Cold and Cough Remedies
With the monsoons here and a drastic change in weather, I welcome you to the land of the unstoppable nose flow, the throbbing head and the hacking cough. A cold and cough might seem like an extremely petty thing when you see someone else with it but, once it reaches you, you’ve had it! We all know that nauseating, claustrophobic, feverish feeling you get when you have one, and quite often no medication available offers any real relief.
While a cold and cough usual goes away in a few days time, it does in fact feel like a lifetime of torture and so, I’ve prepared a list of things you can do at home that will make those few days of pain feel a lot lighter and will help overcome the illness faster.
1. Rest
I understand that you have a lot of things to do, places to go and people to meet but, what you really need to do to start the process of healing is rest. Falling sick is your body’s way of say, “Enough!! I need a break!” So listen to your body for once. Help it heal itself in the best way it can by resting. After all, it requires a large amount of energy to heal and you can’t go taxing your body with any extra work.
2. Drown yourself in warmth
By this I mean to say, drink a lot of warm fluids. This does not mean you skip your meals and live on warm water. The fluids help strengthen your body and also help you get the germs out of your system by whatever means possible (sweating/urination/ nasal excretion). The warmth of course is to soothe your throat. It helps you breathe better and decrease the irritation in your throat.
A nice warm cup of green tea has helped reduce nasal congestion and boost your immunity system.
3. Steaming
Clear up that blocked nose with the help of steaming. Take a vessel with water and place it over the stove and let it boil to the point where it begins to steam. Place your head over it, being careful to not get too close where you might burn yourself and then just breathe. Do this as many times a day as you wish to. In my experience I found it to work much better with a little salt in the water or a couple of drops of peppermint oil.
If in fact you are too lazy to do this (I know I personally am!), you could always do what I personally feel is a better way to go about this – a nice hot water bath. Soaking yourself in the warm water does increase blood circulation and the steam rising will help unblock your nose. Adding peppermint oil will even give your body some healthy skin.
4. Raw honey
I could probably not express myself well enough on the fact of how much I adore honey! It’s not just good to soothe your throat and stop the dryness and itch, it is great for your immune system as it contains many anti-viral properties.
Raw honey is best at room temperature, just a spoon full just before you sleep is recommended, so that it coats the throat thoroughly and has time while you rest to work wonders on it.
You may also add it to your tea.
*Honey is not recommended for a child below the age of one.
5. Garlic
As you may have it; garlic does has more qualities than just keeping the vampires away at night! Soothe that pesky sore throat with garlic. For this you will need six garlic cloves and a glass of warm water. Do this twice a day, for three days to get the best result.
Warning: Yes, this may leave you with a slightly off-smelling odor in your mouth but, garlic has been found to have great anti-microbial properties that helps fights bacteria.
There you have it! Five home-made remedies to that highly annoying cold and cough.
Although these remedies do work in the case of a mild cold and cough, should you experience any of the symptoms below, consult your doctor immediately:
- High fever, above 102°C
- Green, brown or blood stained nasal discharge or phlegm.
- A persistent cough
- Skin rashes
