Lets talk a little about your lungs. Your lungs are much bigger than one thinks at least as far as surface area is concerned. I have seen it quoted that your lungs total surface area is about as big as a tennis court. The area that creates the largest part of the surface area gets down to 1 cell thick so that Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide can pass between them freely. This makes for a delicate area, and a possibility for easy disruption. The lungs must maintain a moist environment and be free of foreign matter.

Now lets turn our attention to 2 common problems had with the lungs and the 2 that I want to talk about. First, the most common problem is congestion. In this huge surface area that I spoke about there is a bottle neck where the trachea branches out into the lungs, called the bronchis. So we have a few weak spots here. So a few common problems happen to clog up the system here. First is that we can get a runny nose and do a little to much snorting and it ends up in your respiratory tract. Second a post nasal drip can drip right back into the respiratory tract. Lastly that natural moisture throughout your lungs can get heated and ‘cook’ that fluid down, or decoct it, and it makes a much thicker fluid- phlegm or mucous.

Next problem I want to discuss is overworking the lungs. Believe it or not you can overwork your lungs. What is happening here is that you are breathing very heavily and the air is not able to gather moisture and equalize in air temperature. If you would like to see this in action just set the computer down and go for a sprint outside and continue running while you are breathing very heavily. You will eventually stop and your lungs will feel quite uncomfortable. I actually got this problem researched and herbal help from it from horses. Racing horses take lung supplements as they overwork their lungs and usually bleed after races.

So lets talk about some herbs for your lungs.
Thyme- yes, good old household thyme in your kitchen is a great lung herb and you probably have it already.
Mullein- a very common lung herb here. Mullein is often smoked to lung and cough relief, but we are gonna make a tea instead. Mullein is great because it cools and disperses. As you see the most common problems with the lungs are overworking, heat, and inflammation (bronchitis).
Elecampane / Xuan Fu Hua- Elecampane is not an herb that may be in your collection, but is essential to strengthen the lungs. This is really our main tonifying herb here in the mix. Ayurveda tags Elecampane as promoting the longevity of lung tissue. What we need to do with this herb to tonify, strengthen, and for prevention is to increase this properties through honey frying. Basically heat up a pan and throw your herb in there and slowly add little bits of honey to coat the herb and ’sear’ it on there.
Lobelia / Ban Ban Lian- You will find Lobelia in alot of herbal formulas. This is because Lobelia is an Antispasmodic which means it relaxes muscles and allows the body to accept your formula. Well, that is great but it just so happens that Lobelia has an affinity for the lungs and helps relax the upper respiratory tract. Great Success!
Lastly, we want to throw in some dried Ginger. This will help with our lung ailments and harmonize the formula.
Lastly I would like to mention that Ma Huang or Ephedra would make a great addition assuming that you were not on MAO inhibitors or heart problems. Unfortunately Ephedra was misused as a weight loss herb (which it is NOT used for by ANY herbalist) and it is quite difficult to get now. If you got it, this is a great herb for this formula and can actually increase your breathing ability. While im on this subject Ma Huang is not to be used for a long period of time. So If you are using preventative measures with this herb use low doses.

Throw your combo here in a pot and make some nice tea. Also feel free to ground this all down and make some pills.
If you are really interested in this, but want a professionally done make up of this formula visit www.dimmakherbs.com and go under products and pills. You will see a product called Breath E.

Hope this helps some athletes as well as those with those with lung problems!

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Vanessa, 31 from Garner, NC asks me “what is a good herbal expectorant for phlegm? I am having allergic reactions to ?? I am not sure of. However, i seem to have alot of phlegm collecting in my lungs.”

Well Vanessa lets look at this. Phlegm is also called sputum and mucous. In Chinese Medicine phlegm does not really need to be a physical form coughed up from your lungs, but that is another discussion. Typically here is how phlegm develops. Phlegm starts as a form of dampness and then is decocted down into a much thicker substance. Your lungs are naturally a damp place and if that place is heated up and that fluid is cooked you have created some phlegm in there. This is a generalization, but a very common source of getting this phlegm. Now, typically phlegm will be a dark color from the heat. The lighter the color the more heat you have there. Usually you will end up with a more clear runny phlegm, a yellowish is more ‘cool’ but I will go over herbs to cover both of these.

Vanessa wasn’t very descriptive with her condition. So lets cover a nice general condition. Let’s add in a cough that will usually accompany the phlegm, which is your bodies natural instinctive way to expel the phlegm. What we want to do here is get rid of the phlegm by breaking it down and expelling it. We also want to soothe your throat, tonify your lungs and quiet your cough.
I like to use syrups here since we can soothe the throat at the same time and give an application that will coat the area leaving the medicine on the area. An alternative is a smoking mixture where you can use mullien, but lets move on to the syrup.

We want to use an expectorant, in other words something that expels the phlegm out. Comfrey and/or Playcodon are the good herbs here. To quiet the cough we will use the ultra powerful Kuan Dong Hua or Coltsfoot. This herb can be a little pricey but it works very well and tastes/smells wonderful. To compliment and soothe we will use Wild Cherry Bark that will also add some good flavor. I personally would use Lobelia here to open the system up to the treatment.

Gather these herbs and throw them in a stainless steel pot. You want 4oz of herb and add water to the pot to match the height or 500ml would be good. Bring to a boil and then simmer on low heat for over an hour. Keep decocting and cooking down to get a think substance but make sure not to burn anything. You can remove the herbs and throw the water back in and a add a bit of Slippery Elm pre-mixed with a little water and add it in there. This will thicken the decoction, but don’t add too much it will get slimy. After this add honey and or glycerin to the decoction to thicken.

1-3 teaspoons of this mixture as needed should do a great job to our condition here. www.dimmakherbs.com also sells a cough syrup that is similar to this and works great (go under products and its under ’syrups’). I feel a nice tingle in my throat and fast relief. On a final note your concoction should be kept refrigerated. This should now last you about 3-6 months.

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