Placing the palms of your hands, with fingers interlocked, tight against your stomach, inhale deeply through your nose. As you exhale, lean forward and push your hands gently into your tummy, and cough 2 or 3 times with your mouth slightly open. Make the coughs short, loud and sharp.
Chest congestion and coughing: Just beneath the collarbone, there is a hollow that sits next to the breastbone. Press in toward the chest on either side of the breastbone at that junction with the collarbone. This point relieves chest congestion, breathing problems and coughing.
Drinking enough fluids, hot ones, can help mucus flow. Water and other liquids can help relieve a stuffy nose. Drink fluids like juice, clear broth, and soup. Other good beverages include decaffeinated tea, warm fruit juice, and lemon water.
Use your stomach muscles to forcefully expel the air. Avoid a hacking cough or merely clearing the throat. A deep cough is less tiring and more effective in clearing mucus out of the lungs. Huff Coughing: Huff coughing, or huffing, is an alternative to deep coughing if you have trouble clearing your mucus.
Strategic clapping on the chest or back shakes the sticky mucus loose. Postural drainage involves sitting or lying down and breathing slowly and deeply to help drain mucus. Vibration is similar to percussion but instead involves using a flat hand to gently shake the ribs.
Vicks is your friend:
Not only is it antiviral (most chest coughs are viral infections), but it relieves your cough and loosens up mucus. Tip: Rub vicks on your or your child's chest each night before bed to let it work its magic.
Will phlegm go away on its own? In many cases, phlegm will go away once your body has fought off an infection. In some cases, though, phlegm may be caused by a more serious issue that needs treatment.
Though chest congestion can make you feel uncomfortable and cause difficulty with breathing, your body's natural response is to mobilize mucus buildup in the lungs and cough, causing the phlegm to loosen and thin.
A chest cold, often called acute bronchitis, occurs when the airways of the lungs swell and produce mucus in the lungs. That's what makes you cough. Acute bronchitis can last less than 3 weeks.
When you do cough up phlegm (another word for mucus) from your chest, Dr. Boucher says it really doesn't matter if you spit it out or swallow it.
Mucus and phlegm are similar, yet different: Mucus is a thinner secretion from your nose and sinuses. Phlegm is thicker and is made by your throat and lungs.
Clapping (percussion) by the caregiver on the chest wall over the part of the lung to be drained helps move the mucus into the larger airways. The hand is cupped as if to hold water but with the palm facing down (as shown in the figure below).
Bronchiectasis is a long-term condition where the airways of the lungs become abnormally widened, leading to a build-up of excess mucus that can make the lungs more vulnerable to infection. The most common symptoms of bronchiectasis include: a persistent cough that usually brings up phlegm (sputum) breathlessness.
Pulmonary edema that comes on suddenly (acute pulmonary edema) is life-threatening. Call 911 or emergency medical help if you have any of the following acute symptoms: Shortness of breath, especially if it comes on suddenly. Trouble breathing or a feeling of suffocating (dyspnea)
Conditions that can contribute to excess mucus include allergies, asthma, and bronchitis. Smoking and conditions like COPD and cystic fibrosis can also cause this symptom. Your doctor may order a sputum test to find the cause of your excess mucus.
Bacterial and Viral Infections
Infections such as the flu, acute bronchitis, and pneumonia can cause your airways to make extra mucus, which you'll often cough up. It may be green or yellow in color. The new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 doesn't usually cause mucus in the chest.
It's found in the centre of your wrist, between 2 prominent tendons, about 2 fingers width above your inner wrist crease. Often achy, heavy and tingly, it opens the chest, relieves congestion and helps to clear phlegm. It is also very effective for nausea and motion sickness.
Blowing the nose can worsen the feeling of congestion due to pressure build-up within the nostrils, which may shoot up the mucus into the sinuses instead of ejection through the nose.