It’s that time of year when so many people get a cough. It’s cold and flu season, along with a host of other respiratory ailments that are making the rounds. Bronchitis and sinus problems also abound this time of year.

If you go out anywhere in public – shopping, church, restaurant, school, work or movie – you are bound to run into someone who is coughing for one reason or another. Millions of Americans spend billions of dollars every year on cough medicines. Some work and some don’t. Some work for certain sources of coughs and others do not.

Everyone seems to have their favorite brand and type of cough medicines, including myself. Over the years, I’ve had some pretty bad bouts of bronchitis. With some of those bouts, I would have a constant cough 24/7 that would last for several weeks. The cough was so intense that there were times everything turned black, my ears would ring and I felt like I would pass out from lack of oxygen. One doctor thought I had whooping cough because of the severity of my coughing, but it was just bronchitis.

I’ve tried numerous cough medicines, including prescription cough medicines with codeine, but they rarely worked. In 2002, I took my wife to Barbados to visit her dad’s family (his family has been in Barbados since the first ship from Scotland back in the 1630s). just before leaving for the beautiful island in the Caribbean, I came down with a really bad case of bronchitis. I took prescription cough medicine with me, but like usual, it did little to curb my cough.

My wife’s uncle, whom we stayed with, also gets bronchitis and gave me some of the cough medicine he uses that is made there on the island, and my severe cough was gone in about 36 hours. The cough medicine was made with Senega, ammonia and a histal expectorant. Today, I can find Senega and Ammonia, but none with the histal expectorant.

I only used the cough medicine when it was absolutely necessary, but many people over use cough medicine. About a decade ago, many doctors warned against using cough medicines too frequently or using the wrong cough medicines.

So, what cough medicine works best for you and your family?

Have you ever thought about using chocolate as a cough medicine? That’s what a recent report said:

“It may sound too good to be true, but researchers now say indulging in that piece of chocolate is actually the best cure for your cough.”

“A research group from a university in England randomly prescribed more than 160 patients either regular cough medicine or a chocolate-based medicine.”

“Patients on the chocolate-based medication reported improving more quickly than those on regular cough syrup.”

Researchers believe that the cocoa, used to make chocolate with, helps relieve both irritation and inflammation associated with coughing. They recommend that if you have a cough, suck on a piece of chocolate and it just may help relieve and reduce the cough. If nothing else, it will taste better than the vast majority of cough medicines on the market.