Is there anything non-woo to treat a sore throat? A hacking cough? Excess tiredness? My daughters and I are kind of miserable despite multiple infusions of homemade soup and endless lozenges. My eldest has a swollen sore lip that we’re treating with neosporin. I’m hacking up a lung.
Have I ever shared how much I hate winter? Once December leaves all you have left are days that end at 5:30 and snow that looks pretty for about half an hour until people and cars turn it to grey, wet mush.
Keep drinking water, and try swishing salt water in your mouth/doing nasal lavage to heal mouth an nose tissues. Inhale steam, perhaps with a couple of drops of mint or eucalyptus oil. Sorry!
Honeyfor that sore throat. Really. It may help with the cough too.
And a decent OTC cough medication with medications tailored to your symptoms can relieve that hacking cough. I like the Dextromethorphan in timed released formulation sold as Delsym. Walmart sells their version unde the Equate brand at a third the price.
stay warm
Abreva for the lip sore. Guaifenesin with copious amounts of iced water, hot tea [herbal or not, I like ginger peppermint with honey] hot lemonaide and chicken soup [or veggie version if you are noncarnivore.] Neti pot with neutral saline for the sinuses.
Put a huge pot of water on the stove to get some moisture in the air. Helps the sinuses and lungs.
Abreva because the cold sore on the lip is a herpeform virus. Guaifenesin and copious liquids to thin out the mucous so it sorts itself out the way it is supposed to. Neti pot to sooth the sinus membranes, same for the moisture in the air.
Hot baths (elevated temperature has been said to disrupt virus reproduction).
Lots of fluids (dilutes and washes out all sorts of stuff).
Cleanse skin of nose and upper lip with plain warm water to rinse away mucus (less chapping).
Progressive relaxation exercises (you tend to tense up unconciously when uncomfortable, which makes you more so).
Salt water nasal rinse with a neti pot or equivalent (I use a kit from NeilMed with pre measured salt packets). This will clean out the sinus and help lessen the the dip down your throat which work on the sore throat.
Another vote for neti pot/nasal washing (I most recently bought a kit from Walgreens for $10.00 - squeeze bottle, 100 packets of salt, do it in your daily shower for maximum efficiency and least grossness.) I don’t get colds but am bothered by seasonal allergies and swear by regular nasal rinsing. Drastically reduces both congestion and the resulting cough and sore throat from post-nasal drip.
My dad used to make me tea with amarhetto. It has the added advantage of helping you sleep.
Hot showers help too. Also, remember to keep WASHING YOUR HANDS. I can’t stress that enough. It may sound paranoid, but I also keep hand sanitizer with me, so I don’t have to run to the bathroom every time I blow my nose. Ibuprofen can help the headaches as well.
My sympathies. I have a cold right now too and it sucks donkey balls.
Chocolate (specifically, theobromine) is the only cough suppressant that I’ve found on the Wikpedia listed as being able to perform better than a placebo:
Odd, yet seemingly true.
Theobromine helps, but chocolate slimes up the throat.
Cutting out (non-frozen) dairy in general may help some people to lessen that mucus feeling in the throat.
Zinc lozenges and tablets help shorten colds by about a day.
And I’m thirding (fourthing?) nasal lavage/neti-pot. Takes some getting used to but really good.
Even cancer can be cured by hot baths, saunas. Diseases cannot tolerate high temperature, that is why you get a fever when you are sick, your body is elevating temperature to kill the disease.
Diseases love sugar, so, I’d recommend eliminating sugar first… that includes wheat flour, gluten and starch too.
ARGHHH!!
Hair pulling! Head banging! Screaming, cursing!
(Calm, Jim, calm. Something soothing …)
Good morning, starshine. The Earth says hello.
You twinkle up above, we twinkle below.
(Ahhh. That’s better, much better.)
<Looks at previous post again.>
ARGHHHH!!!
And here comes the woo…
If just elevating temperature cured everything we wouldn’t die of disease anymore.
And get off the “wheat/gluten is poison” bandwagon already.
Thanks, Broomstick. I had a really bad reaction to that post. Must have had some cold, sugared gluten.
<My hair hurts.>
Gargling salt water helps a sort throat. Helps it feel better and also helps it get better.
The Neti pot only seems to work for me if the congestion is on its way to loosening up. If I’m really blocked up the water can’t get through at all, and does nothing. But when its doing its thing it’s an amazing, disgusting process.
In case it needs to be said, a sore throat can be bacterial (eg. strep), in which case antibiotics would certainly help, but not if all you have is a genuine cold or flu.
I get a fever when I’m sick with CANCER?!?
Cancer is NOT a virus or bacteria, heat will not kill cancer! AAARRRGGG! :smack:
(OK I admit that if enough heat is applied maybe… but then immolation is probably not a reasonable cure for cancer. )
But please keep the gluten free fad going. My wife has a real, doctor diagnosed allergy to wheat that has been so difficult for her all her life. Due to the recent gluten free fads she now has a huge number of new food options popping up.
Thanks for expanding her food options so much!
I stand partially but not significantly corrected.
The Master has spoken on this very question.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1251/can-heat-cure-cancer