If you do succumb to a cold or flu don’t beat yourself up, most adults get 2 or 3 a year and even the fittest, healthiest, happiest and most chilled out person will succumb now and again. And, according to the hygiene hypothesis, your immune system actually benefits from a work out every now and again.
In other words, just as muscles need to be flexed if you want to stay fit, you need to get sick once in a while to keep your immune system in peak condition.
But feeling ill is never fun, so here are 10 quick, simple and natural ways to help with the symptoms and get you back on your feet as soon as possible:
Know which symptoms to treat: Your unpleasant and uncomfortable symptoms are, believe it or not, a part of the natural healing process – evidence that your immune system is battling illness. For instance, a fever is your body’s way of trying to kill viruses in a hotter-than-normal environment. Also, a fever’s hot environment makes germ-killing proteins in your blood circulate more quickly and effectively. Thus, if you endure a moderate fever for a day or two, you may actually get well faster. Coughing and sneezing is another productive symptom; it clears your breathing passages of thick mucus that can carry germs to your lungs and the rest of your body. Even that stuffy nose is best treated mildly or not at all. A decongestant would restrict flow to the blood vessels in your nose and throat. But often you want the increase blood flow because it warms the infected area and helps secretions carry germs out of your body.- Blow your nose often and in the right way: It’s important to blow your nose regularly when you have a cold, rather than sniffling mucus back into your head. But when you blow hard, pressure can carry germ-carrying phlegm back into your ear passages, causing earache. The best way to blow your nose: press a finger over one nostril while you blow gently to clear the other.
- Treat stuffy noses with warm salt water: Salt-water rinsing helps break nasal congestion, while also removing virus particles and bacteria from your nose. Here’s a popular recipe:
- Mix 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda in 8 ounces of warm water. Use a bulb syringe to squirt water into the nose. Hold one nostril closed by applying light finger pressure while squirting the salt mixture into the other nostril. Let it drain. Repeat 2-3 times, and then treat the other nostril.
- Gargle: Gargling can moisten a sore throat and bring temporary relief. Try a teaspoon of salt dissolved in warm water, four times daily. To reduce the tickle in your throat, try an astringent gargle — such as tea that contains tannin — to tighten the membranes. Or use a thick, viscous gargle made with honey, popular in folk medicine. Seep one tablespoon of raspberry leaves or lemon juice in two cups of hot water; mix with one teaspoon of honey. Let the mixture cool to room temperature before gargling.
Drink Hot Liquids: Hot liquids relieve nasal congestion, prevent dehydration, and soothe the uncomfortably inflamed membranes that line your nose and throat. If you’re so congested you can’t sleep at night, try a hot toddy, an age-old remedy. Make a cup of hot herbal tea. Add one teaspoon of honey and 1 small shot (about 1 ounce) of whiskey. Limit yourself to one. Too much alcohol inflames those membranes and is counterproductive.- Take a Steamy Shower: Steamy showers moisturise your nasal passages and relax you. If you’re dizzy from the flu, run a steamy shower while you sit on a chair nearby and take a sponge bath.
- Apply Hot or Cold Packs Around Your Congested Sinuses: Either temperature works. You can buy reusable hot or cold packs at the chemists. Or you can use a hot cloth or a small bag of frozen peas to use as a cold pack.
- Sleep With an Extra Pillow Under Your Head: This will help relieve any congested nasal passages. If the angle is too awkward, try placing the pillows between the mattress and the springs to create a more gradual slope.
- Extra vitamin C: Vitamin C is an incredible anti viral agent and research has shown that vitamin C supplements can ease the symptoms of colds and flu. Viruses cannot survive in a bloodstream saturated with vitamin C so take 2-3g of vitamin C three times a day. Alternatively mix 6g of vitamin C powder in fruit juice diluted with water and drink throughout the day. You may also want to supplement with another important immune boosting nutrient, zinc. For sore throats you can suck a zinc tablet rather than swallowing it straight away. If you think you are feeling better wait a day before reducing your vitamin C supplement to 1g three times a day. Once you have been well for a few days go back to your normal eating and supplement programme. (Use an alkaline form of vitamin C e.g. magnesium ascorbate as this is less acidic than ascorbic acid).
- Take probiotic supplements: Probiotic supplements can be a good alternative to antibiotics because they promote health. The purpose of antibiotic drugs is to destroy pathogenic bacteria but in the process they also destroy beneficial bacteria. A single course of antibiotics can wipe out beneficial bacteria for several months and overuse over several years can actually make you more vulnerable to viruses and infection. Probiotics on the other hand are not a drug to wipe out the enemy but specific strains of beneficial bacteria that can reinforce the body’s natural defences. They can be used to restore health in the digestive tract — for example during a stomach bug — and can also be used all year round to build up beneficial bacteria. An excellent probiotic I use in the clinic is BioKult.
Note: As a rule make sure you see your doctor if an infection has not responded to natural therapies and has persisted for more than a week. In such cases antibiotics may be necessary but they should only be used as a last resort if the illness could lead to more serious conditions if left unchecked.
In the great majority of cases you do not need to take antibiotics to treat a cold or flu; but if your symptoms are so severe your doctor recommends antibiotics take a course of probiotics for a month afterwards to restore healthy gut bacteria.
