Surviving Flu Season Cheaply: The Mostly Natural Ways to Get Through

"You are always so good with your colds," a friend said - Really? hmmm - and I started to think about it - I have had bouts with all that winter stuff - congestion - colds - sore throats - all that for so long - I suppose I have become a personal expert on how to cope.

Let me share some of my secrets and home remedies I pull out - most of them are cheap, too.

First line of defense - Your immune system Yes, unfortunately, everything your grandmother told you about your health is true - Get enough sleep. Not too much alcohol. Eat right. Take your vitamins. Wash your hands often.
(Nowadays you can carry around sanitizing hand cleaner, too.)

When you feel something coming on - Take extra Vitamin C and some goldenseal to prop up your immune system. Ginseng helps, too. I also have recently found a Chinese herbal remedy - Chuan Xin Lian - which is supposed to boost the immune system. It did help with my last bout - shortened it. Seemed to help my husband, too. And it's very affordable. Less than $10 and you can find it on the net and in health food stores.

Now let's get down to treating symptoms. If you have a sore or scratchy throat - gargle throughout the day with hot salt water, as hot as you can stand. (In offices I used to hoard those little salt packages from the lunch places for that purpose). Salt water is a mild antiseptic and will help heal the irritation. (You can also gargle with a 1/2 and 1/2 water/hydrogen peroxide gargle - but don't swallow it!)

Hot soups are good for the throat, too. I find that's the only time I really like hot, spicy food. Chinese hot sour soup is ideal. The vinegar in it cuts the phlegm, and the hot pepper is good for the immune system. You can fake the hot sour soup by getting any chicken soup, and adding vinegar and hot pepper and soy sauce and a little sugar to taste.

For itchy throats, Rico la drops are great - or the eucalyptus kind. Drink hot tea with lemon and honey. If it gets really sore, you can use those numbing Cepacol ones.

I also make a tea that tastes vile out of Chinese 5 Spice mixture plus a tsp. of dried thyme. Put a tsp. of each in boiling water to make tea. It loosens the mucus in your lungs, so you can clear them.

For sinus congestions - best to clear it by using heat to drain the sinuses - using a hot pad. (You will feel the mucus go down your throat). You can also use saline solution sprays up your nose. Decongestants work - but be judicious - because if you use them too much, you will dry out your sinus membranes, causing a further irritation! So be careful.

I also like inhaling menthol for the nose - you can even use something like a Vick's vaporub under your nose, if you can stand it.

Hot baths are great for the aches - and/or use mineral ice, and take aspirin or ibuprofen or acetaminophen - (Ibuprofen is best for things associated with muscles.) But all these are hard on the stomach. So eat something first.

Stay hydrated. Drink lots of water/juice/tea/soup. (For the ladies - remember your moisturizer, and maybe make it the heavier kind.) Use petroleum jelly on your lips, irritated eyes and around the nose.

Use facial tissues and always throw them into a wastepaper basket and toss them, as they are GERMY.

Don't take too much alcohol - it's dehydrating - And be careful about the hot toddies - although they have used them for years - so if it works for you....

And do read the labels of whatever you take - There is a lot of alcohol in cough remedies! And psuedoephedrine or it's current substitute is very speedy. (Therefore bad at night). Benedryl is a tried and true antihistamine & makes you sleepy, so use at night. So don't give yourself double doses of, say, ibuprofen and the same thing in a cold medicine....All that stuff is hard on your stomach. (And this advice is for adults - children don't always react well to aspirin!)

DON'T GO TO WORK UNLESS YOU WILL GET FIRED.

You will be a personal version of typhoid Mary & infect everyone around you. Stay home and rest a few days if at all possible! Sleep a lot. If you have sick days, for heaven's sake use them.

The irony of all this is that by taking your immune system out for a bout you are actually strengthening it! Because you will develop antibodies. People DID survive the plague and the black death, you know! AS more and more viruses are around that mutate and are hard to kill! Antibiotics don't work against them, and are a waste- also you would be building up your immunity to them. And you may need that antibiotic kick in the future - so save it for when it works!

Being generally healthy is always the best idea - You will thank me as you AGE. Because the results of all those bad habits then show up. So treat those symptoms and cheer on as your antibodies fight the good fight!