Common cold remedies?

kayoh190

kayoh190

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I've had a nagging cold since last Friday. Normally I go through the typical cold symptoms in three or four days and that's it, but this one seems to be lingering longer than normal. Nothing too horrible, just a constant dry cough and a stuffy head. I think I might have had a low grade fever on Friday, but fortunately all that nastiness is gone.

I try to be good - I get lots of rest, drink tons of water, OJ, and tea, but the longevity of this cold is annoying me. Especially since I'm supposed to fly on Friday, and there's nothing worse than burning sick time when you're *actually* sick. ;)

The hydration and rest thing seems to be ineffective - I'm about to just say eff it and open a bottle of bourbon. I live with a doctor, but she's a surgical resident so all her suggestions involve cutting something off our out of me, while WebMD just tells me that I'll be dead in six months. Do you guys/gals have any good remedies?
 
Drinking a ton of OJ has worked for me in the past. Like a gallon per day of it. Basically I figure it's a massive amount of vitamin C that does it.

On the other hand, this past winter has had some rotten respiratory crap that stays around for weeks. And if that's what you have, ain't nothin' gonna fix that but time.
 
Bourbon or Scotch always seems to work for me.
 
Irish whiskey and bed rest. Doesn't cure the cold just makes the patient not give a damn. It'll go away on it's own time.
 
The remedies that involve zinc (such as Zicam) tend to work for me. I still get the cold, but taking an increased but safe amount of zinc seems to shorten the period of suffering.
 
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Whisky, lemon and peppermint.

Give the kids the peppermint, give the wife the lemon, and keep the whisky for yourself...
 
Booze it is, gentlemen!

But I'll keep at the OJ, add some zinc, and just be patient as well. Thanks for the responses! Fortunately this doesn't happen to me all that often.
 
There are no cold remedies, only symptom management. For me it's something like coricidin HBP and Afrin for up to 3 days. Robitussin for cough. Nasal wash also helps. Lots of rest and some advil if there pain. Watch to be sure you don't overdose on the Advil as some "cold remedies" have pain killers in them.
 
Three things are important to managing a cold:

1) Hydration. You need lots of fluids.
2) Vitamin C. As much as you can.
3) Disinfectant. You have to keep killing the germs. Alcohol works best.

All three of these can be combined easily in the form of a vodka screwdriver. Continue dosing regularly until you feel better, or at least feel nothing.
 
Modern medicine has made great advances over the years- however curing the common cold is not one where we have made much headway.

There is very little that has been shown to actually decrease the length of the cold or make you feel better faster.

As @AggieMike88 mentioned- Zinc (like in Zicam,) and @Ted DuPuis 's advice of Vit C have both shown some rudimentary evidence to decrease the time to healing, but the studies showing it aren't great and the results not that robust.

"Time heals all wounds" applies well here. Colds suck!
 
I used to use phenylpropanolamine. That stuff was fantastic. It would completely stop the stuffed up runny nose symptoms and dry you out for about 3 days to the point you couldn't even spit. Unfortunately, it was banned by the fda due to an increase in the incidence of cva's among those using the drug.
Symptom management is all one can seek.
 
AggieMike88 said:
The remedies that involve zinc (such as Zicam) tend to work for me. I still get the cold, but taking an increased but safe amount of zinc seems to shorten the period of suffering.
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Cold-Eeze (another zinc-based remedy) works wonders for me! I tried doing without it last January, and I ended up really regretting it.
 
Green tea with ginger, ginseng, honey and lemon - 4 hardcore ingredients to help!

But the magic sauce for me is going into a dry sauna and sweating the cold out. Then eating a nice hot soup and bread for dinner. Sweating it out seems to get it done for me. And that tea.
 
FORANE said:
I used to use phenylpropanolamine. That stuff was fantastic. It would completely stop the stuffed up runny nose symptoms and dry you out for about 3 days to the point you couldn't even spit. Unfortunately, it was banned by the fda due to an increase in the incidence of cva's among those using the drug.
Symptom management is all one can seek.
Click to expand...

I never found that stuff to be any better than just plain pseudoephedrine.
 
12 oz of warm water with 1/2 a fresh lemon juice squeezed in it twice a day once first thing after waking up then mid day as needed and a heaping tablespoon of good quality organic honey (not that processed cheap supermarket crap) before bed worked wonders for my last cold that I could not knock.
 
