember, this is not to be misconstrued as medical advice. I'm not giving you any kind of advice. So if I talk about money, I'm not giving you financial advice. If I talk about herbs, I'm not giving you any kind of advice. So if I talk about money, I'm not giving you financial advice. If I talk about herbs, I'm not giving you herbal advice. Use your own common sense and your own education when it comes to using anything that you're going to stick into your body. So I'm your host, demetria Clark, and we're going to explore a group of herbs known as expectorants. These natural remedies have been used for centuries to help clear the respiratory system and ease breathing. So come on. Grab a cup of tea any type, your favorite's fine, or any other drink for that matter, and let's sit back and get started, or any other drink for that matter, and let's sit back and get started.
Speaker 1:When you're dealing with a stubborn cough, congested chest or simply want to support your respiratory health, expectorants can be a valuable addition to your herbal medicine cabinet. But what exactly are expectorants and how do they work? Expectorants are substances that help expel mucus and phlegm from the respiratory tract. They work by thinning the mucus, making it easier to cough up and clear from lungs and airways. This action not only helps to relieve congestion, but promotes better breathing and reduces the risk of secondary infections. How do expectorants work? The primary function of expectorants is to loosen and thin mucus that accumulates in the lungs and airwaves, and it's achieved through several mechanisms. Number one they increase the secretion production.
Speaker 1:So if you're using expectorants, you're probably going to get a lot more boogers. There's no way around it. If you are working with an expectorant with a child, you're going to have booger bubbles. It's just what's going to happen. So if you have a kid who's not old enough or skilled enough yet to blow their own nose, you're going to need to help them with that and there's tools for that. But you can also just, you know encourage them to blow or wipe their nose a lot, because the mucus is going to get thinner and more fluid and it's going to be easier to expel. Bet, you never thought that you'd be listening to a podcast where the host says booger bubbles, but anyways, if you've had a little kid, you know what I'm talking about Reducing mucus viscosity.
Speaker 1:So they also alter the structure of mucus, breaking it down and making it less sticky, and they enhance ciliary action. They promote the activity of cilia, and cilia is the tiny hair-like structures in our respiratory tract. So you can see them when you look up your nose right. The nose hair is like a good example of like cilia, although what we want to do is encourage this action, encourage the ciliary action, because what it does is it help move right mucus in and out of the lungs. It helps, you know, expel and get rid of stuff. It really just helps with the movement. It's kind of like the transportation system of the respiratory tract.
Speaker 1:Now we're going to take a look at some of the most popular herbal expectorants that you can incorporate into your wellness routine. So listen if you're not up for making teas yourself, you can look for teas in the grocery store, in the health food store, at your local apothecary. If you have a local like tea shop or herbal apothecary, definitely go and talk to them first because you can say hey, I'm looking for a tea that has these kinds of actions or these kind of herbs, and if they don't have something, they can actually whip it up for you. And a lot of people say well, there isn't a local blah, blah, blah. In my town Sometimes there is, you just don't always know it's there or they operate out of their home or it's a smaller business. So definitely keep an eye out for those kinds of businesses.
Speaker 1:Okay, so some common herbal expectorants are licorice root and it is an expectorant that helps to thin and expel mucus from the respiratory tract. It's soothing, it soothes irritated mucus membranes and reduces inflammation and it offers cough relief for dry, unproductive coughs and bronchitis. So you will often find licorice root in a lot of herbal teas because of what it does in relation to irritated mucous membranes and coughs, and so you can kind of see okay, I could see why that herbs in a lot of different things. So you would want to avoid prolonged use more than four to six weeks due to potential side effects such as hypertension and water retention. So if you have high blood pressure, if you have kidney disease, if you have issues and disorders where you really shouldn't be using licorice root, then move on, don't use it. There's no need to use it. We've got other ones coming down the list.
Speaker 1:Licorice root can be made into a tea. So basically one teaspoon dried licorice root and put it in boiling water 10 to 15 minutes. Drink three times a day. If you were making a medicinal decoction it would be at least 20 minutes that you have it in simmered water. You can also use licorice root tincture or you can make a syrup so you could have licorice root decoction with honey to make a soothing cough syrup.
Speaker 1:Elekampane is the next one and elecampane is really effective for loosening phlegm, making it easier to cough up. So if you've got like sticky boogers you have thick kind of boogers this can be a really good herb to use to really loosening that kind of tougher phlegm up, to really loosening that kind of tougher phlegm up. So it's commonly used for chronic bronchitis and other respiratory conditions. It's an antimicrobial herb so it contains compounds that help fight respiratory infections. It has a long historical use for coughs and colds and respiratory infections. So some of the precautions are that can cause allergic reactions in individuals sensitive to plants in the asterae family. So use with caution if you have diabetes as it may affect blood sugar levels may. So definitely talk to your care provider before using If you're on any other kind of medicine. You know, really you know, use caution and care whenever we're putting anything in our bodies, from drugs to herbs, to new things that we've never, you know, experienced before. You can take it as a tea, a tincture or a decoction.
