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Why Home Remedies a Worthwhile Option
Cheaper Than Medicines
Trying out natural home remedies for cold or other issues is perfect from a money saving perspective. While the medicines and other drugs from pharmaceutical companies are quite expensive, home remedies are way cheaper. You can easily produce them at home with minimal cost, as most ingredients are already present at home.
No or Fewer Side Effects
Most of these natural remedies are prepared with the ingredients which are a part of your day to day life. You often use these ingredients in cooking too and this is why the chances of side effects are very slight or usually none. Home remedies are quite clear, with regard to what ingredients are being used, as compared to the common medicines and this is why you know that you can always trust these remedies.
Can Be Effective
It has often be proven proven that natural home remedies can also be effective. In fact, a simple ginger and honey paste can treat several health issues like cold, cough, sore throat etc. This way you won’t have to take different medicines for different ailments and you can save a lot of money too.
Easy to Find and Make
Since most of the herbs and ingredients used for making home remedies are quite common, you can easily prepare these remedies at home. These ingredients are easy to find and sometimes you can even find them in your backyard garden, too. If you do not have plants at home then you can surely find them in local markets, as well.
10 Natural Home Remedies for Cold
Ginger Tea
Ginger root has so many health benefits when it comes to treating cold at home. You can use ginger in various ways in your day to day life to prepare not only amazing food but to also get some great health benefits.
Ginger tea is also one such idea that is not only great for nasal congestion, but it also tastes superb. Having warm liquids while suffering from cold, is the best thing you can do to your body.
Just prepare strong ginger tea and enjoy it at least three times a day to get relief from cold. It helps in drying runny nose and it also speeds up your recovery process. You can also have ginger with tulsi extracts and honey. Another way to have ginger is by cutting it into small pieces and adding salt on top of it.
Warm Salt Water for Stuffy Nose
You might have known about all the amazing effects of having warm water in cold and flu It truly works is helpful. But do you know that having warm water with salt is even more effective? Salt water helps in breaking up the congestion in your nose while also removing the bad bacteria and the virus particles too, which eases you from sickness.
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- One cup or 230ml warm water
- Bulb syringe or nasal irrigation kit
How to Do It
- Mix the salt and baking soda into warm water and make sure everything is dissolved completely.
- Use nasal irrigation kit or bulb syringe to squirt water into the nose. You are supposed to close one nostril lightly by finger and squirt water into another nostril.
- Let it drain and repeat this 2-3 times then move on to another nostril. This will help in releasing the congestion in your nose.
Drink Some Chicken Soup
You might be thinking what chicken soup can do to heal your cold? Well, apparently chicken soup is one of the most effective natural cold remedies to provide great comfort and warmth to your body. You can either make it from scratch or just warm a canned chicken soup at home. Make sure to include all sorts of vegetables in it as much as you can.
According to some studies, having a bowl of warm chicken soup can slow the movement of certain white blood cells. As they move slowly, they can help in protecting your body from infections. In fact, chicken soup is very much effective in reducing the symptoms of a few respiratory infections. On the other hand, warm liquids like chicken soup keeps you hydrated as well, while the nutrients from vegetables and chicken keeps you well-nourished at this time.
Hot/Cold Packs
You can try different kinds of herbs for cold and flu, which are easily available in home garden or at local stores. But if you can’t find anything like that even then we will have a remedy which is surely going to work for you. Hot or Cold Packs can turn out to be a wonderful remedy to relieve your congested nose. It allows you to breathe properly amidst a severe cold.
This remedy is often used by people with sinus. You can easily find reusable hot and cold packs from medical stores or you can make one by yourself too. Applying hot or cold pack across the bridge of your nose can truly soothe your cold. Of course, it won’t reduce the nasal inflammation but it can surely make you feel a lot better. Frozen peas can be used for cold pack at home while a heated washcloth in microwave can be used as a hot pack.
Honey
Honey is a miraculous remedy when it comes to treating cold at home. It has so many antimicrobial and antibacterial properties which makes it very helpful in curing infections and easing your nose for breathing. There are a lot of ways in which you can use honey to relieve your cold. You can drink honey by mixing it in tea with lemon, as it helps in curing sore throat. Honey also helps combat cough, which is another cold symptom.
Another way to use honey is by adding it to lukewarm lime water, as it helps in controlling common cold symptoms. You can prepare a syrup by mixing half spoon of honey, a pinch of cinnamon and a few drops of lemon. Take this syrup twice a day to recover fast from cold. If you are an adult then you can mix a few drops of honey in a teaspoon of brandy. This instantly improves the common cold by increasing the body’s temperature.
Gargling
Gargling is seen as one of the most sought after natural cold remedies. It is often practiced when you are having a sore throat, but it works well in cold too. Sometimes mild sore throat and tastelessness can become common symptoms of cold and gargling can help in providing temporary relief with that. Gargling is quite simple; you just need to mix ½ tsp of salt in one cup of warm water for that. Do this 4 times a day to see a visible difference in sore throat.
