Monday, June 13, 2011

Home Remedies and Natural Cures for the Common Cold



Are you one to run for the medicine cabinet the second some sniffles start? Before you hit that next bottle of Tylenol Cold and Flu, try a few home remedies. You may be surprised how well they work.
Take a Natural Antiviral. Garlic and grapefruit seed extract both have antiviral and antibacterial agents. Try mincing a clove of garlic and swallowing it every two hours. If you get grapefruit seed extract in liquid form, you can slip some into your children's orange juice. But be warned, the stuff tastes wretched.
Take Vitamin C. Already taking it? Swallow more. Try upping your dose to at least 8000mg per day. Megadoses of Vitamin C can cure cold and flu symptoms. (When given intravenously, vitamin C as even been effective in killing cancer cells. That's how strong this stuff is.) Personally, I take 1000mg of Vitamin C about six times a day. This dosage is six times stronger than the recommended daily dose of 1000mg. Vitamin C isn't one of those things you can take to much of. However much of the vitamin you can force yourself to swallow, do it.
Jump on a trampoline. Yes, I'm serious. Jumping on a trampoline uses gravity to drain your lymph nodes and even your ears. This doesn't serve as an instant cure-all for your stuffy head, but it will bring temporary relief. As soon as you feel your ears begin to clog, start jumping on one of those little jogging trampolines. I jump several times a day for about fifty times per set.
Take honey for a cough. Believe it or not, my pediatrician is the one who recommends this treatment. She claims studies show that one teaspoon of honey three times per day is more effective than the cough medication on the market. While I don't claim to be a bio-statistician and understand how all these medical studies work, the practical side of me realizes that using honey is a lot cheaper! Plus getting a four year old to swallow honey is a lot easier than pouring cough syrup down his throat.
I hope you find these little tips useful the next time a cold arrives.

6 comments:

  1. there's an old remedy called "onion syrup" that I've used for coughs before. chop up an onion pretty fine and place into a sauce pan. Cover it with raw honey and put over a very low flame, do not boil it! you only want to 'sweat' the onions a little so they release their juice into the honey. It is 'oniony' tasting but I do manage to get the kids to try it since it is so sweet.
    we also rely heavily on essential oils and special oil blends for common ailments. Essential oils & herbs were the first medicines and are often spoken of in the Bible.
    Since we use very high quality/purity oils we use them topically as well as internally. A few drops in a spoon of honey is great!
    Honey is a wonderful healer. I like to sing that little tune about a "♫♪spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down...♪♫" only exchange honey for the sugar when giving them a dose of feel-good!

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  2. The onion syrup recipe sounds like it could be really helpful. Unfortunately, I HATE onions. My four year old eats them though. :-)
    I'll have to keep the onion thing in mind for hubby. And yes, we use a lot of honey at our house. Local raw honey is supposed to help with allergies as well. But good luck finding raw honey unless you keep bees yourself.

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  3. Very interesting post, Naomi. Another idea that is very old fashioned, and I used to hate taking, is a tablespoon of cod liver oil every morning. (I hate anything fish.) My mom insisted. The minute I was out from under her wings, I stopped taking it. Vit. C worked for a long time then no longer did. Then, about 4 yrs ago, I was getting colds and the flu every fall and spring and totally sick of being sick, I decided (after trying everything natural I could think of) to try it again. I'd been hearing of the powerful anti-oxident (immunity booster of the best kind!) it is. I tried the best one I could find that was flavored so I could get it past my nose. It is pricy (cheaper than the doctor though) but Carlson's lemon-flavored worked! I haven't been sick since the day I started taking it, and I'm still amazed at how well it works for me...not saying it will for others. But it might be worth a try.

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  4. Sally we have Carlson's lemon too! ;) Vit D is on our regimen too. I'll admit, I'm not fond of the CLO but we do use it when necessary!

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  5. I heard something interesting about honey recently, that using local honey can be very effective with combating allergies. Something about the bees using the pollen in the area to make the honey, so if the pollen is bothering you, eating honey made with that same pollen can help with your symptoms. I haven't tried this myself, but know a friend who swears by it.

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  6. Brandi- I was totally about to say, "Don't forget the onion syrup!" then saw you did already. I made some up for two friends that had coughs and it helped them!
    Sarah- heard the same thing about honey too!

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