This is the time of year when millions of people in America develop a cough for various reasons. In many areas, just breathing in cold air causes one’s windpipes to constrict resulting in a cough. For others, they develop a cough as a result of contracting the flu or some other respiratory virus or bacterial infection. For others, a cough can result from medications they take for various health conditions and then there are the thousands with smoker’s cough.

In early 2002, I developed a bad case of bronchitis. My doctor placed me on an antibiotic and prescribed a cough medicine. Two weeks later, my cough was not getting any better. In fact, the cough was so intense that there were times that everything went black, my ears rang and I would nearly blackout due to a lack of breathing in.

What makes this incident so memorable is that my wife and I had tickets to fly to Barbados to visit her dad’s family. It was early March and we planned on celebrating my wife’s birthday with one of her first cousins who shared the same birthday.

When we arrived in paradise (Barbados), my cough was still really severe. We were staying with my wife’s uncle (her dad’s youngest brother) and he also had a history of bronchitis. After a few days, Uncle Billy bought me a bottle of cough medicine and told me that it would cure my cough. It tasted worst than any cough medicine that I had ever taken and I’ve taken some pretty horrible tasting cough medicines over the years.

Sure enough, in just 2 days of taking the cough medicine, my cough was virtually gone. What was the cough medicine? It was Senega, Ammonia and Histal. It broke up all of the congestion in my chest and when I coughed, I was able to spit out all of the mucous and in just 2 days, it was gone.

Several years later, back in the United States, I again developed a bad cough and went searching for the cough medicine. I searched in drug stores and then online and was shocked when I could not find the same cough medicine here in the United States.

I was able to find a cough medicine with Senega and Ammonia, but nothing with Histal. The only problem is that the cough medicine was NOT available here in the United States. When I inquired, I was told that it’s not available here because it is not FDA approved.

I did discover that the Senega and Ammonia was available in Australia and some close friends who were originally from Australia were back home visiting family. I emailed them and asked if they could bring back a couple bottles of the Senega and Ammonia cough medicine. They did and it has really helped.

Last year, I again developed a cough and used up the last of the Australian Senega and Ammonia. My friends were planning to go home to Australia over the holiday, so I asked them to again bring me back some cough medicine. They have returned to the US and they did bring back 2 large bottles of the Senega and Ammonia cough medicine.

When our friends were looking for the cough medicine in Australia, the lady at the pharmacy told her that it was the best cough medicine in the world and described it as tasting like licking tar on the road. She was so impressed by the endorsement that she also bought a bottle for herself to bring back to the US.

I have to wonder why the FDA will not approved one, if not the best and most effective cough medicine in the world? It also makes me wonder if one of the reasons more people in America suffer from bad coughs is because of the FDA?