Here we are again at the season of coughs and colds, you know the
feeling, your nose starts to tingle, your throat feels a little
dry and raspy and before you know it you have a full blown cold.
There is an old saying that if you treat a cold it will last a
week and if left untreated it will last seven days. There is some
truth in that saying, colds are what we call a self-limiting
illness, usually a cold will go on its own after seven to ten
days. But that doesn't mean that you have to suffer if you do get
a cold.
Will it ever happen? Will a cure be found for the common cold? Is
there ever going to be a magic bullet that will zap a cold at the
first sign? Who knows, scientists have been researching the
common cold for a very long time and they are no nearer to
finding a cure. That said there are things you can do to help
yourself.
There are herbal remedies that are able to boost your immune
system so that it is able to fight off the hundreds of different
cold viruses that are lurking about just waiting for the
opportunity to invade your body.
Once a cold develops, the viruses very quickly reproduce until
you have billions in your nose, throat and lungs.
Herbal remedies fight colds in a few different ways, the first is
to actually help your body to fight these viruses before they
ever get a chance to multiply and develop into a cold.
You may have noticed that you often come into contact with people
who have colds but you didn't develop one, why is that?. How is
it that one time you seem to be immune to colds and another time,
Wham! you get a cold but don't remember coming into contact with
anyone who had a cold. This is all down to your immune system.
There are a lot of factors involved in having a healthy immune
system, one common culprit for suppressing the immune system is
stress. So what can you do to try to keep your immune system in
top form, some things are just common sense. Eating a healthy
diet, getting plenty of rest and exercising regularly, all of
these things will help reduce stress and boost your immune
system.
There are several remedies that are worth keeping in your
medicine cupboard, one of these is Echinacea purpurea. Echinacea
can be taken as a tea, capsules, tinctures or tablets, the dose
is dependant on the product you take. Do not exceed the
recommended dose for the make you are using. Also do not take
Echinacea daily as it looses its immune boosting power if taken
too often. To help prevent colds take Echinacea for five to six
days then have two or three days off, this way you will still get
the immune boosting power of this herb.
When you have a cold the strategy is very different. If you are
unfortunate enough to develop a cold then take Echinacea every
hour or two for at least two days. Depending on the severity of
your cold you can take this dose for four days. Then drop the
dose down to three times a day until your cold has gone.
So what else can you take to fight your cold. If you have a cough
then there is nothing better than garlic, garlic has antiviral,
antibiotic and antifungal properties. Unfortunately it is the
allicin (the part that makes garlic small) in the garlic that has
most of the medicinal properties.
The reason garlic is so good for any chest problems is the fact
that the allicin is excreted out of the body via the lungs,
therefore taking all of the antiviral and antibiotic properties
where it is needed. Don't worry if you don't like the taste of
garlic, just rub a couple of cloves onto the bottom of your feet,
and hey presto in a short time your breath will smell of garlic,
wonderful isn't it.
The mucus membranes of the respiratory tract can get very
inflamed when you have a cold, drink ginger tea for this, it will
reduce the inflammation and help open up the nasal passages.
There are several supplements that are worth a mention, they are
vitaminC, vitaminB complex and a really good multivitamin can all
help you fight your cold. After your cold has gone it is a good
idea to carry on with these supplements to help build your immune
system back up.
