Cold -- what do you do?

[jana]

I've got hit with a nasty cold (again) and I'm curious what other people do to relieve their cold symptoms. What works for you, what doesn't? I've tried to distract myself with things like computer games, my favorite TV shows, and working on a DW style/layout, but sadly, I can't do any of it for too long before I get a headache... I'm also drinking lots of fluids (mostly herbal tee), doing steam inhalation every couple of hours (it's great as long as I keep my head under the towel, but it doesn't seem to have any lasting effect) and I use nasal spray to be able to breath at least once or twice a day...

I hope it's okay to post this here since 'health' is listed as a community interest and I couldn't find another community to ask this question. And I'm desperate ;)

EDIT: Thanks so much everyone, for taking the time and sharing your great tips! I'll answer all your comments in more detail soon (= when I'm up on my feet again) :)

Comments

[sage]

Funny you post this. I came down with a cold on Tuesday, but I kicked in in 48 hours. Here's what I do:

1. Garlic-ginger-honey tea. This recipe was given to me by a friend who was a hospital nurse for 35 yrs. Take 6 large or 10 small cloves of garlic along with a heaping tablespoon of grated fresh ginger root and bring to a boil in 6 cups of water, then simmer for an hour. You can add a little more water to make up for escaped steam. Ladle the tea into mason jars with lids and refrigerate for when you need it. To use: Pour one 8oz. cup of the tea (reheat in microwave if necessary) into a mug and dose with a liberal amount of honey. (Drinking it without the honey is nasty not advised. *g*) Garlic, ginger, and honey all have anti-microbial properties, and this is a powerful herbal remedy.

2. Garlic honey. You can chop up garlic cloves, allowing them to sit in the air for at least ten minutes for the allicin to activate (through oxidation of the cut garlic surface). In fact, the above tea is more potent when you cut the cloves in half and let them sit ten minutes before immersing them. But for garlic honey, you place the chopped fresh garlic into the honey and let it infuse. After about 48 hours, you can use the honey by the spoonful as a cough suppressant -- and it works really well. If the taste is too strong, you can mix it in a little lemon water. After a few weeks, the garlic in the honey turns to a crystalline candy. It's still garlic, obviously, so be aware of that if you decide to give it a nibble, but it's sweeter than it otherwise would be.

3. Sinus rinse. I have a squeeze bottle by Neil Med given to me by my allergist that I use in lieu of a neti pot. 1/2 tsp of sea salt in 8 oz. skin-temp water does WONDERS. Nothing gets rid of a cold quite like manually flushing the gick out of your sinuses. Steam might expand them, but that doesn't help near as much as physically cleaning them out.

4. Apparently Traditional Medicinals doesn't make it anymore, but I have an old box of "Breathing Thyme" tea in my cupboard. I add lemon and honey for throat benefit, but Wednesday, when the snot-monster was at its worst, my sinuses were clear within ten minutes of drinking it. Here's a link with a bunch of home cold remedies that includes a recipe for making your own thyme tea (be aware that overdosing on thyme tea can slow your heart rate, so don't drink more than a few cups a day if you're prone to having a slow pulse).

5. Soup and avoiding temperature imbalances. The thing with temperature imbalances is a really big deal with me. Like, if it's just gone from hot to cold, eating frozen strawberries or going out onto cold concrete without shoes is enough to give me a cold (cf Tuesday). Making a stock pot full of warm delicious soup to live on until I feel better and to keep me warm = super healing. I eat what I want and put the rest in 16oz mason jars in the freezer, which is just the right amount for a good sized serving. (If you freeze mason jars, make sure their package was marked with a snowflake -- not all tempered glass is safe to freeze.)

6. SLEEP. Physical regeneration requires sleep. Between Tuesday and Thursday, I slept something like 30 hours. It was glorious, and today I'm fine. *g*

I hope you feel better very fast!


edit: I should have also said that I take a daily Zyrtec for allergies, so an antihistamine was already going.

[miome]

Seconding the Neil Med squeeze bottle - that thing is wonderful.

Also, maybe this is super-obvious, but vitamin C helps. My preferred form is the time-release tablets.