Natural Remedies, Home Made Medicine: Cold Flu Wars
Each culture has practiced natural remedies, home made medicine and declared cold flu wars every time the sick season starts. The remedies may differ in weirdness, but the goal is always the same: to cure the common cold.. Some herbal remedies have been around over 5000 years. And,
There’s no treatment that works 100 percent, says Dr. Steven Lamm, professor at New York University.
“There are two issues when it comes to treating a cold: treating the cold and treating the symptoms of the cold. Some remedies help reduce the severity of the symptoms, others don’t help at all, despite what people claim. But a cure is another story.”
Read on to find out how cold remedies are helpful to fight the symptoms of the disease..
Mugs of tea, a bottle of ibuprofen, and a truckload of tissues won’t get you through every case of the sniffles. Too often, the common cold turns into something more serious and becomes a sinus infection, a sore throat, a nonstop cough, an attack of bronchitis, or an ear infection.
” The congestion and thick, trapped mucus that lead to complications are caused by the immune system’s response to the infection,” says cold researcher Jack M. Gwaltney, M.D., professor at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. “It all begins within 10 to 12 hours after infection starts. You should take action the minute you feel the first symptoms of a cold”
Find out what to do if you are prone to Sinus Infections
- It sounds silly, but a lot of people don’t know how to blow their noses the right way. Here’s how: With a tissue over your nose, close one nostril and gently blow the other side for three to five seconds. Switch sides. It may take several blows, but it works.
- Sip chicken soup. Stephen Rennard, M.D., discovered that his grandmother-in-law’s chicken soup recipe might help relieve some of the inflammation behind cold symptoms. Its anti-inflammatory qualities help the body’s response to a cold by helping reduce dehydration, mucus and congestion.
- Warm your sinuses. Placing a comfortably hot washcloth on your cheeks or drinking a cup of hot tea – or doing both – feels good if sinus pressure is building. Inhaling steam in a warm shower also helps, or drape a towel over your head and a basin of very hot water and breathe deeply.
- Try androgrqphis paniculate. In one Chilean study of 158 cold sufferers, nasal secretions dried up significantly for those who took 1,200 milligrams of androgrqphis extract daily for five days. It’s available at natural foods stores.
Sinus Trouble: The Saline Solution
A daily saline rinse may reduce sinus symptoms by as much as 72 percent and even cut the number of infections for those with chronic sinus problems, researchers from England’s Royal National Throat, Nose, and Ear Hospital concluded. You can purchase a sinus-rinsing tool called a neti pot at a natural foods store. All you need is to mix 1/2 teaspoon non-iodized salt and 1 pinch baking soda with 8 ounces warm water and do the rinsing.
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Yours truly for great health,
Michelle, natural health advocate
September 07 2009 08:08 am | Natural Remedies