Are roasted oranges effective in treating coughs?

"Have you ever eaten roasted oranges? I heard it can cure coughs!" Today, a topic about #Are roasted oranges so effective# became a hot topic.

An enthusiastic netizen also posted detailed steps for roasting oranges: 1. Soak: Soak the oranges in warm water at about 50℃ for 3 minutes; 2. Drip: After wiping the moisture off the skin, poke a hole in the bottom of the orange with chopsticks and drip a few drops of tea seed oil; 3. Roast: Put the oranges in a hot pan and roast them. It is said that the oranges roasted in this way can relieve cough and reduce phlegm, and have an auxiliary therapeutic effect on colds and coughs.

There was a heated discussion about this. Someone said: I just tried it last week and it works great for cold coughs!

Some netizens also left messages saying that after seeing this trending search, they ate four or five tangerines steamed in a rice cooker, but ended up vomiting them out when they went to sleep at night. They vomited more than ten times in one night and said, "I will never try poison on myself again."

In fact, roasted oranges are one of my childhood delicacies. In the cold winter, the whole family sat around the charcoal fire pot, the adults chatted, and the children waited eagerly for the oranges to be roasted on the fire pot. They were very sweet. I remember that roasted oranges tasted good and warmed my stomach. As for the effect of curing cough, I occasionally heard the elders mention it, but I am not sure.

Roasting oranges to treat cough is a folk remedy

It may be related to the ingredients in orange peel

Wang Qili, chief Chinese medicine doctor at Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine's pediatric department, said that roasting oranges to treat coughs is indeed a traditional remedy with a long history. When she sees young patients with coughs, she often hears parents mention it.

However, from a medical point of view, this method has no scientific basis. If we must talk about the principle, Wang Qili believes that the effect of roasted oranges on cough may be related to the components of hesperidin, cellulose and volatile oil in orange peel.

"In traditional Chinese medicine, tangerine peel has the effect of regulating qi and resolving phlegm. After the oranges are roasted, the ingredients in the tangerine peel will penetrate into the flesh due to the heat, which is a bit similar to tangerine peel." However, Wang Qili said that the older the tangerine peel is, the better the effect. Freshly roasted oranges may have certain therapeutic effects, but they certainly cannot achieve the effect of medicine. For severe coughs, eating roasted oranges alone is not enough.

In addition, everyone's physique is different, and roasted oranges are not suitable for everyone. For patients with phlegm and dampness constitution who have coughs and sluggish qi, roasted oranges can have a certain effect; but for those with yin deficiency and qi deficiency, eating them may have no effect or even aggravate the symptoms.

In addition to roasted oranges, Wang Qili recommends that patients who are prone to coughing can also eat some seasonal fruits and vegetables that are suitable for all ages, such as pears and lilies. Steamed pears and lily porridge can moisten the lungs and help keep the respiratory tract moist, thereby preventing or relieving coughs.

Cough has complex causes

Children under 2 years old must be treated with appropriate medication

"The virus has been active recently, and coupled with the dryness of autumn, the number of children coming to see a doctor for coughing has indeed increased significantly." Among the children with coughs that Wang Qili has treated, the most common causes are repeated colds and allergies, and some are caused by pneumonia. "Children in kindergartens and primary schools are especially prone to cross-infection. Many colds have healed, but the cough will continue for a long time."

For coughs caused by recurrent colds, Wang Qili believes that roasted oranges can be used as an auxiliary dietary therapy method in the initial stage of the disease or when it is about to recover. However, for coughs caused by other reasons such as allergies, pneumonia, etc., it is still necessary to use the right medicine to achieve good results.

She once treated a 5-year-old child who had been coughing for half a month. His grandmother thought that taking medicine was harmful to his body, so she insisted on using a folk remedy from her hometown. She roasted oranges, boiled pear soup or loquat leaves for the child to drink every day. However, not only did the condition not improve, the child had recurrent high fevers. Finally, he was diagnosed with pneumonia at the hospital and was immediately arranged to be hospitalized.

Wang Qili said that although some folk remedies have certain effects, one must not be superstitious, otherwise it may delay the treatment. In addition, the digestive function of infants under 2 years old is not yet fully developed, and the cause of cough is more complicated. Parents are not recommended to feed roasted oranges. Once symptoms appear, they should go to the hospital as soon as possible to find out the cause and carry out targeted treatment.

Cough for more than 3 months

Please check these two items

Chen Zhiling, chief physician and director of the Otolaryngology Department of Hangzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, said that autumn is the peak season for coughs every year. On the one hand, the temperature difference is large, and the number of patients with upper respiratory tract infections, bronchitis, pneumonia, etc. increases. In addition, autumn is also the peak season for allergies, and asthma patients are more likely to get sick than before. There is also a part of the population who have coughs that exclude the above reasons, also known as "dry coughs."

"I have treated a female patient in her 60s who has been coughing at the end of October for five consecutive years, and each time it lasted for 2-3 months. This year, she drank Chinese medicine and her coughing symptoms have improved a lot." Chen Zhiling said that for patients with dry coughs, roasted oranges may have a certain effect, but if the cough is caused by a viral infection, eating hot foods such as roasted oranges may aggravate the infection. "Folk wisdom has some truth, but it still depends on the individual."

Chen Zhiling reminds that if the cough lasts for more than 3 months (generally called chronic cough), the cause is more complicated. In addition to lung examination, it is best to check whether there is sinusitis or gastroesophageal reflux. Children should pay special attention to whether there is adenoid hypertrophy. If the cough often occurs when lying down to sleep or just getting up, it is likely caused by adenoid hypertrophy.

Gastroesophageal reflux is also one of the main causes of chronic cough.

Chen Zhiling once treated a patient who ate a bowl of stewed pear with Fritillaria cirrhosa every night before going to bed, but his cough did not ease at all. After examination, it was found that the cough was caused by gastroesophageal reflux, and eating before going to bed actually aggravated the symptoms.

There was also a girl in her 20s who worked as a salesperson in a company. Her biggest hobby was to go out for barbecue after get off work. She had been coughing for half a year and had taken a lot of cough medicines, but none of them worked. Finally, she found out that it was gastroesophageal reflux. Chen Zhiling prescribed her anti-reflux drugs, and after taking them, her cough was relieved a lot.

Reporter Lin Lin of Chengshi Interactive, correspondent Chen Yanming and Xu Youjia