Tips for Cold Season from Prescription for Nutritional Healing

Common Cold

The common cold is an infection of the upper respiratory tract caused by a virus. Cold weather does not cause colds, although most colds are caught in the fall and winter. This is because most cold viruses thrive better in colder temperatures, when there is less humidity in the atmosphere.

There are more than two hundred viruses that can cause the common cold, an infection of the upper respiratory tract, but the most common ones are rhinoviruses. The well-known symptoms include head congestion, nasal congestion, sore throat, coughing, headache, sneezing, and watery eyes. Children may develop a low-grade fever, but this is rare in adults.

Colds usually strike eighteen to twenty-four hours after the virus enters the body. Most colds clear up on their own in a week to ten days, but occasionally a cold can lead to a more serious illness, such as bronchitis, a middle ear infection, or sinus infection.

It is estimated that healthy adults get an average of two colds per year. Children generally get many more because their immune systems are immature, and they have not yet developed immunity to many of the viruses that cause colds.

Herbs

Eucalyptus oil is helpful for relieving congestion. Put 5 drops in a hot bath, or put 6 drops in 2 cups of boiling water and inhale the steam. It is best to remove the boiling water from the stove, then place a towel over your head and inhale deeply through your nose for three to five minutes (be careful not to get too close to the source of the hot steam—it can cause burns).
Ginger, pau d'arco, slippery elm, and yarrow tea can help the common cold.
For a sore throat, add 3 to 6 drops of pure tea tree oil to warm water and gargle. Repeat this up to three times daily. Take up to 2 tea tree oil lozenges and allow them to dissolve slowly in your mouth. Repeat this treatment as often as required, alternating it with goldenseal extract. These products can be found in most health food stores.

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Recommendations

Take vitamin C and zinc lozenges at the first sign of a sore throat or stuffiness in the head or nose. This can shorten the duration of a cold, and may even stop it altogether. Take the lozenges every three hours for the first day of cold symptoms.
Sip hot liquids such as turkey or chicken broth. Drink Potato Peeling Broth twice a day—make it fresh daily. You can add a carrot, a stalk of celery, garlic, and/or onions to your drink. Chicken soup is very effective in relieving the worst of the symptoms and in shortening the duration of a cold.
Remain as active as possible. Not only is staying in bed for ordinary sniffles unnecessary, but it will probably make you feel worse. Moving around helps to loosen built-up mucus and fluids. Unless you have a fever, a brisk walk or any other type of moderate exercise should make you feel better.
Flush facial tissues after they have been used. Because they harbor the virus, tissues can pass on the virus or cause you to reinfect yourself.
A study done between 1999 and 2000 in Florida has shown that taking antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, beta-carotene, selenium, zinc, fructooligosaccharides, and protein can significantly reduce the chance of getting an upper respiratory tract infection. This is particularly important for older adults due to the reduced efficiency of their immune systems. It has also proven to be useful in increasing the effectiveness of flu vaccine. This was originally published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Wash your hands often. Cold viruses can survive for several hours on hands, tissues, or hard surfaces. A healthy person can contract the virus by touching a contaminated surface, then touching his or her own mouth or nose. Using an antibiotic soap may prevent you from reinfecting yourself, but these soaps can also contribute to the development of antibiotic-resistant

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Considerations

There are many over-the-counter cold medications available. None of them can actually cure a cold, although they can be helpful for alleviating symptoms.
Since there is no cure for the common cold, the best approach is prevention. Once a cold has a firm grip on you, it is hard to stop it.
Medical researchers at Dartmouth College gave a group of thirty-five cold sufferers zinc lozenges, and told these individuals to take a lozenge as often as every two hours. Another thirty-five cold sufferers were given placebos. The zinc takers' colds subsided in an average of four days, while the control group struggled with their colds for another nine days.

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Potato Peeling Broth

3 potatoes
1 carrot, sliced
1 celery stalk, sliced
2 quarts steam-distilled water
1 onion, sliced, and/or 3 cloves garlic, peeled

Scrub the potatoes well and cut out any eyes.
Cut the potatoes in half. Cut the peel from the potatoes, making sure to keep about 1/2 inch of potato with peel. Set aside the potato centers for another use.
Place the potato peelings, carrot and celery in a large pot. Cover with the water. Add the onion and/or garlic to taste and boil for about 30 minutes.
Cool the broth. Strain out and discard the vegetables and serve the broth as desired.

Influenza

Influenza, better known as “the flu,” is a highly contagious viral infection of the upper respiratory tract. There are two types of influenza viruses, designated type A and type B, that cause this acute infection of the throat, nose, bronchial tubes, lungs, and middle ear. The virus enters the body's airways through mucous membranes in the nose, eyes, or mouth. Because this illness can be spread easily by coughing and sneezing, influenza epidemics are very common, especially in winter.

The symptoms of influenza begin much like those of the common cold—body aches, cough, fatigue, headache, and hot and cold sweats. In many cases, a fever develops, and you may feel unbearably hot one moment and chilled and shaking the next. Most influenza sufferers have a dry throat and cough. Nausea and vomiting may occur as well. Often, a person with the flu is so weak and so uncomfortable that he or she does not feel like eating or doing anything else. Colds last for about one week to ten days, on average, but the flu lasts longer—up to twelve days or more, followed by a week or more of residual coughing and fatigue.

Influenza is rarely dangerous in healthy adults sixty years of age or younger, but it does make a person more susceptible to pneumonia, ear infections, and sinus trouble. Among people sixty-five or older, serious respiratory infections such as influenza and pneumonia are the fifth leading cause of death, so the flu is clearly a serious infection for older people. High-risk flu groups also include those of any age with weakened immune systems or with chronic conditions such as heart or lung disease. The H1N1 virus of 2009 was particularly dangerous for young children and pregnant women.