Re: congestion

Another thing that is EXTREMELY important is to take time to breathe as slowly/deeply as you can and then to expel the breath as quickly as possible through pursed lips. This will be painful, and probably bring on coughing episodes, but will help to assure that there is movement in the lungs. As a young twenty-something, I would get bronchitis and upper resperatory infections regularly. I also had asthma attacks that would require emergency room visits and hospitalization. I know, what a pain, but I would be dead now for sure if I hadn't had that option.

The deep breathing will help calm your lungs a bit and will keep the phlegm from settling into a pneumonia. After many chest/lung surgeries, the doctor's will instruct the patients to use a device to ward this off. The device has a ball that raises up a tube when there is an intake of air. The patient is instructed to try to keep the ball afloat for a certain period of time or to reach a certain point on the tube. This is a training exercise to get the fluids in the lungs moving so that pneumonia doesn't set in.

Another helpful thing you could look into is drinking some salt water in addition to your regular water intake. The salt will help the body retain some extra water, and will help to loosen the sputum. Tweet