It’s too late for the OP now, but I really think those nasal sprays (the ones you’re supposed to take on early onset of a cold to prevent it progressing) actually work.
Years ago if my nostrils were sore and my throat was dry…I knew within 12 hours or so I’d have a full-blown cold. Now I feel I can stop it going further at least half of the time.
This is probably futile, but just to put this in perspective, both of those statements are also true of healthy human bodies, or indeed of anything else biological. Sufficiently-high temperatures will kill any living thing, and all living things love sugar and will die if completely deprived of it. There are, occasionally, some cases where a disease is slightly more vulnerable to high temperature than the host body is, and in those cases, a fever will help, but much more often, the temperature needed to kill the disease will also kill the host.
Oh, and just for the sake of completeness, while starches are made up of sugar, and flour contains a lot of starch, gluten is a protein, and contains zero sugar whatsoever. It’s a completely different sort of compound.
Good point I was guilty of straying from the OP.
Getting the OP back on track.
Sleep.
Seriously sleep has been my main weapon for cold fighting for all my life. Its all too easy to do a little “stop gap” medication that covers or temporarily relieves. This allows us to keep moving and go to work, school, the grocery, the mall and such but in the end is not serving us well or any of the others we came in contact with in all those places.
Its not the cure all of course and is no substitute for medication when needed but sleeping off a regular cold rather than covering the symptoms and pushing on is often the best medicine. IMHO.
Omelette, eggs, etc.
I use OTC hydrocortisone (1%). Antiviral prescription is possible. There is one that is effective for cold sores (the name eludes me just now), but I find hydrocortisone just as effective. Another OTC is Curasore, which I once used, but switched back to hydrocortisone.
Zovirax: http://www.rxlist.com/zovirax-drug.htm
Curasore conains ether, but it is listed as an inactive ingredient. (?)
Opal (holy) basil tea really helps the throat pain. (Taiwanese remedy) I suspect it’s loaded with eugenol and menthol.
Abreva is the brand name for the anti-cold sore OTC medication. The active ingredient is docosanol, which impairs the replication of the virus.
Having tried it… it’s not the cheapest thing (the effective stuff never seems to be). However, it pretty much immediately removed some of itching/hurting/burning and the intensity of and duration of my most recent episode of cold sores was less than usual.
Darn, missed the edit window -
The problem with hydrocortisone is that while it does reduce inflammation and make you feel better it does nothing to the virus so your outbreak will last just as long. Also, hydrocortisone, being a steroid, does suppresss the immune system. Granted, OTC 1% won’t do that by much, but it may make a secondary infection more likely.
If you’re healthy likely not an issue and relief of symptoms can be important. YMMV.
DayQuil is pretty effective against congestion, sore throat, and tiredness. Don’t take it in the evening, as it may keep you awake.
I hate NyQuil though. I imagine it making me so groggy I smother myself with snot in my sleep.
For me neti pots have always backfired and made whatever sinus infections I had worse. So I avoid them.
As for the sore throat cepacol spray works well for me, much better than lozenges.
Am I the only one who thought vomit_comet’s response was a sarcastic refutation that heat would help? It was specifically because of type of stuff they said that the idea of using heat pinged my woo meter.
I do know one way of keeping warm, covering up and letting your fever keep you even warmer, is not recommended.
Hydrocortisone costs $1.00 at Dollar Tree and not much more at Wal-Mart. I find it quite effective. I thought Curasore’s effective agency was the ether because Consumers Report once reported on ether’s ability to kill viruses. A search indicates that it is pramoxine: http://www.drugs.com/mtm/curasore.html When I first started using it the cost was $2.00 The last time I bought it the cost was several dollars more, and the link states it does not kill the virus. I found both hydrocortisone and Curasore as effective as Zovirax, which my dentist once prescribed (as a favor). So I question your statement that cheap stuff are not effective. Hydrocortisone works great and that small amount of 1% solution applied topically will not interfere with your immune system. I did read once, in a large and old medical tome that hydrocortisone was contraindicated, probably for that reason, but at 1% should be no problem. I quit using Curasore primarily because it dried out the sore too much, but also because hydrocortisone is cheaper.
A few years ago I volunteered for a clinical study of a new treatment for cold sores. The treatment could have been something entirely new or a combination of hydrocortisone and another ingredient or Curasore and another ingredient (I forgot the other ingredient). I could have been given a placebo, but it was as effective as Curasore or hydrocortisone. What I actually took has not as yet been disclosed to me.
This may or may not be woo, and it is entirely anecdotal, but I find that it helps to mix garlic salt in warm water and gargle. Gargling with salt water has been mentioned already, but I find that the garlic makes it a bit more effective. I’m not making any guarantees about the taste, though.
Another thing you could try is heating some milk with turmeric and black pepper. An Indian acquaintance recommended it to me once. I am most definitely not a scientist, but the explanation here sounds plausible to me. I tried it once. It didn’t taste as bad as I expected, and it did seem to help. I don’t know if it helped more than any other hot beverage would have, but it’s an idea.
Your link, Broomstick, to Wikipedia concerning docosanol states that “more recently” the FDA approved this for cold sores, which leads me to believe that Abreva might have been the new medicine used in the clinical trial that I participated in. Unfortunately, the medicines used were never revealed to me.
It may well be - I’ve only seen it on sale recently, and my store has had a little trouble keeping up with demand.
It does seem to work as advertised. It’s not an instant cure, but if you start using it ASAP it does mitigate the outbreak. It’d like you halt the cold sore at the point you start using it (so it doesn’t get larger/worse), it hangs around for a few days, then heals up. Less swelling, redness, pain, spreading of blisters…
This topic morphed.
Cold sores have nothing to do with thecommon cold or congestion.
Well… cold sores can crop up due to lowered immune response and/or while you’re sick with something else, so there is a sort of correlation there although it’s not a strict cause and effect thing.
Fluids, honey, dissolved aspirin have helped as have hot baths. The problem is that kids are adorable, charming, delightful . . . massive germ factories. Thank you for the suggestions.
This isn’t a cold treatment, but after a cold I usually get bronchitis. I read that 600-800mg of cimetidine can boost the immune system (it takes a few days to take effect) so I take that at the first sign of a cold. It doesn’t do anything for the cold but I don’t get bronchitis after the cold nearly as often. I start taking it at the first sign of a cold and stop about a week after I recover.