Remedies for the Common Cold

Ah, the common cold. What a bummer. When you catch a cold, you can pretty much expect to be sick for about a week, but that doesn't mean you have to be miserable! There are lots of different things that can help to relieve your cold symptoms and actually lots of different things that can make it worse!!!

Try this:

Clear fluids - Drink plenty of water, clear broth (like chicken broth), juice, warm tea with honey and lemon. While you CAN'T "flush" a cold out of your system, drinking plenty of clear fluids can help to keep your hydrated, which in turn helps you to feel better and keep your immune system working like it should fighting away those evil cold buggers.

Chicken soup - believe it or not - this actually does help. Chicken soup acts as an anti-inflammatory and helps allow these certain immune system cells to move around easier - which is a good thing. Be good to your immune system!

Steam - Ugh the congestion - head throbbing. Try this. Go into the bathroom and close the door, pull the shower curtain/door/whatever you got, shut and turn the hot water on full blast. (Don't get into the shower!) Let it run really hot for about 5 or 10 minutes and pull back the shower curtain/whatever and let all the steam out... steam up the bathroom and just breath it all in. The steam helps to loosen all that mucus.

Salt Water Gargle - 1/2 teaspoon of salt dissolved into 8 oz of warm water and gargle. This helps to soothe a sore throat and clear the mucus away.

Decongestants/Pain Relievers (OTC) - No, cold medicines won't make the cold go away. But, it can make you feel better for a few hours. Make sure you drink 8 oz of water when you take the OTC medicines, or any medicine for that matter. Water is actually what makes medicine work, and the more water you have in there with the medicine, the better. Cold remedies are not recommended for children under the age of 14 and are said to be very dangerous to children under the age of 2.

Saline Nasal Spray - Don't go gettin' all that fancy stuff. Just SALINE nasal spray. Most other nasal sprays are addictive and really aren't good for you. Saline nasal sprays help to loosen the mucus that causes the stuffy nose and congestion.

Tomato Soup - Tomato Soup is really good for a sore throat, plus its got vitamins in it - YAY!

Humidity - A humidifier can get the dry out of the air. But, if you choose to use this method, be sure that you change your water ever day, and clean the machine every three days, because while a humidifier can put moisture in the air, it can also put mold in the air. YUCK!

Vitamin C - Did you know that our government give Vitamin C to our soldiers to keep them from catching colds while on the battle lines? While it's not proven that it PREVENTS colds - it doesn't hurt to try it! 200 mg per day will do the trick - keep it at that, too much Vitamin C can cause nausea and diarrhea.

Echinacea - This is what is found in the popular OTC "Airborne" - Some studies have shown that 10-30% of testers that took Echinacea when they had a cold experienced a shorter and less intense cold. Try it, maybe you'll be one of the lucky 10-30%

Zinc - When taken in a lozenge or nasal spray within the first 48 hours of a cold, Zinc has been shown to lower the time and severity of the cold. You can take Zinc with food to help with the symptoms - bad taste and nausea. Be careful though because Intranasal Zinc has been linked to have caused permanent damage to the sense of smell.

Things to Avoid:

Caffeinated drinks - soda, coffee and alcohol - These things can cause dehydration.

Nasal decongestants - they're addictive and can lead to a rebound effect - a worsening symptom when the use of them are stopped. I think that's where the addiction part comes in.

Antihistamines: You don't want to sedate the sneezing effect - that gets the mucus out - which is a good thing. Stay away from Antihistamines!!!!

OTC Cough Syrups - Some certain ingredients might help - but - in the amounts found in Cough Syrups, it's really a waste - it doesn't have much, just flavoring and color. It's also bad for children!

Antibiotics - Antibiotics will not help when all you have is a cold. The only thing that it CAN do - if you go running to the doctor for antibiotics too frequently is that it can can a reduction of how it works on you and can actually cause for you TO get sick -- by causes an immunity to antibiotics.

I HOPE YOU GET TO FEELING BETTER!!!!