Shawn said:
12 oz of warm water with 1/2 a fresh lemon juice squeezed in it twice a day once first thing after waking up then mid day as needed and a heaping tablespoon of good quality organic honey (not that processed cheap supermarket crap) before bed worked wonders for my last cold that I could not knock.
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Lemon and honey is an old Mexican remedy I had a few times growing up. Squeeze lemon juice into a cup, mix with honey, heat then drink. Didn't taste horrible. Didn't work worth a damn either. LoL
 
ircphoenix said:
Lemon and honey is an old Mexican remedy I had a few times growing up. Squeeze lemon juice into a cup, mix with honey, heat then drink. Didn't taste horrible. Didn't work worth a damn either. LoL
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Don't mix. The straight fresh lemon juice of 1/2-whole lemon with warm water on an empty stomach has worked wonders for me. The sugars in a lot of other concoctions counteract any benefits of the acidity and vitamin C in the lemon juice.
 
I have tried all the remedies listed above and more (soaking in a bleach bath, others you don't want to hear) and the cold always lasted a week.

If I do nothing, the cold seems to only last 7 days.
 
There's no real cure. You're going to die. Or live. :)

If you have a tendency toward having colds move from your head to your chest... my doc says "Just get started on the Guaifenesin when it starts." (Brand name: Mucinex)

On the positive side, the stuff increases the effect of alcohol, so one shot of your personal poison, a big glass of water to go with the drug (it's also known for creating kidney stones... drink fluids...) and you'll just go to sleepytown and maybe feel better tomorrow.
 
FORANE said:
I used to use phenylpropanolamine. That stuff was fantastic. It would completely stop the stuffed up runny nose symptoms and dry you out for about 3 days to the point you couldn't even spit. Unfortunately, it was banned by the fda due to an increase in the incidence of cva's among those using the drug.
Symptom management is all one can seek.
Click to expand...

Was that the stuff used in Coricidin? (the original, not the HBP crap they make now)

If so, I agree with you 100%. That stuff was awesome. Plus it knocked you me out which was really what I needed - sleep.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Was that the stuff used in Coricidin? (the original, not the HBP crap they make now)

If so, I agree with you 100%. That stuff was awesome. Plus it knocked you me out which was really what I needed - sleep.
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Ted

Looks like it contains (from wiki) dextromethorphan (a cough suppressant) and chlorpheniramine maleate (an antihistamine).
The antihistamine would cause the sleepiness.
I use epocrates as a drug reference but it doesn't find the original coricidin. Some versions of it also contain acetaminophen the active ingredient in Tylenol.
I suppose you could cobble together your own version of it with Tylenol, benadryl and dextromethorphan.
To my knowledge phenylpropanolamine was never in it.
 
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colloidal silver

http://www.livestrong.com/article/381064-how-to-use-colloidal-silver-to-treat-colds/

Okay before you bash me, no I don't touch the stuff because yes I do not want to turn blue.

But I started wondering if there was a way to take it without turning blue and found this article:

http://www.naturalnews.com/035219_colloidal_silver_blue_man_skin.html

Could this be true? Ionic silver and long chain silver are two completely different things? Could Big Pharma be keeping us from using this time honored anti-microbial remedy by floating false propaganda?

Have any of you done any real digging into this? Don't give me the standard "alternative stuff like that is dangerous and useless" unless you've done your research and can point me to all the facts proving your statement. Otherwise I don't want to hear it because I'm already there; you're preaching to the choir, I always bought that it turns you blue. I even stopped using my little silver decorative balls on my cakes. But being open minded and knowing I'm just buying into the party line, and knowing that the party line of most things is usually - but not always - quite wrong, now I want to know the REAL truth.
 
AggieMike88 said:
The remedies that involve zinc (such as Zicam) tend to work for me. I still get the cold, but taking an increased but safe amount of zinc seems to shorten the period of suffering.
Click to expand...
I'm using that right now for a final present from one of my students (the cold that is, not the Zicam). It seems to lessen the symptoms, but it has a significant side effect that's very unpleasant: it completely destroys my ability to taste anything sweet for about 3-4 days after I stop using it. I can easily believe the reports from a few years ago that the nasal version of the preparation caused permanent olfactory damage. I hope that's not true of the oral form as well, to the taste buds. So far the effect has been only temporary, but I'm careful to use it much LESS frequently than recommended for that reason.
 
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