HOW NOT TO DIE (YET)

Dr Phil Hammond’s guide to living longer

COUGH CURES

As the summer ends, the coughing starts as schoolchildren congregate to swap the bugs they’ve picked up over the holidays. Coughing costs the NHS a small fortune in consultations, anxiety, unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions and the collateral damage of people passing their viruses down the line in packed waiting rooms.

Your friendly pharmacist will be only too happy to relieve you of a small fortune in miracle tickly cough remedies but what – aside from time and nature – is proven to help a simple cough?

NICE has teamed up with Public Health England to announce the winner. And it is, as your grandmother always taught you…

Squeeze half a lemon into a mug of boiled water. Add one to two teaspoons of honey. Drink while still warm. (Don’t give hot drinks to small children or honey to babies under one due to rare risk of botulism. Also, brush teeth well after honey, if you have any.)

Runners up: pelargonium (a herbal remedy, most effective in liquid form); cough medicines containing the expectorant guaifenesin or the antitussive dextromethorphan (only for those over 12).

NICE adds that cough remedies can reduce symptoms but won’t cure the underlying infection. This usually gets better on its own within three weeks.

If not, see your GP, but try not to cough on her. And see her sooner if the cough is caused by asthma or accompanied by excessive phlegm, shortness of breath, very high temperature, blue lips or rigor mortis.

Dr Phil Hammond is on a stand-up tour. Dates at drphilhammond.com