Best things to take/do for a cold?

I take chlor-trimeton for the runny nose. It's an old, simple medication, and the generic (Chlor-Tabs) is cheap as dirt at Wal-Mart.
I also use Zicam, which is a zinc nasal spray. If I feel that I am really comijg down with something, I take extra Vitamin C, Echinacea, and zinc. I don't take the echinacea for more than two days. Supposedly, too much is not good for the immune system, so I won't take the chance. For a sore throat, Chloraseptic is very good for soothing inflames tisues.

Than there's grandma's old recipe. Right before you get into bed, put a shot of whiskey in a cup of hot tea, together with the juice of a lemon, and some honey. You will sweat like hell (that's why you take it right at your bedside, so you can get right under the covers), but I'll bet that you will feel better by morning!

Always used Granma's recipe...works for me...Jim Beam

Hot totte? Is that what that little recipe is called?


Good suggestions Phoenix! I also heard getting hammered on whiskey will cure a cold?

Do you plan on soldiering on, regardless, with the cold?

or

Sipping a toddy and napping and sipping and napping and sipping....

sipping and napping and nipping and sapping

stand up- It's called a Hot Toddy!

http://www.webtender.com/db/drink/4031

Think about it. The lemon juice adds Vitamin C. The vapors from the hot tea helps clear the sinuses, and helps you to rehydrate. The honey soothes a scratchy throat.

And the booze?? You may be sick, but you won't care!

I used to get sore throats about four times a year. My wife lovingly suggested numerous times I try odorless garlic pills. I've been taking two a day now for years now, and hardly ever get sore throats any more.

Jim- Hmm...........Interesting. Never heard of that.

Hot toddy, sorry. I have tried one once, but just a sip as I wasn't sick....yet! Perhaps i'll run down to the liquer store and and get the booze to make it! That seems like a mostly kind of natural way to heal hey?...lol

I think I remember that the honey is an expectorant, too.

Seven days with meds, seven days without.

I've learned (slowly) that the best thing (for me) to do is to not interfere with the process of the cold. I end up in worse shape.

Cold Eze zinc lozenges really help to shorten the duration of a cold. You have to take them at the first sign of a cold and suck about 6 lozenges a day for three days to get the full benefit. I think they really do work. They cut the length of a cold in half and they seem to decrease it's intensity. They don't taste too bad either.

I also take lots of Vit. C and fluids. If I'm really suffering with a dripping or stuffed nose I'll take Sudafed tablets.

There are colds and colds. Sometimes you have already been exposed to some to the viruses. Or not.

I avoid zinc because I have alzheimer's in my family and the pathology involves zinc, though it is not at all clear that added zinc is a problem, I just don't run to the zinc pill counter.

For a plain old cold, I try to get some sleep and drink enough fluids.

Since I quit smoking, a couple of decades ago now, colds don't last long at all. I have trouble figuring out if they are allergy bouts, and then they're gone.

Flu, on the other hand, can do it to me. Thus I take flu shots and try to not rub my face with my hands much.

Zinc works. I favor the Cold Ezeee brand, though my spelling may be somewhat original. The downside is that your food will have a bad taste after using it.

The booze therapy seems helpful, too, but not toddys in particular. I've used more or less equal measures of honey, lemon juice, and VO, served quite warm. Timing with this remedy is important. You have to be at the right stage of the cold or flu, and you need to be ready for bed within 30 minutes of taking it. In another discussion, the concensus seemed to be that body temperature was elevated just enough to get above the range in which the virus reproduced best.