Looking for a natural way of treating your cold or flu? Here are some home remedies you can try that might relieve the symptoms.
1.Blow Your Nose Often (and the Right Way)
Blowing your nose regularly is very important especially when you have a cold rather than sniffling mucus back into your head. But when you try to blow a little hard, there is a possibility that the pressure can carry germ-carrying phlegm back into your ear passages, resulting in earache.
The best way to blow your nose is by pressing a finger over one nostril while you blow gently to clear the other one.
2.Treating That Stuffy Nose With Warm Salt Water
Salt-water rinsing helps in breaking nasal congestion, while also removing harmful virus particles and bacteria from your nose. Here’s a commonly used recipe:
Combine 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 nostrils.
Hold one nostril closed by applying a very faint finger pressure while squirting the salt mixture into the other nostril. Let it drain. Repeat these steps two to three times, then move on to the next nostril.
3. Stay Warm and Rested
Staying warm and resting enough helps in directing energy towards the immune system so that it’s able to fight the cold or flu.
4.Gargle
Gargling helps in moistening a sore throat and provides temporary relief. Gargle with half a teaspoon of salt dissolved in 8 ounces warm water, four times a day.
Try an astringent gargle to reduce the tickle in your throat– such as tea that has tannin — to tighten the membranes.
5.Drink Hot Liquids
Hot liquids provide major relief when it comes to nasal congestion, prevent dehydration, and soothe out the inflamed membranes that line your nose and throat. If you’re so congested that sleeping at night becomes a far fetched dream then try a hot toddy, an age-old remedy.
Brew a cup of hot herbal tea. Add one teaspoon of honey and one small shot of whiskey or bourbon. Restrict yourself to one dose. Too much alcohol will inflame the membranes and make you feel even worse than before.
6. Take a Steamy Shower
Steamy showers act as a great moisturizer of your nasal passages and may help you relax. If you’re dizzy from the flu, take a steamy shower while you sit on a chair nearby and take a sponge bath.
7. Use a Salve Under Your Nose
A small dab of mentholated salve under your nose can initiate the opening of breathing passages and restore the irritated skin at the base of the nose. Menthol, eucalyptus, and camphor all have mild numbing properties that may help to relieve the pain of a nose rubbed raw.
8.Apply Hot or Cold Packs Around Your Congested Sinuses
Either of the two temperatures works. You can buy reusable hot or cold packs at a drugstore or make one on your own. You can apply heat by taking a damp washcloth and heating it for approximately 55 seconds in a microwave.
