Does Alcohol Help Cure Colds?

It has been said that a hot toddy at bedtime can give relief to cold and flu sufferers. A hot toddy is a warm drink, usually tea when used to treat colds, mixed with a shot or two of alcohol, usually brandy, and honey as a sweetener. It sounds like a good combination, whether you are sick or not, but do hot toddies really have any beneficial qualities for your immune system?

The reason many people think a hot toddy is beneficial for a cold is because alcohol is rumored to be able tot kill germs in the bloodstream and therefore would be useful to cure a cold. However, there have been no scientific studies that prove alcohol can kill germs in the bloodstream. One drink doesn't seem to make a difference either to prevent colds or increase the risk of them. However, drinking an excessive amount of alcohol can weaken the immune system overall, which would then make you more likely to become sick and make it harder for your body to fight off the infection.

So it appears a hot toddy will not cure a cold. Although it is possible it will still give you temporary relief from cold symptoms. A warm steamy drink will always make a sore throat or runny nose feel a lot better. But this relief can come from any warm steamy drink. It does not require any alcoholic addition to work its magic.

Alcohol actually dehydrates you, which has a possible side effect of increasing the length of the cold, the exact opposite effect you were looking to achieve from drinking your hot toddy.

A drink that will really help you to prevent a cold is red wine. Drinking two glasses daily is said to decrease your risk of getting a cold by 44 percent. If you aren't a big enough red wine fan to down two glasses a day, don't worry. One glass also helps but just not as much. The high antioxidant content of wine is a big part of why it's so helpful. So if you don't like red wine at all, simply drink something else, like grape or pomegranate juice, which is also rich in antioxidants.

There's no need to start drinking wine just for the antioxidants if you were never a wine drinker before. And save the hot toddies for when you are feeling healthy. You'll probably enjoy them more anyway when you are not sick in bed with a box of tissues.