That’s Swell

The past few days I’ve been hit hard with a cold. It seems like more than a cold, but we’ll see as the days go on what happens. I’ve missed 2 days of school and a conference on Diversity & Leadership today I wanted to attend. But I just couldn’t do it, I still feel horrible.

My symptoms: deep/harsh cough, coughing attacks, coughing attacks that sometimes set off my asthma, mild headaches, achey neck/shoulders, overall exhausted, throat closing up, slightly swollen glands (under throat on neck), runny/stuffy nose, mucus drainage in throat, dull ear ache, no appetite, stomach issues when I do eat

Even before we started doing things the ‘Natural Way’ I didn’t like cough medicine. All the meds would make me feel like my head was in the clouds, generally I’d feel nauseas and I’d end up feeling worse than I was without the medicine. I always felt like a walking zombie, and sometimes would have to come home from work/school just because of the medicine’s effects! Besides, they just treat the symptoms and are bodies are made to have symptoms and feel pain for a reason – so we know something is wrong and treat that (ie the cold) not the symptoms.

So I searched around and came up with some things to do naturally to help heal/speed up the healing process of the common cold.

Click to read what I found out!

Preventative Health

• Vitamin C – It used to be thought Vitamin C should be taken once the cold starts, but now it is known that you should always be getting enough Vitamin C (through eating habits or multi-vitamins) to strengthen your immune system. It doesn’t do much good after you’ve started the cold.
• Eating Right – Most American’s eat a horrible diet of processed, fatty, greasy, sugary foods. This makes us prone to getting sick; we wonder why we have frequent colds, headaches and overall tiredness. Most of these common health concerns could be solved by eating right. WARNING: Just because it says ‘Natural’ or even ‘Organic’ doesn’t mean it’s necessarily good for you, look for raw, whole foods to eat.
• Water - The regular diet of drinking 5 cups of coffee and 3 sodas a day is just setting you up for a cold attack.

Pre-Cold (you can feel the symptoms coming)

• Zinc - Zinc, unlike Vitamin C, will actually help shorten your cold by taking it in tablet form. This works for David, but when I ‘ve tried it, the potency of the vitamin bothers my stomach and I end up throwing it up. So I have to use Zicam instead – but Zinc pills are cheaper.
• Zicam – I love this stuff! It is homeopathic and works. The active ingredient is Zinc, so you can just take Zinc, but that doesn’t work for me. I use the nose swabs, because I hate taking/drinking any pills. And there’s no added flavors like in some of the other forms.
• Water, Water, or Tea- why is it we were taught to drink Sprite, Gatorade, CapriSun, even Kool-Aid when we were sick? Sugar lowers your immune system. Keep away from it! Drink water or hot teas (natural without sugars) to help your immune system out. Keep hydrated, even if you don’t feel like it.
• Rest – Our bodies need to rest when we get sick. I wish we had enough sick days in the US to take off when we had a bad cold, because our bodies really need rest (that doesn’t mean staying home to do laundry, actually staying in bed and resting). By treating the ’symptoms’ and reducing the cough and runny nose, we forget this. This is why the cold lasts ‘forever’ and gets spread around more. If we got enough rest and slept more to help our body fight it off – we would see drastic results (but the drug companies don’t want you to know that!).

Full-Blown Cold (it’s here!)

• Rest - again, get some rest and you can kick your cold earlier!
• No Dairy – this is mucus enhancing, and will make you feel even crappier
• No caffeine or nicotine – this will lower your immune system
• Get warm - stay in bed with lots of blankets, wear layers and keep your body heat in
• Let it run – don’t keep sniffing when your nose runs, let it out! Your nose is running for a reason, and you need to get rid of the grossness that’s coming out.
• Cough it Up – same thing goes with mucus in your throat, cough it up and spit it out – you need to get rid of it, not just keep swallowing it
• Sleep on your back, elevated - sleep with an extra pillow under your head to keep drainage from going back into your sinuses
• Take Steamy Showers – let the steam sooth your sore nose, and help break up mucus
• Try this Stuffy Nose Remedy - using chamomile and a towel to unlock the pressure in your sinuses, and break up a stuffy nose (I’ve not had enough stuffyness to try this, but will when I need it next time!)
• Drink Up This Tea - A special remedy for a tea, it’s good to stay hydrated and to drink hot fluids to sooth you throat
• Wash your Hands! – Constantly wash your hands, especially if you’re around others. After you blow your nose – try to wash your hands each time. Wipe off light switches, computer keyboard/mouse, etc.
• Change the Sheets/Towels - change your sheets and towels to keep germs away. If one of us is sick, I try to atleast change the pillow case often, then once the sickness is gone change the whole bed. Also change handtowels often! Some recommend doing it daily if you have 8+ people using it, I try to change ours (for 2 people) once a week, but more often if we’re sick.

Tips/Ideas From:
Learning Herbs
WebMD
Vintage Remedies

Image via yugoQ