Home Cold Remedies?

Tucanwarrior13

I have a pretty strong head cold.
I took a hot shower, nyquil, ibuprofen, drinking decaf hot tea, and have a bag of halls honey/lemon at my side.
Anything else I can do to keep the cold symptoms away?

PeregrineFalcon

Chicken soup and sleep?

VisionOfClarity

I put a towel over my head over a pot of steaming water to open my nasal passages. I also like hot lemonade as an alternative to tea. It's literally just fresh squeezed lemon juice, hot water and sugar. I've started drinking Emergen-C. I can't honestly say if it helps more than hot tea though.

I also enjoy using a heating pad to alleviate pain when my nasal passages are all backed up. I had one of those face masks you can nuke to heat up but found it didn't provide heat long enough and then accidentally put it in the microwave too long and fried it.

Dunadan019

for a head cold, i normally just take decongestants. the other stuff is unnecissary.

Dark_Side

Well, if you're of age, a strong shot of some whiskey or brandy is a nice way help. I should note that it's not actually the healthiest thing to drink when you're sick, and the effect of the liquor is really only a dulling of your miserableness, but one strong shot can have a nice effect.

The Black Hunter

Rest

it is the best thing you can do, expend as little energy as possible, eat lots though, but it needs to be healthy.

lettuce cheese and ham sandwhiches are very nice

Entriech

If you're quite congested, sometimes you can help break some of it up through some pressure with your fingers and tongue. Alternately press against your head just between your eyes and above your nose, then press against the roof of your mouth with your tongue. My understanding is that this rocks either the underlying bone or cartilidge back and forth a little, slightly disturbing your sinuses there which can help break up any congestion in them. I can attest I've done this a few times to great effect with sinus headaches and head colds.

Golden Leg

Snorting a saline solution is pretty effective at cleaning some of your sinus passages, but not the most comfortable thing to do.

Uncle Long

Apple-cider vinegar, honey, lemon, hot tea, and a shot of your liquor of choice. Obviously, if you're underage then you will have to do without the booze.

Kivutar

Tom Kha or Tom Yum. Possibly a chinese hot & sour soup if you can find one that isn't 70% corn starch.
Also, tea with Bärenjäger & orange/lemon covers a few bases at once.

ihmmy

lemon ginger tea. Slice some ginger, and a lemon, put in a medium sauce pot with a lot of water. simmer/have on medium low heat for a while to steep. Pour some into a cup (or ladle it, easier), add a little honey

alternatively, stash makes a very good lemon ginger tea, which I find useful to take to work as it comes individually wrapped and is good to make on my breaks

capnrico

Grapefruit Seed Extract, squirt 10-15 drops in a glass of juice, stir well and chug. It can be pretty nasty but it seems to kick the ass of most sicknesses. I have a few friends who swear by it.

Also as said above, I've heard two shots of Jack Daniels then sleep will kill most anything.

If you don't have any other commitments, I'm a big fan of the "do nothing but chug Nyquil and sleep it off for a few days" method.

Thanatos

Sudafed.

Your Nyquil has some bullshit decongestant in it that doesn't actually do anything (phenylephrine, or "Sudafed PE"). You need the real stuff, the stuff you can only get from the pharmacist (pseudoephedrine). You can get generic pseudoephedrine, and that's fine, but you're not going to find it in the aisles; you have to talk to the actual person behind the pharmacist's counter to get it, and that's the stuff that's actually going to clear up your head congestion; the Nyquil is just going to treat your cough, pain, and sleeplessness. Forget about the bullshit hippie cures; they don't actually do anything unless you believe in them, and you can get just as much effect out of a glass of water if you can believe in that.

TL DR

Thanatos wrote: »

Sudafed.

Your Nyquil has some bullshit decongestant in it that doesn't actually do anything (phenylephrine, or "Sudafed PE"). You need the real stuff, the stuff you can only get from the pharmacist (pseudoephedrine). You can get generic pseudoephedrine, and that's fine, but you're not going to find it in the aisles; you have to talk to the actual person behind the pharmacist's counter to get it, and that's the stuff that's actually going to clear up your head congestion; the Nyquil is just going to treat your cough, pain, and sleeplessness. Forget about the bullshit hippie cures; they don't actually do anything unless you believe in them, and you can get just as much effect out of a glass of water if you can believe in that.

Than is right, both about decongestants and the awesome power of the placebo effect. Though if you have a cough, honey has been shown to be more effective than Dextromethorphan, the cough suppressant used in Robitussin.

Tucanwarrior13

Kivutar wrote: »

Tom Kha or Tom Yum. Possibly a chinese hot & sour soup if you can find one that isn't 70% corn starch.
Also, tea with Bärenjäger & orange/lemon covers a few bases at once.

Holy shit the tom yum works! I work at a japanese steakhouse where all the chefs are chinese. One of them made me something along the lines of what you're talking about, because I told him I had a cold. I felt about 99% better after eating it. I then asked for a gallon bucket of it...he laughed...I still don't have my gallon bucket.

Hahnsoo1

Timothy Leary Come Check Out This Theory wrote: »

Though if you have a cough, honey has been shown to be more effective than Dextromethorphan, the cough suppressant used in Robitussin.

For children's cough, using buckwheat honey, in a limited study (108 children from 2 to 18) funded by the US Honey industry. DM is also known for NOT causing botulism (unlike honey, which is one of the main culprits of botulism toxicity). It's interesting research, but one paper does not make a proof. Adult and children's cough are often caused by different micro-organisms and pathologies, so take any pediatric research with a grain of salt in terms of applicability to an adult or geriatric population.

And various Thai soups are wonderful. I like the taste, personally, but they really clear out the sinuses.

TL DR

I'll agree that one study does not equal proof, but it is something. A study claiming mitigation of symptoms on kids 2-18 seems more likely to be relevant than the threat posed by infants up to 12 months in age of getting botulism.

Hahnsoo1

Timothy Leary Come Check Out This Theory wrote: »

I'll agree that one study does not equal proof, but it is something. A study claiming mitigation of symptoms on kids 2-18 seems more likely to be relevant than the threat posed by infants up to 12 months in age of getting botulism.

It can cause botulism in older individuals. You know that a bunch of dumb parents will keep honey in old jars for lengthy periods of time "just for this occasion", feed it to their kids, then wonder why they had to take a trip to the emergency room. People (in general, not just parents) do this with regular medications. Heck, people do this with PRESCRIPTION medication. They keep old jars of Vicodin laying around for, you know, headaches. *eyeroll* It's that "hoard the 99 Potions" instinct that most people have.

Also, it is not known if the type/quantity/frequency of honey administration matters. It says that the results were "significant." But this was a study of 108 kids, which is not very statistically powerful. I'm interested in seeing larger studies, don't get me wrong. It's an interesting study, and it's quite intriguing to me (I'm currently in the process of reading other articles with similar focus).

The_Glad_Hatter

pigeon broth/ soup!

Xaquin

lots of fluids and rest.