A nasty cold can linger for weeks. You feel run down and worse, cannot seem to stop coughing. The cough begins with a little tickle in your throat and, before you know it, you are coughing for 10 minutes or more. Cough in a store and people move away from you immediately. How can you get rid of a cough?

First, you need to understand that coughing helps to clear mucus from your throat. One tried and true remedy for a cough is to stand in a hot shower and breathe the steam. If you do not want to take a shower, hold your head over a pan of boiling water. Do not hold your head too close, though.

Honey is an old folk remedy for cough. In a website article, “Honey: An Effective Cough Remedy?” Mayo Clinic says eating honey may suppress a cough. However, you need to be cautious about giving honey to a child. “Never give honey to a child younger than age one,” Mayo Clinic advises.

A WebMD article, “Coughs: Topic Overview,” divides coughs into productive and nonproductive. Productive coughs are the ones you have with a common cold. “Coughing is often triggered by mucus that drains down the back of the throat,” notes the article. A productive cough clears mucus from the lungs. But a nonproductive cough does not clear mucus and “may develop toward the end of a cold or after exposure to an irritant, such as dust or smoke.”

Over-the-counter cough syrup may also help you get rid of a cough. You should not take this syrup if you have asthma, emphysema, or excessive mucus in your throat. According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) you need to check the active ingredients in cough syrup before you take it. Cough syrup often contains several active ingredients: a decongestant, cough suppressant, expectorant, pain reliever and fever reducer.

Look for Pseudoephidrene in the ingredients list, a stimulant that dries up your nose and throat. The side effects of this ingredient include nervousness, dizziness and sleeplessness. As I discovered, this ingredient can also raise your blood pressure and cause your heart to beat very rapidly.

My husband and I were going out to dinner. Because I had a lingering cough I took some cough medicine and drank a cup of coffee to perk me up. I had a glass of wine with dinner and coffee afterwards. Suddenly, my heart was racing and I began to feel faint. Later, I discovered this reaction was caused by the Pseudoephidrene in the cough syrup.

Tablespoons and teaspoons very widely, according to the FDA, so you should only use the measuring cup or spoon that comes with the cough syrup. Keep in mind that cough medicine does not treat the underlying cause of a cough. See your physician if your cough lingers for weeks, you develop bronchitis, pneumonia, or start to cough up blood. Colds are not fun but they eventually go away.