Because I was getting sick (literally) of my constant battle with an annoying cold, I decided to reach out to bloggers who know how to kick these colds where it would hurt. They had so many great tips, I wanted to share them with you! Let me know which one did the trick 🙂
And of course a HUGE thank you to all the folks that shared these great remedies!
Mary Vance | www.maryvancenc.com
My top 3 remedies for a cold/flu are the following:
- My immune boosting soup made with bone broth, which increases killer T cell activity: http://www.maryvancenc.com/2014/01/immune-soup/
- Vitamin D, up to 10k IUs daily: http://maryvancenc.dfhealthestore.com/vitamin-d-ultra-10k.html
- An immune boosting tonic with elderberry and medicinal mushrooms, like this one: http://maryvancenc.dfhealthestore.com/immunitone-plus-90.html
extra credit: plenty of sleep to both boost immunity and shorten duration of illness.
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Tori Holthaus, MS, RDN, LD.| www.YESNutritionLLC.com
My top 3 remedies for a cold/flu are the following:
- Meet your vitamin C needs, naturally. Fresh fruits and vegetables like the obvious oranges, but also dark leafy greens like the BroccoLeaf, bell peppers, berries, and tomatoes have beneficial vitamin C immune-boosting properties.
- Boost your immune system with the power of mushrooms! Eat them cooked, dried, or find them in products like Amazing Grass Tangerine Immunity superfood powder.
- Sip hot herbal tea to relax and destress. Teas like Brassica’s Green Tea with SGS supply healthy detoxification support, and teas like Traditional Medicinal’s Ginger Tea may help calm an upset stomach.
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Nishtha Kalur, from NuAllure.com
My top 3 cold remedies are:
- Treat yourself to a detox bath, here are my top detox bath recipes that will soothe, relax and energize you plenty to beat that cold
- Eat spicy food! It doesn’t just wake you up, but clears up your sinuses, increase your blood flow and warms up your entire system.
- Endulge in a Hot Toddy, mix hot water, whiskey, honey, lemon, ginger and cinnamon.
Kami McBride| www.LivingAwareness.com
My top 3 remedies for a cold/flu are the following:
- Ginger Cold Buster tea, find the recipe here
- Cinnamon: Cinnamon tea is a time tested remedy to help with the onset of a cold. Cinnamon will dissolve mucus and helps resolve irritating coughs. Sprinkle cinnamon into holiday desserts and keep a salt shaker on your table filled with cinnamon. If it is on your table next to the salt and pepper you will use it more often. Cinnamon goes well with many breakfast foods and is delicious sprinkled on rice.
- Sage can be used in numerous ways for your winter wellness: Sage Winter Welness
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Elizabeth Kate| www.VivieImpara.com
My top 3 remedies for a cold/flu are the following:
- Drink A LOT of water. Infuse your water with fruit for extra vitamin C and nutrients to help make you feel better fast.
- Cook homemade chicken noodle soup. Soup is warm and comforting for sore throats and and an achy body.
- Make tea. I know I already have water as my #1 suggestion, but I cannot stress enough how important it is to stay hydrated and flush your body of germs and the virus that causes the common cold.
I wrote a post about similar home remedies on my Cacao and Kale site: Fight Your Cold with These Superfoods
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Sydney Johnston| www.Blissplan.com
My 3 Favorite Remedies For A Wretched Cold
We just want that darned cold over! Now! The good news is that there are natural remedies that will speed it on its way and they’re safe and inexpensive:
- Years ago I learned about the awesome power of vitamin C and it has worked every single time I’ve used it. Here’s how: take 10,000 units of vitamin C for three days. It’s important to spread your consumption out over the day rather than taking it all at once – four times is best. Beginning the 4th day, take 5,000 units a day until you feel great again.
- If you’re suffering from congestion, consider a castor oil pack. Grab a piece of all-cotton or all-wool flannel and generously cover one side with the oil. Put the oily side against your bare skin, cover with a plastic sack to protect your clothing, button up your shirt and cover all with a heating pad. Lie on the couch and watch TV or read a book for at least half an hour so that the oil will be absorbed into your chest.
- If you have a sore throat, hot salt water will shorten the miserable pain. Put a mouthful or two of very hot water in a glass or mug, add salt, gargle the water, then spit it out. Repeat several times and gargle throughout the day. Only make a small amount at one time because the water will cool quickly and it’s more effective and soothing when it’s hot.
Colds are miserable but these three simple remedies will shorten your misery and cost almost nothing. What can be better than that?
Adrienne Urban| www.WholeNewMum.com
My 3 Top Remedies for a cold:
- I always use a DIY Saline spray. I have information on how to make this and use it on my site. It helps so much!
- Drink lots of fluid.
- I use this DIY Antibacterial Essential Oils Blend in various ways. It’s really helped me get over a number of stubborn bugs.
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Sarah| www.naturesnurtureblog.com
Here are my top 3 remedies for a cold:
- Apple cider vinegar and honey – At first signs of a cold, add 1 tablespoon of each in a cup of warm water, and drink three times a day.
