Health Tips ~ How to Prevent the Common Cold
You may eat the healthiest foods, wash your hands often and take lots of vitamins and supplements to boost your immune system. You may even get a flu shot every year. But sometimes you will still catch a cold. Everyone gets sick sometimes. Here are my personal tips on how to stop a cold from getting any worse.
The very first sign of an impending illness (and one that most people overlook) is fatigue. If you feel more tired than usual and your usual cup of coffee doesn't perk you up, chances are you are coming down with something.
The best thing for you now is extra sleep. Take a day off of work if you can, and just rest. This is actually the best day to take off of work because you are the most contagious before you even show any real symptoms. And you may end up not even getting sick at all.
Of course, taking a day off of work when you are not even really sick yet (just really tired) may not be possible. The next best thing is a long hot bath. Try to take one every day you are feeling under the weather. At the first sign of your cold, a bath can strengthen your immune system, so your cold won't get much worse. If you are at the stuffy runny nose phase of a cold, it will help unplug your sinuses, especially if you add a few drops of eucalyptus essential oil. A warm bath a few hours before bedtime will also help you sleep better at night. And remember, the best thing for you right now is extra sleep.
The third thing you can do to stop your cold from getting any worse is to make sure you are getting enough nutrients and fluids. Drink lots of water, broth, herbal tea or fruit juice to flush away those cold germs. And I am not big on taking lots of different supplements, but I have found zinc lozenges to help. I take one every couple of hours from the first time I feel a tickle in my throat until my cold is all gone, and it seems to help. I also take garlic if I happen to have it. I squish up a clove or two and spread it on a piece of buttered toast.
So those are my personal tips on what I do to fight off colds. I have found that the duration of my colds to be way less than they used to be since I started doing these things. I used to have colds that seemed to hang in there for months, but now after a few days I am back to my old self again.
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