Speaker 1:The next one is thyme. So thyme is a great herb. Thyme has so much love that it just has not gotten yet. Thyme is, you know, we think think of time in the sense of culinary herbs, and you know, my students know that I'm always saying look, people traveled around the world for herbs and spices, right, but what are the herbs and spices they brought with them? So a lot of them brought thyme, oregano, basil, garlic. So those are things that they're looking for, those in their new area after they immigrate. So there's definitely something to be said for these culinary herbs and thinking about them in a way that acknowledges not just their culinary use but their deep, deep medicinal powers.
Speaker 1:So thyme is an expectorant and helps to loosen and expel mucus from the respiratory tract. It's also antimicrobial, so it can be really effective against bacteria, fungi and viruses. It is commonly used for bronchitis and cough relief. So it's used for respiratory infections, cough and bronchitis. You can take it as a tea, a tincture. It's also, you know, you can add it to food, you can. You know there's all different things that you can do with herbs that have really strong culinary uses too. So you can combine it and add it right.
Speaker 1:Precautions generally safe when used in culinary amounts. So some really high dosages can cause digestive upset, and having a few cups of tea a day should not be what is considered high dosage. So don't go crazy. Be, you know, really practical and smart about how much you're taking of everything. So just because something is, you know, culinary doesn't mean that you can just, like you know, eat three or four bowls of it. Right, you have to be smart with everything that you put in your body. So you would want to avoid thyme if you were allergic to it or other limesiae family of plants. You are allergic to it or other lemaceae family of plants. So if you're pregnant or nursing, outside of culinary use, you may want to speak to your care provider. Thyme can be used as a tea tincture or if you wanted to use the essential oil, you could add the essential oil to a hop for a steam inhalation and that will help as an expectorant also.
Speaker 1:The next herb is mullein. So mullein is great. I love it. I love the flowers for ear infections and the leaves for an expectorant and loosen up mucus and you know all that fun stuff right. So you definitely want to keep mullein around for lots of different things, like helping when people are quitting smoking. It's really good at loosening mucus and helping it be expelled from the respiratory tract, which I think is great. Especially if you're quitting smoking, you definitely wouldn't mind getting some of that gunk out of there. It soothes irritated tissues in the respiratory tract, in the respiratory system. It offers particular relief for dry, harsh coughs.
Speaker 1:You can use it as a tincture. It's generally considered very safe. The fresh leaves sometimes can cause skin irritation for individuals if for some reason they're, you know, getting the fine hairs are coming into contact with your skin a lot. Also, you know you can strain those fine hairs really well when you make tea, so you don't have any potential risk of irritation. So when I say things like this, remember everything has a side effect. Because something may take just a few seconds extra work to make it part of a formula doesn't mean there's something wrong with it. We don't eat apple seeds, we eat around the core. That's an extra step. Right, we peel oranges generally. That's an extra step. There's things that we do to make things safe and easier to consume, and so straining the mullein really well is just another way of doing that. So you can do mullein tea, mullein tincture or syrup. You combine mullein tea with honey to create a soothing syrup for coughs.
Speaker 1:The next herb that we're going to talk about as far as an expectorant is eucalyptus, and eucalyptus helps to clear mucus from the lungs and airways. It's a decongestion, so it relieves nasal congestion and sinus pressure. So that's really nice. If you're having sinus issues, you definitely wouldn't, you know, be amiss having some eucalyptus on hand. It is also antimicrobial and effective against a variety of pathogens, including bacteria and viruses. So eucalyptus is one of those that more commonly, even in herbal medicine, it's used in its essential oil format as an expectorant or anything else. So it's definitely one of those those.
Speaker 1:This would cross over into the realm of aromatherapy. So you definitely don't want to ingest eucalyptus essential oil. It can be very toxic in large amounts. You don't want to also have it come in contact with eyes or mucous membranes or use with anyone under two years old. Typically you would use it as an essential oil for steam inhalation or topical application. So for steam inhalation, you can add a few drops of essential oil to a bowl of hot water, cover your head with a towel. We've all seen that steaming. That way you can use a diffuser. You can use shower inhalation, having some on the washcloth in a really hot shower and you could put it at your feet or on another place where the water is hitting.
Speaker 1:You can dilute essential oil like eucalyptus with a carrier oil and for eucalyptus you could apply it to the chest and throat to relieve congestion. Make sure that you are properly diluting and if you don't know how to do that, make sure you look it up. Each essential oil is different but basically I always tell you know people look start with one or two drops and like a tablespoon of oil. If it's not strong enough, add another drop, but you can't take the drops away but you can always add another drop. Same with if you make a homemade chest rub. We have a recipe on the podcast or on the website. I will see if I can get a link to that in the podcast for you. But basically it's making a all natural Vapo type rub that you can use on your chest or your neck or the back of your neck, depending upon where your congestion is.
Speaker 1:Some people find it really helpful to. You know, do inhalation. You know sticks which are basically like they look like lip balm tubes and they have a little hole in it and a lid and you breathe in through the hole. You can make those with rock salt. You could also put a little rock salt in a container and add a few drops of essential oil and breathe that in if you're congested. And you could use eucalyptus essential oil, thyme essential oil, so you could use both of those if you wanted. You know to make it work better for you and how to use expectorants. So how to use expectorants. So teas and infusions.