- Homemade cough/sore throat syrup – Recipe here
- Minty steam treatment – Boil some water in a pan, add a few drops of eucalyptus or peppermint essential oils, drape a towel over your head and slowly breathe in the vapors to help loosen up mucus and clear up congestion.
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Krissa| www.MoreThanMundane.com
My favorite home remedies for a cold are:
- Elderberry syrup
- Garlic
- Honey
And some more great solutions I have written about here
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Amanda Cook| www.VintageAmanda.com
My favorite home remedies for a cold are:
- Hot honey, lemon and ginger, find my homemade recipe on Vintage Amanda
- Onion Cough Syrup – find my recipe here
- and Elderberry Cordial, here’s how to make it
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Joe and Terry| www.peoplespharmacy.com
Joe and Terry shared this very informative anti-cold guide with us, which you can download here (PDF)
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Katy Farber| www.non-toxickids.net
My picks are:
- Lots of hot tea with local honey
- Badger balm for sleeping and better breathing
- and salt water gargling for sore throats.
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Laura| www.family-essential-oils.com
Laura was kind enough to write an amazing post about her favorite cold remedies, so we’ve posted here contribution hear for you to enjoy 🙂
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Waylon| www.elephantjournal.com
We’ve got a lot of articles on kicking colds naturally, start with:
Annihilate Cold with Chinese Herbs
Ayurvedic drink to cure flus and colds
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Joan Morais| www.joanmorais.com
Joan Morais’ Top 3 Remedies for a Cold:
Eucalyptus Radiata Essential Oil is antiviral and an expectorant. Lavender Essential Oil is antiviral and it helps to calm and relax the body.
- For a General Cold: Daytime: Apply 1 drop eucalyptus radiata essential oil or lavender essential oil onto a tissue or handkerchief and inhale the scent. Keep the tissue in your pocket and smell throughout the day. Replenish scent if the scent fades away. Nighttime: Apply 1 drop lavender essential oil onto a tissue or handkerchief and inhale the scent. Place the tissue on your pillow by your nose. Shower: Add 2 drops eucalyptus radiata essential oil or lavender essential oil onto the shower floor and under the hot shower water. Take a shower and breathe the steam.
- For a Chest Cold:Room Spray: In a bottle with a mister, add 6 drops eucalyptus radiata essential oil or lavender essential oil and one ounce of water. Shake bottle and spray into the air and breathe in and out. Chest Rub: Into a small jar or bottle, add 6 drops eucalyptus radiata essential oil or lavender essential oil and ½ ounce oil (olive oil or sunflower oil). Gently massage oil onto chest, neck, forehead and sinus area.
About Joan Morais Joan Morais is a certified aromatherapist and herbalist. She is a natural product formulator and instructor and teaches courses and writes books on making natural products for body, hair, and skin. Joan teaches and consults on formulating and natural product making.
Joan’s passion is to teach others holistic beauty through making creative and professional products and to create a successful product making business. To learn more about Joan Morais, visit her website at www.JoanMorais.com
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Militza| www.littlegreendot.com
I think when it comes to our health, prevention is key. Here are a few ideas to consider:
- Listen to your body. When we feel tired, often we try to carry on, when what our body really needs is a good rest. Don’t feel guilty about having a lie in and letting your body focus on recovering. Making sure you get a good night’s rest, it’s incredibly important to our health!
- Strengthen your immunityPhysical stress, emotional stress and changes in diet can effect the body and lower our immunity. Creating a balanced lifestyle, keeping a positive mindset and eating a well balanced diet is important to keep yourself strong and able to defend against illness.
- Bone BrothsWhen we’re ill, often we loose our appetite. A good bone broth is soothing and easy on the stomach, but incredibly nutrient dense and nourishing. On my blog, littlegreendot.com I share an easy recipe that you can make in advance and freeze.
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Veronica Ayuste| www.homeremediesforskin.com
Are you feeling miserable because of a cold? Here are my top 3 remedies for a cold that will helpyou recover quickly and rejuvenate your body at the same time since they are natural, with noside effects.
- Apple cider vinegarCold viruses tend to increase acid levels in the body thereby weakeningyour immune system. Apple cider vinegar is a great alkalinizing food which helps the body tokill the cold and ward off those terrible symptoms. Mix two tablespoons of ACV in warm waterand add honey and lemon to taste, and take this healthy concoction several times a day.
- GingerGinger is a magic food which should never miss in the house! It clears the inflammationand nasal congestion brought by the cold. Boil some fresh ginger roots in water to make gingertea, and take at least three cups a day. Ginger tea not only tastes great, it also reinvigorates thebody. If you have to use a sweetener, use a natural one like honey.
- Eucalyptus oilThis is great at clearing the nasal congestion. Simply add a few drops to a bowlof boiling water and lean over it to inhale the steam. Use a towel over your head to trap the steamand breathe in deeply for 5 minutes. Doing it twice a day will open up the nasal passages makingyou feel much better.