To send a link and summary of this article to a friend, click here . Over a decade ago, on independent trips to China, our hosts gave both of us honeysuckle tea. I was given the tea for flu. He got the tea for bronchitis, the inflammation of the bronchial tubes that causes persistent cough, chest congestion and often the production of a lot of thick, sticky phlegm. Both of us recovered quickly, and I'm inclined to believe that this ancient herbal remedy helped.
Doctors tend to scoff at such statements.
Our two case studies are merely what the scientists often dismiss as anecdotal evidence. All right, so our cases don't really prove anything. And these days, there are a lot of scientific studies to back that up. In 1993, for example, Chinese researchers divided 96 children with bronchiolitis, a children's form of bronchitis, into three groups. Another third got only antibiotics, and the remaining third were given both herbs and antibiotics.