Against cough, instead of antibiotics, better a little honey or some herbal remedy: he advised him nothing less than the rigorous English National Health Service. According to the new guidelines, in most patients, acute cough will improve within three weeks without the need for any medicine. And antibiotics should be reserved for cases that do not resolve or for patients at risk of complications.

Chocolate vs cough

"I know it might seem like a solution to Mary Poppins," he explains, "but as a doctor and an independent researcher who has spent years investigating the mechanisms of cough, I can assure you that the evidence to support this hypothesis is solid like a fruit and hazelnut bar ".

But now one of the greatest experts in cough and respiratory medicine, Alyn Morice of the University of Hull, founding member of the International Society for the Study of Cough, suggests another remedy, even greener: chocolate.

Scientific evidence

To achieve this result, Morice, with the Hull Cough Clinic team, coordinated a study on 300 patients from 13 British hospitals, who were given capsules with theobromine, an alkaloid contained in cocoa and cola seeds, with diuretic and vasodilating properties. In 60% of cases, the symptoms have improved (to then reappear, however, at the end of the administrations).

Even before this research, two others had been conducted: the ROCOCO, a survey of 163 volunteers, which showed that a new medicine containing cocoa is more effective than a standard syrup, and one study of the Imperial College of London on the effects of theobromine, which is more effective than codeine, which is routinely used in cough medicines.

But that's not all: chocolate is more viscous than normal cough medications it forms a coating that protects the nerve endings of the throat that trigger the need to cough. This is the same soothing effect, "inhibitory on nerve endings", which explains why honey, lemon and other sugary syrups can be useful.

Sucking a piece of chocolate should give a little 'relief in case of cough but, as reported by Morice, not even in liquid form enough to solve the problem: It is necessary to develop a cocoa-based drug for effective help. This is because "hot chocolate will not have the same effect as cocoa does not stay in contact with the throat long enough to form a protective coating".