Home Remedies for Common Cold
Introduction
Everyone has suffered from common cold at one time or the other. Common cold is a viral infection, which is felt more when the season changes unexpectedly. There are both summer and winter colds, and both are equally distressing. Common colds can occur in children as well as in adults. In some adults, the common cold lasts throughout the year, sometimes surging and sometimes ebbing. This is called as chronic common cold.
The usual symptoms of common cold are as follows:-
(i) Nasal congestion, and continuous watery discharge from the nose
(ii) Wateriness and redness of the eyes
(iii) Irritation of the throat
(iv) Headaches
(v) Loss of senses of taste and smell
Home Remedies
Use the following home remedies if the cold is mild, characterized by mild nasal congestion, throat irritation, cough and watery discharge from the nose and the eyes:-
Home Remedy # 1
- Mix one teaspoonful each of the juice of ginger and honey. Take this mixture twice in a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. This is a very simple and very good remedy for mitigating common colds.
Home Remedy # 2
- Chewing on a few leaves of the betel nut tree helps to treat common cold conditions.
Home Remedy # 3
- Take some rock salt and three to four pieces of black pepper. Crush them both together. Bring them to a very fine consistency. Then put them in warm water and drink this solution when it is still warm. This is an excellent and very cheap remedy for treating common colds.
Home Remedy # 4
- Some people have perennial colds, i.e. colds that last throughout the year. For such people, generally there is no proper medication that works. If that is the case with you, then the following remedy will work: Take one milliliter of the extract of the tulsi leaves (Holy Basil, Ocimum sanctum). Add to this one milliliter of garlic juice and one gram of black pepper powder. Mix them all thoroughly and then put them in a glassful of water. Drink this water twice in a day; once in the morning and once in the evening. Continue this routine without a break for two months. This will definitely help you to get a permanent relief from your perennial common cold.
Home Remedy # 5
- Warm some water in a tub and add in it four to five teaspoonfuls of salt in it. Then sit with your feet in the water. At the same time, put a cloth on the head and cover it completely. Sit in this position for about twenty minutes. Your cold will go away. If it doesn’t, continue the same treatment for the next day.
Home Remedy # 6
- Put one teaspoonful of turmeric in milk that has been warmed slightly. Then add some jaggery (sugar candy) into the milk. Drinking this milk has three benefits in common cold – it relieves the phlegmatic buildup in the respiratory tract, it treats the common cold itself and it provides relief from backaches.
Home Remedy # 7
- Take some seeds of the ajwain (Bishop's weed). Grind them properly. Then add the juice of an onion into the seeds. Rubbing this paste on the body helps in relieving the common cold. This also helps the body to revive its strength. The treatment needs to be done twice a day; once in the morning and once in the evening.
Home Remedy # 8
- Prepare a large amount of powder of dried ginger. Add some ghee to it. Then prepare pellets of this powder with the ghee as the binder. Each pellet should be about 30 to 40 grams in mass. Eat one of these in the morning and one in the evening. This is a good remedy to allay common colds.
Home Remedy # 9
- Prepare a powdered mixture of black pepper and mix it in curds. Then add some jaggery (sugar candy) to it. Eating this twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening is a sure-shot remedy for common colds.
Home Remedy # 10
- Dates are very good for dissolving the phlegm and eliminating it from the body. Eat about five dates everyday and then drink a glassful of water on it. This is a very good remedy for decongesting the chest and getting relief from the common cold.
Home Remedy # 11
- Take four parts of unrefined sugar and one part of rock salt. Mix them thoroughly. Before going to bed each night, put one teaspoonful of this mixture in warm water or warm milk and drink it. It will most probably relieve the common cold by morning.
Home Remedy # 12
- Take cinnamon and nutmeg powders in equal measures. These powders should be made by rubbing the two ingredients against a clean stone. Licking on this powder in the morning and the evening brings relief to people who have common cold complaints often.
Home Remedy # 13
- Take ten grams of the powder of ajwain (Bishop's weed). Tie this powder tightly in a cloth. Then put this on an open pan that has been heated. Sniffing on this cloth bundle daily will decongest the chest and will bring immense relief.
Home Remedy # 14
- Take 200 grams of whole coriander seeds. Mix jaggery in it to make a paste. Then add this in water, and bring it to a boil. Inhale the vapors of this. Do this treatment four times in a day. This is good treatment for the common cold; it helps by removing the congestion from the chest region.
