General Question

lkmaxwe's avatar

what is good for a head cold

Asked by lkmaxwe (2points) February 24th, 2008

head cold

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

5 Answers

Schenectandy's avatar

At the risk of sounding corny.. chicken soup. And if you’re not too exhausted, making some homemade really hits the spot. Tomato soup is good too, and taking vitamin C or drinking orange juice couldn’t hurt. Drink plenty of fluids.. ginger ale is especially good if you get a raspy throat. An ice pack on the back of the neck avoids the freezer burn feeling you get from putting it directly on your forehead.

During the day, Aspirin, Tylenol, or Sudafed or any generic -fed or -phed are great (if it’s your sinuses). At night, robotussin or benadryl to get a good night’s sleep are good.

omfgTALIjustIMDu's avatar

Chicken soup and sleep.

Spargett's avatar

It’s been proven that there isn’t anything uniquely special in chicken soup except water. Which your body needs more of. Vitamin C won’t do anything either, since it it’s main use in regards to this issue is an immune booster. But it’s not something that will happen overnight. The only way to strengthen your immune system is to intake a daily recommended does over time, which strengthens it over time. Being generally heathy (exercise, great diet, decent amount of sleeping, etc.) is the best course to a strong immune system.

Drowning your liver in vitamin C while your body is fighting a virus won’t do anything but make your urine florescent.

Many over the counter remedies are actually hindering your body’s ability to fight the virus by disabling many of it’s tools to destroy it. Your body has a fever for a reason, you’re coughing for a reason, etc.

Straight up, the best, and only thing you can do when you’re infected with a VIRUS, is maintain your fluid levels, and sleep.

I’ve also read something really interesting stuff about alcohol’s effects on the body’s immune system. After drinking enough be considered legal intoxicated (0.08), is enough to hinder your immune system for up to two weeks afterwards. It’s no wonder why people who are always out drinking ever week are also constantly catching colds.

So overall, there’s really nothing you can do but let your body fight it off the way it’s evolved itself to do over millions of years. Things like chicken soup are just to comfort you, there’s zero medical benefit outside of taking in fluids.

aloha's avatar

Yes for liquids! Ginger tea or miso soup work best for me. Hope you feel better soon!

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