Thursdays Question of the Day 9.26.13

[Draco]

Morning everyone!

I am suffering the day at work with a lovely head cold.. I can't breathe and I can't focus! I may take a half day and go home to relax.

My question is.. What do you do to help relieve your cold symptoms? Any vitamins or home remedies?

 

[petcrazy76]

I like this one, because I'm on my 3rd day of being sick. I had to hunt down a calculator at work because I can't think clearly enough to add in my head.
I've been sticking with Dayquil, but I'm so ready for new ideas. Sometimes tea and honey for my throat.

My sister swears that putting Vicks on the bottom of you feet helps, but I haven't tried that yet.

 

[peaches08]

Absolutely! I believe in both conventional and homeopathic medicine.

Neti pots are wonderful and I try to use them regularly, but especially with a head cold. Vitamin C, tea with honey or broth with honey for a sore throat, Vick's Vapor Rub on my chest when needed. Pseudofed and/or guaifenesin depending on symptoms. Because I have SLE I cannot take echinacea or goldenseal. If mucus isn't clear, I get antibiotics. I will not play around with infections because I always lose.

Hope you feel better soon!

 

[cassiopea]

Gosh, I tried Neti Pot after buying one, always made my colds or whatever I had worse than better. Tried advice from various people, sources and professionals, tried being patient for a year with it, tried to figure out what sort of things I could possibly be doing wrong, whatever I did it didn't help at all, so stopped using it. Everything is normal up in there too, nose wise. I can't stand that device altogether. I'm happy that it works for others though.
 

Anypoo, for me it is usually...
 

-Tea with honey
-Nyquil, Nyquil, Nyquil. If not that, then a sleepaid. If not that, then a hot lemon drink from brands like Theraflu for nighttime. Thank goodness for these things! Helps me sleep so much at night.
-Hot showers. I would also love to take a bath, but don't have a tub.
-Chicken Noodle Soup, or any soup initially, like broth.

-Hot lemon drink, as mentioned above. If I don't have one for night, I'll have one meant for the day, or take a cold pill.

-If I have a sore or cloggy throat, I'll girggle water and salt.
-Drinking plenty of water, if I have a fever, since I get really dehydrated.

-A little bit of fresh air, even in winter. As long as the room is warm enough, I'm nice and protected, and no other things like bad drafts, don't leave it open too long and so forth, nice fresh cool air from a small opening of a window is nice. Just helps with ventilation in the long run too. Being kept too much in a stuffy room or however for a long time doesn't feel all that pleasant.
-Wash my hands more frequently and more thouroughly
-Kleenex tissues with lotion. Helps prevent soreness and dryness!

I'm not really a fan of lozenges, I just don't find they personally worked all that well. They just leave a taste in my mouth or my teeth fuzzy. I always wanted to try Vapor Rub though, so next time I get a cold, I'll have to remember it.

Petcrazy - Indeed, hope you feel better soon!

 

[blueyedgirl5946]

My home remedy is this. The trick is to start taking it just as soon as you feel the least bit like something is coming on. Mix apple cider vinegar and honey in equal proportions.
Take often.

 

[happybird]

My Mom's solution for everything (colds, cramps, headache) was a cup of hot tea and a long, steamy shower. It may not cure anything, but it sure makes you feel a lot better. Colds are the worst, I hope you feel better soon

 

[angels mommy]

Absolutely! I believe in both conventional and homeopathic medicine.

Neti pots are wonderful and I try to use them regularly, but especially with a head cold. Vitamin C, tea with honey or broth with honey for a sore throat, Vick's Vapor Rub on my chest when needed. Pseudofed and/or guaifenesin depending on symptoms. Because I have SLE I cannot take echinacea or goldenseal. If mucus isn't clear, I get antibiotics. I will not play around with infections because I always lose.

Hope you feel better soon!

I agree!  I have been using my Neti pot for allergies lately.  The number one thing I would suggest to anyone is Olive Leaf. It is wonderful!!  It's antifungal, antibacterial, & antiviral, so it covers it all!!!  It's even safe to double up on if you are already in the midst of something. (a rep told me this when I was a buyer at the co-op).

Another really good one is a Chinese herb called Gau Mau Ling. (for cold & flu ). Most acupuncturist carry this one if your natural food store doesn't carry any Chinese herbs.

The Emergency packets are great too. 1,000mg of vit. C in every pkt.  along w/ electrolyte's & some B vit.s! (mix w/ 6-8 oz. water)

When I used to work at the co-op, & something was going around, most people would have it for 3 wks.  As soon as I even got a feeling that I was getting something, I would jump on it full force w/ ALL of this stuff, & I would be done in a week, in & out!! 

 

[raintyger]

I take Cold-Eeze at the first sign and have called in sick to work 3 times in 14 years.

If I do get sick, lots of hot tea or broth, cold medicine, and yogurt.

BTW, I have been listening to This American Life podcasts recently. This week's is about acetaminophen. Apparently there is a very narrow margin before overdosing becomes deadly. Please stay within the recommended guidelines on the package with this drug! They were saying taking only 1 or 2 extra pills could push past the safe limits.

