How to ease common cold symptoms

Evening all.

I'm full of lurgy again. I've come to the conclusion that I will be almost permanently lurgied up for the next few years now that my son is at nursery school age. If I'm going to get the lurgy 5+ times a year instead of maybe once which is more normal for me, then I'm going to have to man up about it.

Right now, I have a glass of brandy, which is a very effective short term remedy. The vapour can blast a hole through the hardest snot, and the alcohol content acts as a local anaesthetic on the sore throat. The down side of course is that brandy gives a bad head the next day. Oh, and I only have a tiny bit left. After that I'll have to resort to the white rum that I've had for a couple of years now.

So what tricks do we know to soothe cold symptoms?

 

I don't get colds or flu, probably the only good thing about smoking.

Somebody once told me, a daily dose of whiskey and honey in hot milk works. My son puts a teaspoonful of 'Vicks' in steaming water in a large bowl and holds his head over it covered with a towel. It clears the 'tubes' apparently.

 

Vick on the chest works for me.
The instructions do say what Sheal's son does, but on the chest over night works for me

 

I usually have some essential oil of rosemary in the back of a cupboard somewhere. A couple of drops of that poked up the nose does wonders, but it makes the brandy taste a bit odd. In any case I haven't got any on this occasion.

 

There is pretty much nothing you can do except let your germ run its course. Keeping yourself fit and eating well will help you fight colds, but short of taking up chain smoking there's not much you can do to prevent them from taking hold and, although various things help a bit, keeping the symptoms under control is difficult. Paracetamol and a good anti-congestant are the only things which will work a bit.

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Prevention is better than cure,as soon as I have the slightest sight of a cold, two or three days 1000mg. of effervesent vitamin C in water seems to fend it off for me.
I used to have two or three colds a year now it's one mild one every two years,if that.
The fact that I am a fruitaholic helps as well I suspect.

 

I have to ask - have you got a 'proper' cold or a ..... man cold?

 

I always just use a couple of drops of Olbas Oil :WINK1:

 

Hot baths for me followed by viks and lemsip

 

Proper one. I know its not man flu because man flue would have me cowering on the settee groaning while getting wife to do all my bidding. This one is horrid but at least I'm trying to do everything I'd normally do, just with a lot less energy.

 

A hot toddy made up from the juice of half a lemon, a teaspoon of honey, tot of rum and a little ground nutmeg - top up with boiling water.

a-a

 

A good suck on a Fisherman's Friend.