How to Remove Mucus From the Lungs Naturally

You can remove mucus from the lungs using natural remedies, controlled coughing, and chest physical therapy. If these natural techniques don't help, you may need over-the-counter or prescription expectorants.

Clearing lung congestion eases symptoms and promotes healing from a cold, flu, or acute bronchitis. It also prevents complications like pneumonia. However, eliminating mucus is essential to managing lung conditions, such as chronic bronchitis, bronchiectasis, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Natural Remedies

Natural remedies can help reduce or eliminate excess mucus in your lungs. These techniques may provide the relief you need, depending on the severity of your lung congestion. Here are four remedies to try:

1. Drink Warm Fluids

Drinking warm (not hot) liquids can help loosen thickened mucus. Try tea, warm broth, or warm water with lemon. Green tea adds the extra benefit of antioxidants that may reduce inflammation in the airways.

In studies using mice with asthma, green tea extract reduced airway inflammation and mucus production. However, more research is needed to determine if people would have the same results and how much green tea they would need to drink to improve lung mucus.

2. Inhale Moist Air

Moist air inhaled into your air passages loosens the mucus in your lungs, making it easier to cough up and eliminate. Using a humidifier or steam vaporizer to warm and add moisture to the air is a convenient method.

You can can also take a hot shower or turn on the shower and sit in the room breathing the warm, moist air. Another method is inhaling the steam from a pot of simmering water. (Be careful to control the temperature so you don't inhale steam that's too hot.)

3. Try Herbal Therapy

Ginger, curcumin (the active ingredient in turmeric), and garlic may reduce mucus production and inflammation in the airways. A review of published studies reported that the active compounds in garlic reduced airway inflammation and mucus in lab mice and rats. However, studies using garlic in people are needed to determine if it can reduce lung mucus.

You can put herbs into warm tea or mix ginger and honey in warm water. Curcumin and garlic can also be used in tea, but their strong flavors may be easier to tolerate in food or supplements.

4. Use Essential Oils

Essential oils extracted from plants may naturally relieve lung congestion. The menthol in peppermint is a decongestant that thins and loosens mucus in the lungs and shrinks swelling in the nose.

Eucalyptus oil (one of the ingredients in Vicks VapoRub, cough drops, and other products) helps you breathe easier. Though over-the-counter products containing eucalyptus oil are not expectorants (medicines that loosen mucus), topical application may help loosen lung congestion.

You can also use dried eucalyptus leaves, brewing them into tea or placing them in hot water to diffuse into the air.

Controlled Coughing

Controlled coughing engages the chest and stomach muscles to clear mucus in the lungs. Unlike a hacking cough that uses the chest muscles, controlled coughing focuses on stabilizing the core muscles and using the diaphragm.

There are two common methods of controlled coughing to clear mucus from your lungs: deep and huff.

Deep Coughing

To use deep coughing:

1. Sit comfortably in a chair with your feet on the ground.
2. Wrap your arms around your stomach, and take a deep breath in.
3. Keeping your lips pursed, cough forcefully while pressing your arms firmly against your stomach muscles.

Huff Coughing

To use huff coughing:

1. Take a deep, slow breath to fully expand your lungs.
2. Tense your stomach muscles.
3. Exhale three times very quickly and make a "ha" sound with each breath.
4. Repeat this step, keeping your core firm, until you feel the mucus in your lungs breaking up.
5. Cough deeply to clear your lungs.

Deep Breathing

For deep breathing exercises (also called belly breathing), you slowly breathe in (inhale) and breathe out (exhale) to help your lungs expand. Deep breathing is an example of pulmonary hygiene—treatments that use physical manipulation to help you cough up sticky mucus and clear your lungs.

Your healthcare provider or respiratory therapist can teach other deep breathing techniques to do at home on a regular schedule to help keep your lungs clear.

Chest Physical Therapy

Chest physical therapy (CPT) can be done manually, with a mechanical airway clearance device, or using postural drainage. You can do some CPT techniques by yourself, but others require help from a partner, such as a therapist or a family member.

During physical therapy, breathe in and out slowly and fully until the mucus in your lungs is loose enough to cough up.

Manual CPT

Manual CPT combines chest percussion and vibration to loosen the mucus in the lungs and make you cough. To do chest percussion, a therapist (or friend, partner, or housemate) will clap on your chest or back to help loosen the thick mucus in your lungs so you can cough it up. Vibration is done by placing their flat hands on your chest wall and making a shaking motion.

Airway Clearance Devices

Airway clearance devices are an option you can do without help. Some are hand-held machines that use high-frequency vibration, low-frequency sound waves, and other technology to break up mucus in the lungs. You can also use devices that are worn like a vest and some require you to breathe into them (like a flute).

Postural Drainage

Postural drainage involves sitting or lying in positions that help the lungs drain. There are several techniques, but here is one example: To drain the front of your lungs, lie on the floor and put pillows under your hips (so that the chest is lower than the hips). Then deep breathe to promote drainage.

You can do postural drainage alone or together with the first two techniques.

Exercise

People living with lung conditions like primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) and cystic fibrosis (CF) need to manage mucus through a combination of techniques practiced over a lifetime. CPT is an essential strategy, but exercise also has a vital role, helping to clear mucus from lung airways and improve lung function.

Your exercise may involve walking, swimming, cycling, and other common activities. However, you should start slowly, build gradually, and consult your healthcare provider or respiratory therapist to learn about the best exercise program for your health needs.

Medications (Expectorants)

Medications don't usually contain natural ingredients. However, if you need to eliminate lung congestion, and natural remedies, coughing, or exercise don't help, you may need to turn to medications called expectorants.

One of the most common and effective expectorants, guaifenesin, originated as a natural remedy extracted from the guaiac tree. Today, the same active ingredient is synthetically produced for medications.

Over-the-Counter (OTC)

OTC expectorants, such as Robitussin and Mucinex (guaifenesin), can help clear excess mucus from your lungs. Expectorants thin and loosen mucus in the lungs to make it easier to cough up. They can also block the production of mucin proteins, the primary components of mucus.

Prescription

Mucolytics, including N-acetylcysteine and carbocysteine, are only available by prescription. These medications work differently than expectorants. Mucolytics break the chemical bonds in mucus to help make it easier to cough up.

When to See a Healthcare Provider

Mucus in the airway can make it hard to breathe, so it's important to discuss your symptoms with your healthcare team if they're severe or don't improve.

Call your provider if you notice a change in your symptoms, including an increase in the amount, hard or sticky mucus, or mucus that's yellow, green, dark brown, or red. These color changes suggest you have a lung infection needing medical care.

Contact your healthcare provider if you have chest pain, heart rate changes, or other symptoms with congested lungs.

Seek immediate emergency care if you are unable to breathe because of mucus in the airway.

Summary

Home remedies, coughing, chest physical therapy, and deep breathing are natural ways to remove mucus from your lungs. You may need these treatments when you have temporary lung congestion due to a cold, flu, or acute bronchitis. However, regularly clearing mucus from your lungs is part of living with chronic bronchitis, bronchiectasis, COPD, and other health conditions.

If you have a chronic lung condition, talk with your healthcare provider or respiratory therapist about the best approach for managing your health. You should also seek medical care if lung mucus from any cause worsens or changes color.