Home Remedy # 15
- This is another remedy with coriander. In fact, coriander is one of the best ingredients in almost all medicines for treating common cold. This remedy is used in this manner: Take about 130 to 140 grams of coriander and crush it to a fine powder. Then introduce this powder in 500 milliliters of water. When only a quarter of this water is left behind, put sugar in it and warm it again. The whole solution will become a thick decoction. Then remove it from the flame and let it cool. You must lick on this thick syrup at least four to five times in a day. It is a very good method of solving continual cold problems. Continue the treatment for a month. It will completely decongest your chest and your common cold will become a thing of the past.
Home Remedy # 16
- Grind some green chilies to a paste and then add a little sprinkling of salt onto them. Take this with a chapatti. This must be done at least four times a day. The spicy taste of the chili causes the eyes to water, which helps the throat to get clear. This is a very good remedy for common cold, howsoever difficult it may be to eat chili chutney.
Home Remedy # 17
- Prepare a pasty solution of asafetida in water and keep on sniffing at it repeatedly many times in a day. This is excellent for allowing the phlegm to liquefy and flow out of the body.
Home Remedy # 18
- This is another good remedy with asafetida. Prepare a paste of asafetida in water and apply this paste to the nose, throat and chest. This provides excellent remedy to chest congestion and helps in the treatment of common cold.
Home Remedy # 19
- Take some dried leaves of the peepal tree (Ficus religiosa) and roll it with some ajwain seeds (Bishop's Weed) in it to make a cigarette. Then ignite one end of this herbal cigarette and smoke. The smoke inhaled from this is very good in solving the common cold problem.
Home Remedy # 20
- In a small piece of sugar candy, put some asafetida and a few pieces of black pepper. Then roll this into a small ball. Have one of these in the morning and one in the evening,
Home Remedy # 21
- Take two or three pieces of cloves and some black pepper and make a paste of them in mustard oil. Blend them properly and then roll the mixture in a cloth. Warm this on an open pan. When it is warm, apply the hot bundle on the external portion of the nose. Do this several times in a day. There will be a complete treatment to the common cold.
Home Remedy # 22
- When sleeping at night, put a few drops of slightly warmed oil in both the ears and then cover them with a wad of cotton. This will prevent the cold from getting worse and will indeed help in quick recovery.
- The following remedies are to be employed in case the cold has become chronic, with complete nasal congestion and complete loss of the senses of smell and taste.
Home Remedy # 23
- Put about five pieces of black pepper in yogurt. Have this for about three to four days, once daily. This will be a very good remedy for clearing the phlegmatic buildup in the sinuses.
Home Remedy # 24
- Sniffing at asafetida, black pepper or horseradish directly also proves to be beneficial in treating chronic common cold conditions.
Home Remedy # 25
- Take some tulsi seeds and some amount of ginger in equal quantities. Mix them thoroughly and make a fine powdery mixture of the two. Consume five grams of this mixture twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. This will definitely help in treating common colds, howsoever severe they may be.
Home Remedy # 26
- Take a cupful of milk. Add in it two grams of ginger powder. Then drink it. This is a very simple remedy, but it has great benefits in treating common colds.
Home Remedy # 27
- In a glass of warm milk, add two milligrams of asafetida that has been roasted before. Drink this milk quite slowly twice in a day. This is an excellent remedy for treating common colds.
Home Remedy # 28
- Get hold of some leaves of the peepal tree. Dry them in the shade. Then put them in water and bring it to a boil. Add sugar in this boiling water. This is to be sipped like tea twice in a day. If you find the taste intolerable, then chocolate can be added to the water.
Home Remedy # 29
- Make a small incision in the node of a piece of ginger. Put a very small pinch of asafetida in this cavity. Then tie this with a thread and smear it with a thick paste of wet mud. Bake this over live coals. When the piece of ginger become red in color, remove it from the flame, let it cool and then scrape out the mud. Now grind the piece of ginger and make small pellets – of the size of chickpeas – from the ginger paste. Put one of these in the mouth once every three hours. This is considered to be a permanent remedy for all kinds of cold.
Home Remedy # 30
- Put a piece of ginger in water and bring it to a boil. Drink a cupful of this once a day. If your cold is chronic, then continuing this remedy for forty consecutive days will bring a full stop to all your nasal and thoracic problems.
Avoiding Common Colds
Common cold is a viral infection, but its symptoms can be aggravated by certain conditions. Be careful of the following aggravating factors:-
(i) Do not expose yourself to outside cold climates.
(ii) Do not get unnecessarily wet in the rain. If you do get wet accidentally, wipe yourself completely dry as soon as possible.
(iii) Avoid all fruits that can aggravate the cold, such as oranges, sweet lemons, green bananas, papayas, watermelons, etc. These must be definitely avoided in the cold season.
(iv) Do not have any cold substances, like ice-creams, etc, in the nighttime shortly before going to bed.
(v) Avoid being near any person who is suffering from common cold.
Continue reading here: Home Remedies for Earache
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