Home cold/flu remedies

[Ban Hammer 14,269]

Ok, so far I've gargled salt water and now I'm drinking the chamo tea with some Greek honey and a some lemon from a dropper.

I think I have a full day of cold remedies ahead of me.

you sure that was salt water?

[Alex+R 0]

EEEWWWWWW Charles, I have a sensitive stomach. :vomits:

[Ban Hammer 14,269]

EEEWWWWWW Charles, I have a sensitive stomach. :vomits:

[Mags 112]

Ok, so far I've gargled salt water and now I'm drinking the chamo tea with some Greek honey and a some lemon from a dropper.

I think I have a full day of cold remedies ahead of me.

you sure that was salt water?

Spew warning please!!

[MandR 0]

Squeeze 2 lemons, teaspoon of honey and half shot glass of brandy... Mix together and bingo down the hatch. Finish up with a nice cup of tea. Do this about 4 times a day for 2 days and you should be feeling much better

[Caladan 19]

Squeeze 2 lemons, teaspoon of honey and half shot glass of brandy... Mix together and bingo down the hatch. Finish up with a nice cup of tea. Do this about 4 times a day for 2 days and you should be feeling much better

And if you're not feeling better, the brandy will ensure you won't mind too much.

Okay, some remedies.

Mix together a tablespoon of honey with about a quarter cup of lemon juice. Take a spoonful as needed. The honey coats the throat and the lemon juice gives you vitamin C & cuts the phlegm.

Chamomile tea is soothing. Echinacea tea is also good, and my roommate swears by a tea called 'Gypsy Cold Care' (by the company Traditional Medicinals).

Get some Vicks vaporub and apply it under your nostrils, on the sides of your neck, and on your chest and back. Makes it easier to breathe.

Lots of water.

Chicken soup. Homemade is best, but the thing about homemade is who the heck feels like cooking soup when ill? So here's a cheat:

1 pkg ramen noodles.

1/2 seasoning packet.

2 cloves garlic, minced.

Fresh sage or rosemary if you have it, dried works too. Not too much (about a half teaspoon)

A dash of cayenne pepper

A dash of crushed red pepper.

Prepare the ramen noodles normally. Add the garlic, herbs, and pepper. Boil. Cool. Eat.

If you can stomach it, I'd recommend a cough syrup with guaifenesin. It's an expectorant and helps break up the cough so you cough it out.

A couple of Tylenol wouldn't hurt anything, either.

[CarolineM 0]

It is commercial, but I swear by Thera-flu

[Aymerlu 3]

Kessler then chase that with orange juice. My friends swear by it. Disinfects from the inside out! I haven't been brave enough to try it though.

[Alex+R 0]

I don't think I'm man enough to handle the alcohol-based remedies. I wish...

[Peikko 1,575]

Eucalyptus oil as a decongestant. Steam.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Zinc lozenges for the sore throat.

Echinacea to boost the immune system.

Lots of sleep if you can.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Sambucol (a tonic available at health food stores) made from elderberries;

2 herbal teas: (also available at health food stores) "FluFriend" by Flora (www.florainc.com) - very nice tasting and comfortable on a sore throat - and "Symfre" by Wisdom of the Ancients (www.wisdomherbs.com). Hot ginger tea (re recipe given above works) is also very good. Olive Leaf (herb) and Vitamin C help boost your immune system to help you get over a cold faster. Hope you are feeling better soon. Steaming with Eucalyptus oil really does help clear sinuses - just keep repeating.

[RaspberrySwirl 20]

Sleep.

Lots of it.

[featherB 1]

Someone told me a weird cough remedy years ago, and (after being driven near-insane by a hacking cough that just refused to go) I eventually relented and tried it. It worked better than cough medicine, anyway.

You have to chop up an onion, put it in a jar (or whatever), then pour in enough sugar to cover all the onion. quite a lot of sugar, in other words. Then cover it, stick it in the fridge and leave it for a few hours. The onion will ooze oniony stuff into the sugar and after a bit, there'll be quite a bit of oniony syrup in there as a result.

Have a teaspoonful of that... I don't know what's in the onion that stops the coughing, but combined with the throat-coating syrup... it actually seemed to work. And it doesn't taste as bad as you'd imagine - strange, but not bad!!

As for the rest of it... echinacea, echinacea, echinacea!

Edited November 13, 2006 by featherB

[GaryC 7]

Try something called "Zicam". It's a nose spray that has no drugs in it. It's homeopathic. If you start using it as soon as you realize that your getting a cold it works great. I have the first day of a cold right now and I am using it. No side effects and it seems to work well.

Edited November 13, 2006 by Iniibig ko si Luz forever