When cold and flu season rolls around, everybody goes running to the aisles of their mega-supermarket looking for de-congestants, cough suppressants and general sedatives all neatly blended into chemical syrups and packaged in bottles and jars. But many overlook a simpler way to treat the common cold, with natural cures that don’t have the harsh elements and potential side effects of some of the market’s cold and flu products.
Several basic root products can have a very positive effect on a head cold. These “home cures” are less expensive to produce, cheaper to buy, and in some cases, easier to use.
The Vitamin C Cure
Lemon is one of the great natural cures for healing the common cold. Lemon can be blended into tea and consumed daily for results. The “active ingredient” in lemon isn’t phenolephydrin or polyhexene, it’s simply Vitamin C. Sensitive individuals can take Vitamin C supplements during the winter to ward off colds, and once they have contracted a head cold, a higher dose of Vitamin C can ease its effects. That’s why orange juice is so much a part of today’s smart natural cures.
Other Tea Cures
A few other household products make great teas for soothing and calming a raging cold. The first one is garlic: garlic has a range of positive health effects and natural medicine enthusiasts prescribe it not just for ailments like the cold, but for overall long-term health. Garlic can be put into teas or soups, or just taken in oil form with water. A more complex home remedy includes pickled garlic, hot peppers and onions in a vinegar solution.
Ginger is another root that cold sufferers use in teas. A ginger/lemon mixture appeals to some tea drinkers.
More Teas and Blends
Other spices like turmeric and tamarind also are known to battle the common cold. In general, hot and spicy foods can have a positive effect as they “clear” nasal passages and flush out the system. Echinacea and cranberry juice are other home remedies some swear by when cold season comes around.
Trying natural cures first is better for you and better for the world we live in, and often, the orange juice cure is enough to help tough out a winter virus, so next time you get the sniffles, consider home remedies as potentially effective solutions.
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