Speaker 1:Many expectorant herbs can be brewed into a soothing tea. Simply steep the dried herb in hot water for about 20 minutes, strain and drink, or you can make as a decoction, which means you add the herb. Usually hardier pieces of the herb are decocted like roots and seeds. Usually hardier pieces of the herb are decocted like roots and seeds. You would add the herb to simmering water. Make sure that the water is on a very low simmer and you continue to let it simmer for 20 minutes and then you could let it cool for another 20 minutes before you strain it.
Speaker 1:Herbal tinctures are a great way to take herbs and herbal expectorants. So herbal tinctures are concentrated liquid extracts can be taken directly or added to water or tea. You're going to want to follow the dosage instruction on the tincture. Steam inhalation, so we're talking about how you can do that. With essential oils. You can also use herbs in your inhalations. It doesn't have to only be essential oils. And then herbal syrups. These can be made by simmering herbs in water, then adding honey to the strained liquid. This can be a tasty and effective way to make expectorants, especially for children over the age of two, and a lot of adults don't like to taste the herb that they're using. They would prefer it to taste like something like honey. So you can definitely do that.
Speaker 1:So safety and precautions. So while herbal expectorants can be beneficial, it's important to use them in every herb safely. Part of the problem in our culture around herbs is we probably have like a gazillion people who use herbs safely and practice herbalism safely, and then we have a few that just go out there and thinking, you know, they're better than everyone else, holier than that, whatever, right, and then they start making these ridiculous claims and they start, you know, making promises about products and then they are. They get in trouble, right, because their salve doesn't cure cancer. They get in trouble and then they act like everyone's out to get them. So most responsible herbal practitioners or anyone else who works in herbs and aromatherapy are not going to be asking you to do things that aren't safe and they're not going to be making promises to you about what you're using. So always consult a professional.
Speaker 1:A trained herbalist is a great place to start. You can contact herbal schools to find like so we have people who are like hey, I live in such and such place, I'm looking to hire an herbalist. Do you, you know? Do you have, you know, a list of students I can contact, or whatever? Can you pass on the information and we'll pass on the information and then they'll get you know the connected with someone who's looking for a local herbalist. So schools can do that. You can find herbalists. You know, when you search herbalist location on the internet there's always tons and tons of people that come up. There's local apothecaries, there's health food stores. Definitely you can find a professional. Just look, find out where they went to school. A professional just look, find out where they went to school, if they finished. That's really important If someone is saying that they went to school, like it's good to know that they finished the school. Not all herbalists are classically or traditionally trained. Some of them are trained, you know, from other herbalists or through history, or you know reading and self-education. Those are great and viable options too, but you know they should be really clear with you how they learned, what they learned.
Speaker 1:Also, as a person, a user, if you are talking to an herbalist or a healthcare provider, let them know any other issues that you're having or any other medication. So when I work with clients, you know, sometimes I have to ask people three or four times before I find out that they're on kind of a serious oh, I'm on a statin or oh, I'm on this, I'm on that. I'm like, well, I've asked you like three or four times now. Are you on anything? And I'm not trying to be, you know, mean here or anything like that. It's just we forget sometimes. Like if someone asks me, what do you take every day? Like I wouldn't necessarily remember always, especially in a new situation, and I'm feeling someone out. So definitely be patient with yourself and be patient with the questions.
Speaker 1:Follow the dosages. So avoid any potential issues by following the dosage. A lot of people are like, oh, herbs are natural, they're safe. I'm going to use as much as I want and that's not how we want to do it. Sometimes a lot less is a whole lot more. So you know, if I'm working with someone and they can get their desired effect from five drops, why would I want to give them 45? You know what I'm saying. Just like, hey, this is what can work. Let's be grateful that we can work with a small amount.
Speaker 1:And some people's bodies just need a little kick in the right direction and their body takes over. And other people need more long-term support and care. So understand that about yourself and understand that you know about the work that you're doing. Be aware of any potential allergies to specific herbs. So if someone says that they're allergic to I don't know dandelion or they're allergic to lavender or they're allergic to anything, find out what that plant family is right, so you can say, oh, we're going to keep away from herbs that are from this family, especially if they cause like anaphylaxis or something like that. You know you wouldn't want to give someone who has, you know, severe allergies to something like peppermint, spearmint or potentially lemon balm. They're, all you know, in the same family, so you definitely want to be aware of things like that.
Speaker 1:Expectorants are a valuable tool in natural respiratory health, so by incorporating these herbs into your wellness routine, you can also help support your body's ability to clear mucus and maintain clean and healthy airways. So this wraps up today's episode of the Heart of Herbs Herbal School Podcast, where we're talking about expectorants. If you also want to hear other ones about herbal actions, go and check out all of our different episodes. We have other ones in there and we have a lot more coming. So thank you so much for listening and have a wonderful, wonderful day.
