whats the best way to fight a cold?

Answer 1

Drink plenty of water.
Get lots of rest.
Chicken soup.
Vitamin C.
Echinacea
Zinc
Treat symptoms with OTC remedies as needed.

Get lots of rest.
Drink lots of water.

Answer 2

Please do not take Sudafed indiscriminately. It can be a stimulant and can cause rapid heartbeat and inability to sleep. Is your nose running or is it stuffy? Benadryl can help with a runny nose but there might be other products to open up a stuffy nose (Breathe rite nasal strips) that do not involve Sudafed (nasty stuff if you are hypersensitive to it).

You need lots of fluids, chicken soup with pepper to break up chest congestion. Do not take aspirin if you are a child or teen. Ask your doctor for the best remedy for body aches and/or fever. For chest congestion, topical Vicks Vaporub works well, and so can a cool mist vaporizer. If you use Vicks put on an old tee shirt over it, to hold in the vapor, and cover up well.

My grandmom used to make me wear really warm PJs, get under the covers and drink hot lemonade. This generally broke a fever right away - but was unpleasant in the summer, as you can imagine.

There is an old adage of "Feed a cold and starve a fever" but you primarily need to be sure you get adequare fluid intake, and not caffeine which can dehydrate you. Lots of juice (which you can cut with water to diminish the sugar intake), light foods like Jell-O, Gatorade to replenish fluids and electrolytes lost with fever. There is another old adage that says a cold treated will go away in a week and untreated, it will go away in 7 days - basically meaning that no matter what you do, you are treating the symptoms and it will go away when it is good and ready.

However, there is a nasal gel called Zicam that really can shorten the duration of a cold. Rather than breathing it up into the nasal cavity like nose drops, you apply a small spray of the gel into the bottom of each nostril and just let it sit there to be absorbed through the mucosa of the nose. I don't know why but zinc can shorten the duration of a cold and can lessen the symptoms.

It used to be thought that vitamin C helped but recently studies have proven this to be false. I am not sure echinacea helps once you have the cold, but it may raise your immunity at other times so that perhaps you will not contact another cold.

Just pamper yourself. Curl up nice and warm with a good book, or some good movies or crossword puzzles. Sleep as much as your body is telling you, so that it can begin to heal iself. Good luck. Colds are truly miserable.

Answer 3

I'm from the Caribbean, so my cold don't last ever, unless is real serious. I usually boil some orange leaves to make tea with little bit of sugar and some lime with skin or I'll have a 2 tablespoons of honey mix with half lime juice,a pint of salt, and a shot of dark rhum. After you drink it when you go to sleep you put some vicks pomade on top of your breast near your neck,and your back.You'll be amazed, not even it works, but you should start doing better the next day.

Answer 4

Drinking lots of water, tea, orange juice and tylenol usually help. If you have a common cold and have a stuffy nose Sudaphed works wonders. If you have a constant cough, Delsium is a great cough supressent but make sure you try and release the flem, swallowing it is never good. Stay warm and rest!

Answer 5

They have found that the simple act of hand washing really makes a difference. Men are the worst offenders they found in the study, they rarely take the time to wash after using the bathroom.

Answer 6

Eat oranges & grapefruit.