Flu season tip - Don't Cough, hock a loogie instead - How and why

This is a little trick I discovered that will save your throat from getting too sore and help you be more productive at coughing up that phlegm you need to get out.

Men might "get this" faster than ladies but no worries, I'm sure the guys will help you gals out at home.

When you get that tickle in your throat most people have a tenancy to violently cough, forcing air up from the lungs to try to cough up the phlegm. This can be problematic causing you to keep on coughing yourself into a fit that will make your throat very sort in no time.

If you can resist the urge to cough via this "reflex" there is a much better way. Instead, hock a loogie.

Guys will tell you they hock a loogie by using short controlled breaths in conjunction with the throat muscles more so than all that air from the lungs. If you can get the knack of this, it's much easier to get up the phlegm and do it in a way that saves you a serious sort throat.

For me I use a 3 or 4 step process. First I fight the urge to cough normally. Next I "hock" the phlegm up 1, 2 and perhaps 3 times in a row.. this will not get it out yet!

This will get the majority of the phlegm into an area of your throat where yo have more control.

After perhaps the 3rd single " hock", let the phlegm settle back into one big ball of phlegm. This only takes a couple of seconds ( it just slides back down your throat a little and gathers itself together) - you should be able to feel this ball settling itself together. Now Hock once more and poof, the whole ball of phlegm should pop right out.

Takes some time to get used to but once you master this, it's way faster, easier to cough the stuff up and saves great wear and tear on your throat. Give it a try and if it helps you, pass it on.

Also a great tip on reconstituting cottage cheese hahaha.

It's true though. Those violent coughs do indeed cause prolonged suffering.

hocking a loogie will stop the spread of disease. Nobody will come even close to you if they see you doing that. They will be afraid of getting hit by it.

Great Loogie Coaching there! I also noticed that. Plus it is much more effective at getting rid of the nasty stuff. I hate sore throats and will definitely give it a shot. I had pneumonia in the hospital once from the respirator. I was miserable coughing to get it out. I guess in that case it is comming out of the lungs though and you have to cough. You need an expectorant to break it up so you can get rid of it. I think yours works well for the head cold, upper respiratory infection. Once it is deep in the lungs it take work to get it out. I hung on the side of the hospital bed for a couple days. I hated every minute of it.

Tashi Delek,

To be safe during the flu season, one need look no further than Omega-3 fatty acids:

www.weather.com...

There are many other ways to do this but Omega-3 supplements are by far the best.
Forget the flu shot...have some cod liver oil.

-Amitabha-

EW EW EW EWWWW ... OMG I don't think I could do that.
YUK .. I have to go start cooking supper and I have all this in my head now??
Gross .... my stomach is turning.

reply to post by spirit_horse


I had the same experience in the summer. It was really nasty. I haven't been right since. I'm an expert loogie hocker

spirit_horse
Great Loogie Coaching there! I also noticed that. Plus it is much more effective at getting rid of the nasty stuff. I hate sore throats and will definitely give it a shot. I had pneumonia in the hospital once from the respirator. I was miserable coughing to get it out. I guess in that case it is comming out of the lungs though and you have to cough. You need an expectorant to break it up so you can get rid of it. I think yours works well for the head cold, upper respiratory infection. Once it is deep in the lungs it take work to get it out. I hung on the side of the hospital bed for a couple days. I hated every minute of it.

I was in the hospital Monday because I got bronchitis. It came on very fast, less than 12 hours from starting to cough, to coughing so hard i could not catch my breath. It caused me to panic and hyperventilate only being able to take breaths in short fast bust. I was afraid to eat or drink thinking i'd suffocate myself. I literally did not know where the next breath would come from. They said if I didn't come in when i did, I'd have gotten full blown pneumonia.

This is what prompted me to examine the way I was coughing. Works well for my acute bronchitis. Full blown pneumonia I'm sure may be a little tougher.

I'm not on an expectorant unless there is one in these Tessalon Perles (200 mg Benzonatate) Otherwide i'm on steroids, a rescue inhaler and antibiotics.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


Sorry to hear of your hospital visit. Seems like an agressive illness. I hope you get well soon. I hate being sick. I can live with broken up and rebuilt, but just sick, especially with all the concerns out there floating around makes me a little nervous. Glad you just had bronchitis and caught it before pneumonia. I know the feeling of not being sure if you would gag nd not be able to breathe.

The SARS and MEA-RS viruses which are both Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromes, one from Southeast Asia and one from the Middle East is what scares me. They fill your lungs up with fluid until many paitents drown from it. Fortunately they have been able to keep it from going epidemic. Yep, I hate those nasty bugs you can't see, but have a heck of a punch.

New SARS-like virus is a 'threat to the entire world'

(CNN) -- A new SARS-like virus recently found in humans is "a threat to the entire world," according to the director-general of the United Nations' World Health Organization.

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