COMMON COLD - HOME REMEDIES
Common cold also called as "influenza or coryza" is one of the most common seasonal upper respiratory tract disorder that is usually caused by any of the 200 viruses, usually a rhinovirus. It is a self-limiting disease, which resolves within five to ten days on its own. The symptoms usually include sneezing, coughing, congestion, a running nose, watery eyes and feeling out-of-sorts. A low-grade fever, sore throat, chills, muscle aches and laryngitis may also develop. Flu and cold symptoms are indications of the body's efforts to fight off the viruses. E.g.-A running nose guards against further invasion. Fever and inflammation of the nasal passages help to control the spread of infection. So you do not need to worry too much.
Take a hot, steamy shower for relieving the body ache and it also acts as a vaporizer and thus helps reduce the severity of the illness. It is necessary for the patient to drink at least eight to ten glasses of water and take complete bed rest for atleast three days.
In cases where the person complains of sore throat, salt-water gargles should be done several times in a day.
SOME HOME REMEDIES
1. Avoid taking curd, banana, fried things and drinks added with ice are to be strictly avoided.
2. Make a mixture of one teaspoonful of ginger juice, one tablespoonful of lemon juice and two teaspoonfuls of honey and take this two to three times a day. Prepare a fresh mixture daily.
3. Garlic has got antibiotic properties and can help kill the germs and clear the cold symptoms rapidly. Garlic soup is an age-old remedy to decrease the severity of the cold.
4. About ten cloves of garlic can be fried in butter or ghee and taken internally.
5. One teaspoonful of turmeric powder is added to a cup of sweetened milk and given to the patient thrice daily.
6. About 100 grams of ladyfingers should be cut into pieces and boiled down in half a litre of water to make a decoction, which should be taken twice daily. The steam issuing from this decoction may also be inhaled to relieve throat irritation and dry cough.
7. Half a teaspoonful of powdered cayenne (black) pepper taken in hot honey-sweetened water or milk is a good remedy for colds. Also making a mixture from some curd, jaggery (gur) and some powdered black pepper and taken twice daily helps.
8. Sipping a cup of hot soup (especially chicken soup) can help loosen the clogged nasal passages.
9. A quarter teaspoon of cinnamon (tuj) powder in a little hot, sweetened lemon, taken every hour is very useful for influenza.
10. The leaves of holy basil (tulsi) tree when mixed with an equal quantity of dried ginger powder forms an excellent substitute for tea in this condition. Milk and sugar can be added in this tea and is useful when taken thrice daily.
11. White radish juice should be taken daily after sweetening it with some honey for preventing and curing colds.
12. Slices of onions when sniffed will sometimes cure a cold in the initial stages. Also when taken in the cooked form they help. Equal amounts of onion juice and honey should be mixed and three to four teaspoonfuls of this mixture should be taken daily.
13. Ajwain has a remarkable power to open up clogged and congested nasal passages. Roast a tablespoonful of ajwain and tie it in a cloth and use it for inhaling. Also, fomentation with ajwain is useful.
14. Tamarind (imli) leaf juice and tamarind-pepper rasam is good for colds.
15. Eucalyptus oil is a soothing external application for colds. Also bathing in hot water in which two tablespoonfuls of eucalyptus oil is added is useful.
16. After the onset of fever, it is better to keep the patient without food or with light food for at least two meal times. He should be given barley (jau) water or sago boiled with milk and sugar. Bread, biscuits, meat soup and vegetable soup can also be given to the patient. Green ginger is useful when added to the soup or vegetables. Avoid taking meat, chicken, fish, eggs, rice, wheat chappati, fried items and sour things including
curd.
