Home Remedies

Lemonade light on the sugar... if you can one tablespoon juice in glass of hot water

chicken soup will unclog you as will hot chili
sleep with your head elevated with several pillows
zicam spray
explore the use of a neti pot to clear up clogged sinuses
if you smoke ......... S-T-O-P

Mint tea with honey and lemon. Try it! Not only will it ease your throat, it tastes great.

I would be happy to suggest a few things.
What symptoms are you looking for relief from?

Garlic and orange juice (not necessarily together ) will help your body fight this off. You need this stuff in large quantities, though, and preferable the real & fresh stuff.

If you have a place to buy decent herbal teas nearby, I would suggest looking for a tea with Slippery Elm in it to ease throat pain if you are coughing alot.

A hot lemon tea will help clear out your sinuses, if that is bothering you. The key to this one is: it is more important to be inhaling the hot vapours of the tea, than it is to actually be consuming it.

If there is anything else I can help you with, please ask. I'd be happy to do what I can.

Hot Ginger Tea with Lemon is great for clearing up a stuffy nose, and of coarse my grandma's favorite Vicks Vapour Rub, both on you chest and back. It does help not only your cough but you aches and pains as well.

Ooh good thread Skyecat, it's that time of year again!!

Is it a "productive" cough? In other words, do you come up with gunk that you have to spit out? If there's stuff trying to come up from your lungs, gross though it is, you've got to get it out. Don't force it back -- that will only prolong your illness, and it can lead to pneumonia.

So my point is, stopping the cough isn't necessarily a good idea. (I learned this only after a serious bout with pneumonia that almost killed me.) Hope you feel better soon!

I keep 80 proof peppermint schnapps at my bedside.
2 fingers at bedtime coats my throat and fully relaxes me into sleep.
If I wake with a coughing fit, I take a swig and go back to sleep.


If it's a productive cough, spend 10-15 minutes in a steamy bathroom, then lie on your stomach with your head hanging while someone gently beats on your back to break the stuff loose in your lungs.

Lemon and honey in hot water. Mind you, I use manuka honey which is a NZ honey and has proven to have antiseptic properties. The larger the UMD number, the more effective (and expensive) it is.

But barring that, a good shot of whiskey will help.

I ususally go the honey lemon tea route. Or a steamy shower, depending on where your congestion is. I'm a fan of vicks rub too. I've had some nasty colds over the years and what the doctor called 'boarderline pneumonia' once. That was no fun.