Moreover, if you have a strange tickle in your throat, then you can prepare a viscous gargle mixture of honey and apple cider vinegar for that. Another recipe that you can follow is 1 tbsp of lemon juice in 2 cups of hot water for gargling. This can also provide major relief to your nose and throat infections.
Milk and Turmeric
Milk and turmeric mix, more popularly known as Turmeric Latte, is another remedy you can try out for fighting a cold. As we said earlier, having warm liquids in cold can truly help your body in easing up your body and getting relaxed, so make sure that you do take various types of warm liquids in cold. Milk and turmeric being one of them help in easing your cold.
Thankfully, these two are the most common ingredients in an Indian kitchen. Everyone knows that turmeric has superb antioxidants which can help in warding off various infections. You can have a glass of warm milk mixed with turmeric before sleeping as it fastens the process of your recovery and the warm liquid helps in easy breathing too.
Take a Hot Steamy Shower
One of the most common and effective idea to treat cold is to take hot and steamy showers. This goes hand in hand with using other Indian home remedies for cold to provide effective relief in your symptoms. You can’t expect these showers to just disappear your cold but they can provide a lot of relief and can help in de-stressing too.
Steamy showers help in hydrating the nasal passage, which eases it and helps you in breathing better. If you are not into showers then you can go for warm baths too. You can also add Epsom salt and baking soda in your bath, which is great for relieving overall body ache due to the cold. It can cause a great soothing effect on your body and the steam helps in easing up the congestion in your nose.
Vitamin C
You may have heard of the numerous health benefits of Vitamin C in your body for skin, digestion and even hair. But did you know that Vitamin C can help you in fighting common cold too? Some of the most common Vitamin C sources in our day to day lives are lemon, oranges, grapefruits, limes and other fruits and vegetables.
In order to fight with cold, you can simply enjoy cold or hot lemonade, as the vitamin C intake helps in reducing phlegm in your respiratory system. Vitamin C may not clear up your cold entirely but it can surely relieve some of the symptoms. Moreover, it tastes so good that you can finally feel your taste buds getting back to normal.
Include Garlic in Your Meal
Apart from ginger, garlic is one of the most tried natural cold remedies. According to studies, garlic contains allicin, which may have some antimicrobial properties. All you need to do is add garlic in your diet every single day. Garlic can improve your immunity, which is essential to save from getting sick in the first place.
Also, adding garlic in your diet will help in reducing the symptoms of cold which is the easiest thing you can do for your health. Another way to use garlic for cold is by sautéing the garlic cloves in ghee and consuming them when they are still warm. This might taste super weird and bitter too, but it has great soothing effect for cold and cough.
What Not to Do When You Catch Cold
Most people know what kind of medicines they are supposed to take in cold and what kind of home remedies they are supposed to follow. But what about the things you shouldn’t do when you are suffering from normal to severe cold. So, apart from following natural cold remedies, we have a few precautions you should follow when you catch cold in order to heal quickly out of it.
Do Not Dehydrate Yourself
Whether you are completely fine or suffering from severe cold, you are not supposed to dehydrate yourself in any situation. Especially, when it comes to cold, make sure that you keep your in-takes of warm fluids to a maximum level. Fluids and liquids help in thinning the mucus and hence you tend to get better and as it eases your breathing issues too. Some of the recommendations from our side are tea, coffee, warm soup, lukewarm water, turmeric latte etc.
Do Not Lack Sleep and Rest
Don’t act as if you are completely fine because to be true, cold can be even more tiring than fever itself. Lacking sleep and proper rest can cause your symptoms to increase, which can make the upcoming 2-3 days quite annoying for you. Taking proper rest and plenty of sleep can make you feel quite relaxed and recharged. In fact, it can quicken the process of recovery, too.
Don't Indulge in Alcohol and Smoking
If you want the quick cold remedies to work on you, then make sure that you stay away from smoking and drinking completely. Alcohol and smoking can make you dehydrated and also damages your immune system. In fact, smoking can worsen your condition and can make you bedridden. Make sure that apart from following the natural remedies, you avoid these things as well.
Do Not Stress Out
Stressing out over this sickness won’t heal it overnight. In fact, even if you are completely fine, stress can weaken your immune system to such extent that you can catch a cold quite easily. If stressing out goes on for a longer period of time then it can severely affect your natural power to fight with common bacterias. So, make sure that you remain optimistic about every situation in life.
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When to seek Professional Help?
Though these remedies are all safe to use, they are only helpful in relieving minor symptoms associated with cold and flu. If the symptoms tend to worsen then it is advisable to seek professional help from a certified health practitioner! This is because the cold can sometimes lead to a more life-threatening condition i.e. pneumonia! Though normal cold can go away with some remedies and lots of rest, severe conditions may need to assessed properly!