 

[ravencorbie]

Airborne!  I really like the new hot lemon formulations.  So soothing.  And it usually knocks the cold out in a couple of days at most.

At night, I usually have Nyquil (the one that has Acetaminophen in it) or Tylenol PM.

During the day, I don't have anything:  I find that the side effects from most medications are more irritating than the cold itself.  Plus, I like to know if my cold is getting worse (i.e. if I have a fever or dizziness), and that's not usually clear if I'm taking something.  If I have a sore throat, I take Honey/Echinacea Ricola drops.  And I have some Yogi Tea that's good for colds:  it was an assortment that I still have, with Echinacea/Prevention, Throat Ease, Breathe Easy, and . . . I'm blanking on the fourth.  I'll also take Tylenol if I have a sore throat.  I've found the following to be true for me:

Aleve:  best for headaches

Tylenol:   best for sore throats, sometimes works on stomach pain (it's the only pain reliever I TRY for stomach pain, since the others are not gentle on the stomach)

Advil:  best for any type of muscle cramping.

Mostly, I just try to wait it out, and focus on prevention/ending the cold itself rather than treating the symptoms unless they're really distracting (keeping me up, or the sore throat).  Coughing and sneezing are irritating, but easy enough to deal with.

 

[sugarsandz]

I put pepper flakes on everything I eat lol, it opens up my sinuses!

 

[spudsmom]

I am curious and needing some home remedies. My daughter is 8 months pregnant and my Grandson brought a cold home from pre-school and shared. We were supposed to meet up today but she was feeling awful. I feel so bad for her, she can't (won't) take any over=the=counter drugs. She uses a Neti-pot but I would like to know what else she can do.

 

[raintyger]

What about lemon and honey? I know you're not supposed to feed honey to infants, so please check on that if you're interested. For the honey you have to go to the health food store and get a specific kind (not cheap).

 

[natalie_ca]

 
Morning everyone!

I am suffering the day at work with a lovely head cold.. I can't breathe and I can't focus! I may take a half day and go home to relax.

My question is.. What do you do to help relieve your cold symptoms? Any vitamins or home remedies?

Hope you feel better soon!

I use Benalyn All in One non drowsey caplets.  Takes all of the cold symptoms away.

 

[dejolane]

Orange juice and let it ride. I get plenty of sleep too.

 

[Winchester]

My mother used to eat VapoRub; she swore by it....and yeah, she literally ate the stuff. And I have a friend who slathers VapoRub all over his chest, then wears an old t-shirt to bed. He swears by it, too. I've used it around my nose when I've had a really bad cold and can't breathe well. It seems to help, but Mollipop hates the smell and wrinkles her nose up at me when she gets a good whiff.

There's not much I do when I have a cold anymore. I'm to the point where I can't take any meds anymore because we don't know if I'll be allergic to it and I'm not willing to take a chance on anything anymore. I have high blood pressure, so the only thing my doctor would let me take was Sudafed and I think it was Coricidin for high blood pressure. I don't take it anymore, though.

Basically at this point, I just suffer through it.

 

[dejolane]

 
My mother used to eat VapoRub; she swore by it....and yeah, she literally ate the stuff. And I have a friend who slathers VapoRub all over his chest, then wears an old t-shirt to bed. He swears by it, too. I've used it around my nose when I've had a really bad cold and can't breathe well. It seems to help, but Mollipop hates the smell and wrinkles her nose up at me when she gets a good whiff.

There's not much I do when I have a cold anymore. I'm to the point where I can't take any meds anymore because we don't know if I'll be allergic to it and I'm not willing to take a chance on anything anymore. I have high blood pressure, so the only thing my doctor would let me take was Sudafed and I think it was Coricidin for high blood pressure. I don't take it anymore, though.

Basically at this point, I just suffer through it.

Winchester,

I can't believe your mother ate the VapoRub. What is one of her home remedies  or did someone gave her the idea ? Did she get sick eating it ? I would put it under my nose and on the chest but that is about it. 

 

[AbbysMom]

I also take Airborne and I think it helps. My skeptical husband think so too. :lol3: If I have throat issues I think gargling a mixture of warm water and salt also helps.

 

[Winchester]

I don't know if she thought of it on her own or if somebody told her to try it. I know that she swore by it.

(I have it on good authority that VapoRub works on hemorrhoids, too. Seriously. No, I've not tried it, but I know of two people who did and they both said that it works. Burns like heck, but it works. That's probably way TMI! Sorry!)

 

[happybird]

Lol! And I thought I was bad putting Carmex up my nose when it's dry..... lol! Vaporub has got to taste just nasty!

 

[ravencorbie]

The teacher I share a room with had a really bad sore throat for several weeks.  He was gargling salt water.  But it didn't go away, so he looked up some home remedies and found a recommendation to gargle vinegar.  He said it was effective:  the sore throat was gone the next day.  This is appealing to me as I can't stand the taste of salt water, but love vinegar, but I haven't needed to try it yet.