A sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, headache, and sneezing—the common cold is just no fun. Head to any supermarket or drug store and you’ll be overwhelmed by the vast number of products at your fingertips. But these over-the-counter remedies have their drawbacks—from treating symptoms you don’t have to being only marginally effective.
Though I know it sounds trite, prevention is always the best medicine. That’s why you should wash your hands regularly and/or use hand sanitizer often, get plenty of sleep, stay away from sick people, stay hydrated, and take a high-potency multivitamin and mineral supplement. After all, a good offense is the best defense.
But sometimes, you just can’t avoid getting sick. If you do, here are a few natural steps you can take to conquer the common cold.
- Boost Your Vitamin C Intake. At the first sign of a cold, take 500-1000 mg of vitamin C and continue doing so every hour that you are awake. Some gastrointestinal distress can occur with high doses so if you are sensitive, try taking smaller doses—500 mg every two hours for the first day and moving up to higher, more frequent doses on subsequent days.
- Try Echinacea. Echinacea extracts can be tricky because there are so many different brands and delivery systems. The important thing is to look for a standardized product and use as directed.
- Use Zinc Lozenges. If you think you are coming down with something, start sucking on zinc lozenges every two hours. They’ve been shown to reduce cold duration by an average of three days compared to placebo.
- Your Mom Was Right, Eat Chicken Soup. This folk remedy has more than word-of-mouth to support it. A landmark study published in the medical journal Chest demonstrated chicken soup’s symptom-fighting ability and other research has shown that chicken soup acts on white blood cells to prevent them from causing inflammation and congestion.
- Break a Fever With Cayenne Pepper. Despite its fiery taste, cayenne is a cooling herb with a long history of use as a fever reducer. Cayenne is a natural decongestant, which works much like cold and flu medications to restore free breathing. Add some to your chicken soup for added benefits or simply take a bite of hot pepper. This will quickly clear your airways and, as an added bonus, will provide a healthy dose of infection-fighting vitamin C.
- Drink Ginger Tea. Ginger tea boasts myriad health benefits from relieving nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea to boosting immune function due to its high zinc content. To make ginger tea at home, grind a one-inch slice of fresh ginger and squeeze the juice of half a lemon. Add to a cup of steaming hot water, along with 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon.
Let me know how these remedies work for you and if you have solutions of your own, I’d love to hear them. Email me at [email protected]. Here’s wishing you and your family a healthy remainder of the cold season.
