[Boris]

Originally Posted by KittyBeary

That sucks that they don't allow cough drops! Dx They should in case someone has a really bad cough and needs them.

I also heard pineapple juice helps with coughs, but I just recently heard that so I didn't try that when I was sick.

I should try the pineapple thing next time. As for the cough drops, they had incidents where things that were in people' mouth being sent to customers. Since we send things out overseas, it's not always a cheap fix.

Originally Posted by Coda

Honey is a wonderful thing for calming coughs and soothing throats. It's one of the best home remedies out there -- especially for children it's actually BETTER than over-the-counter cough medicine. But it only works when it's in liquid form. You can mix it with stuff, but if you crystallize it out or mix it into something solid then it's no better for you in terms of symptom relief than plain old sugar. That said, in a cough drop it redissolves into your saliva so those work.

Cold Snap is... questionable. The supplements in it claim to boost your immune system, but assuming you're not suffering from nutritional deficiencies your immune system is as already as good as it's going to get. You actually don't WANT an extra-strong immune system because that would make your symptoms WORSE -- most of the symptoms you experience of illness are side effects of your immune system being active and making it more active will make you suffer more. And if you're already sick, your body has already deployed the immune system, and it's too late for supplements to have any effect.

Vitamin C megadoses are also not effective at stopping colds, and in fact a vitamin C overdose can cause diarrhea. However, normal levels of vitamin C supplements can be helpful if you're doing a lot of physical exercise in very cold weather, because this kind of activity can deplete it faster than normal.

Zinc supplements might do something to help, but the research isn't clear; a meta-analysis found a correlation between zinc acetate supplements and faster cold symptom relief in adults, but the data isn't of particularly high quality, no such correlation was found in children, the risk of side effects is fairly high, other zinc formulations were found to be less effective or ineffective, dosing guidelines are unclear, and zinc nasal sprays are actually dangerous.

When it comes down to it, colds are self-limiting. The reason over-the-counter cold remedies are so popular is because you take them, and then the cold goes away. But in truth there isn't a cause-and-effect relationship between them -- the cold would have gone away on its own.

The best way to treat a cold is not to try to fight the disease itself, but instead to treat the symptoms so that you're more comfortable and less fatigued as you fight off the infection naturally. Thinning mucus and suppressing coughs means you'll be breathing better and not roughing up your throat and overexerting your chest muscles, which keeps you from feeling worse. Drinking lots of fluids will thin your mucus and replace the fluids you lose from the illness, which will help you feel better. Drinking hot tea is especially good, because your body's natural response to drinking something hot is to relax, which relieves pain and opens up your nasal passages, and the hot liquid also soothes the throat and steam also thins mucus and soothes nasal passages.

Lemon juice is good too, because while the vitamin C won't do particularly much for your cold, it tastes good even when your sense of taste and smell is messed up by the cold and a little bit of acidity feels good. Mint is similar in this regard.

This makes hot honey lemon or honey mint tea the best cold remedy you could ask for.

EDIT: Treating cold symptoms is also important to limit the spread of the disease. Don't just suffer through them. Do everything you can to limit how much mucus and saliva you expose the rest of the world to -- this means stop the coughs, stop the runny nose, and of course use tissues and wash your hands frequently.

You're very resourceful! I do wash y hands frequently, but I need to apply lotion afterwards to keep them from getting dry.

Originally Posted by say

hope you feel better soon

definitely chamomile mint tea with some honey and little bit of lemon

I should try those. I id feel better after a few hours of taking medicine. I even felt fine today!