Natural Treatment Tips for Colds and Flu

Looking for natural or alternative treatment for your cold or flu symptoms? Here are some tips that may help relieve your symptoms.

● Know When not to

Treat Symptoms Believe it or not, those annoying symptoms you’re experiencing are part of the natural healing process -- evidence that the immune system is battling illness. For instance, a fever is your body’s way of trying to kill viruses by creating 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 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, like Sudafed, restricts 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 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

●Treat That Stuffy Nose 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 or nasal irrigation kit 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 two to three times, then treat the other nostril.

● Gargle Gargling can moisten a sore throat and bring

temporary relief. Gargle with half a teaspoon of salt dissolved in 8 ounces 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 or honey and apple cider vinegar.

● Take a Steamy Shower Steamy showers moisturize your nasal passages and may help you relax. 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 a drugstore or make your own. You can apply heat by taking a damp washcloth and heating it for 55 seconds in a microwave (test the temperature first to make sure it’s not too hot.) A small bag of frozen peas works well as a cold pack.

● Sleep With an Extra Pillow Under Your Head Elevating your head will help relieve congested nasal passages. If the angle is too awkward, try placing the pillows between the mattress and the box springs to create a more gradual slope.

● Use a Salve Under Your

Nose

A small dab of mentholated salve under your nose can help to open breathing passages and restore the irritated skin at the base of the nose. Menthol, eucalyptus, and camphor all have mild numbing ingredients that may help relieve the pain of a nose rubbed raw. However, only put it on the outside, under your nose, not inside your nose.

Remember, serious conditions, such as sinus infections, bronchitis, meningitis, strep throat, and asthma, can look like the common cold. If you have severe symptoms, or don’t seem to be getting better, call your doctor.