Home remedy hacks .

The cold weather is on its way and the drop in temperature is often accompanied by several seasonal ailments. Here are a few easy home remedies you could try if you battle with dry skin or end up with the sniffles

A homemade salt solution is an easy and inexpensive way to treat a sore throat. Stir half a teaspoon of salt into a glass of warm water and gargle with it every hour or two until you feel some relief. Visit your doctor if your throat is still sore after two days. Treat nasal congestion by flushing thick or dried mucus out of your nasal passages with a nasal rinse. Make your own by stirring half a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda into one cup of water (boiled and cooled to lukewarm) in a clean container. Fill a medical syringe with the solution and squirt it into one of your nasal passages, aiming the stream at a 45-degree angle towards the back of your head rather than directly up. The solution should go through one nasal passage and out the other, or through the nasal passage and down your throat into your mouth so you can spit it out. Repeat several times on both sides and be sure to clean the syringe after every use. Down with a cold? Add an extra pillow when you go to bed so your head is higher than usual – it helps to ease sinus pressure, making it easier to breathe. Exfoliate a dry winter scalp by mixing a teaspoon of sugar into shampoo in the palm of your hand then massaging your head well before rinsing thoroughly. This will exfoliate dead skin on your scalp, allowing conditioner to nourish it more effectively. A steam treatment can help ease a stuffy nose. Fill a bowl with boiled water from the kettle, add a few drops of eucalyptus oil and lean over it with a towel over your head. It will help loosen the mucus in your nasal passages without drying out your nose. Studies have shown that rhinovirus, the virus associated with the common cold, is rendered inactive at temperatures above 40 °C. During winter there’s less natural moisture in the air, which often leaves your skin dry. Dry and cracked hands or feet not only look bad, they can be extremely painful. Try this overnight treatment: just before you go to bed, apply coconut oil liberally to your hands and feet. Massage it in then slip on clean socks and gloves. There’s nothing quite like a good long soak in the bath on a chilly night, but steamy hot baths can remove the surface lipids that keep your skin moisturised and leave it feeling drier. To counteract this, add oats to your bath. Place half a cup of oats in a clean sock or old tights, tie a knot in the end and drop it in the bath. Oats contain an antiinflammatory agent that soothes dry and ruddy skin.