10 Easy ways to get rid of a Cold
Winter has arrived and your most familiar enemy is ready to hit you – a common cold.
You might be eyed that the fellow traveler in metro is coughing; your colleague sitting just beside you sneezed in a meeting. Somehow you reached home avoiding them and you got winced when your toddler came home with oozing nose and stuck his hands on your face. Its just a matter of time that you also face your familiar enemy – cold.
If you have already got hit by cold and feeling sick, follow these easy tips to knock out this cold as soon as possible. These tips are very easy to follow and also very cheap – if not free, and it will help you to getting rid of cold faster.
1. Take Rest
It is very important to take time and rest at home to beat cold faster. Do you know people who take less than 7 hours sleep per night, likely to have 3x more chances to hit by a cold? Sleep plays a very important role in maintaining your tough immune system and if you are deprive of sleep while fighting with cold your immune system might become incapacitated.
2. Gargle Salt Water
Gargle is another very effective way to beat cold. Gargling with salt water loosens mucus from your throat which can fence in bacteria. So it can helps in reducing the chances of infection. Also, gargle draws out liquid from sore throat tissues and relieves from cold.
3. Flush Your Nose with Salt Water
Just like gargling with salt water helps you by reducing the irritation in your throat, flushing nose with saline solution (salt water) will flush the sinus cavities and relieve you from cold. You can use neti pots for this. Make sure you use filtered luke warm water to make saline solution.
4. Take Hot Chicken Soup
Chicken soup contains some medicinal values which help to beat cold. Adding garlic additionally in the soup will make it better by reducing the severity and length of a cold. Also, this delicious remedy will offer you gentle and easily digestible nourishment.
5. Don’t Booze, Stay Hydrated
Water helps by loosing mucus and congestion in sore throat, and it will help you to get rid of cold faster and stay hydrated. Opposite to this, alcohol makes you more dehydrated, and makes it harder for you to fight cold.
6. Drink Hot Tea
Drinking hot tea will not only keep you stay hydrated but it will also loosen your mucus. Also, drinking hot tea relives the sore throat and makes you feel better.
7. Take an extra Pillow
It will help you sleep better. When cold hits, there is a huge possibility that you stay awake for long hours and can’t take proper sleep just because you can’t breathe properly. Keep your head higher by using an extra pillow, it will take your sinus drainage down back to your throat and will help your body to keep nasal passage open up.
8. Take Hot Shower
Taking hot and steamy shower will open up your nasal passages and promote your sinus drainage out.
9. Blow Nose Often
It is very important to blow your nose often during cold instead of sniffling your mucus back to your head. Sometime if you blow hard it would cause you earache, best way to blow your nose is by pressing a finger on one nostril while blow other nostril smoothly. Don’t forget to wash your hand properly after blowing your nose.
10. Take Sun Bath
Vitamin D activates the T Cells in your body which fights with the infection and helps you to get rid of cold. We can produce vitamin D in our body by taking sun bath but if you find it difficult to take proper sun bath in winters you can take topped up your vitamin D levels with supplements.