Picked up a summer cold on vacation (damndamndamn). Would you please shower me with your suggestions for remedies?

There are no remedies. It will take a week to get rid of the cold if you do nothing.

If you medicate (sudafed, etc.) it will take seven days.

Drink lots of juice.

Red eye whisky for the pain.
Compliments of an Eagles tune.

Read the details, @elbanditoroso. I want to alleviate the symptoms.

I’m sorry, I should have specified that this is a somewhat light-hearted Q. I 7nderstand the mechanics of weathering a rhinovirus.
Thanks, @chyna.

I know it’s a lighthearted question, but it does help to know that as the virus grows, it’s the byproducts (waste) that is giving you the miserable symptoms. The faster you can move the waste out of your system, the better you will feel.

That’s where antioxidants and lots of liquids come in. Vitamin C is a wonderful antioxidant. You can p.m. me for other suggestions.

I recommend a glass of fresh orange juice. It doesn’t actually do any good but I imagine it does and that helps.

Contact C,LOTS of vitamin C , ,tons orange juice preferably with VODKA and wait it out.
With lots of vodka you won’t care about the cold.

Hot baths with a eucalyptus-based supplement (personally, I like Kneipp).

Herbal tea with lemon juice and honey.

Lots of rest.

Inhaling steam – just pour boiling water into a bowl, cover it (and your head) with a towel, and breathe in the steam.

Anything that made you feel good when you were sick as a child.

Take lots of long hot showers and BREATH IN the mist.
Rub some Mentholatum on your chest and feet before going to bed.
Get plenty of rest.
Drink LOTS of liquids!
Take your vitamins and vitamin C.
Drink lots of orange juice.
Avoid chills!
And please cover your mouth when you cough and sneeze!!!

Some spicy Tom Yum with shrimp. Add some extra peppers to it. Cleans out the sinuses, soothes the throat.

Just antihistamines for sneezing and itching, cough medicine / expectorant as needed, and sleep. Mostly sleep and rest.
When I finally got sick leave, after working for several years without any any, I was just stunned about how quickly I recovered from colds because I was able to rest, instead of going in to work.

Playtime with doggies is a great remedy for a cold!

Spicy Asian food and pup romping as we speak! I should be right as rain in a couple of days with all these suggestions, thanks guys!

And the Roku is helping with the resting. Logging couch time!

Ditto much of the above.

Also, raw garlic. Ingest it any way you find palatable. My preferred way: Make some chicken soup (canned chicken noodle is fine). Grate in some ginger while it’s cooking. Add pressed or finely chopped raw garlic right before you eat it. It works best when raw, so don’t add it sooner.

Good tip about the timing of the garlic, @Zissou. I usually cook it up in the beginning of the process.

I’m sorry, @canidmajor. What a way to ruin a trip. On one of my very few trips to NYC, I was at the most humid stage of an oncoming cold the night we went to the Met to see Madama Butterfly. I’m afraid that what I remember most about that performance is running out of tissues.

Over time I’ve gone through just about every brand and variety of so-called cold remedy there is. Most lately I use a flavor of Mucinex. It’s harder than it used to be to pick one out because they’ve all become so complicated—especially by adding acetaminophen. I am very careful about how much of that stuff I take, and having it included in another formula makes it difficult.

Anyway, I do this:

• Load up on my cold remedy of choice, sometimes taking a booster dose if there’s no result from the first, although never exceeding the 24-hour max (and I do write down what I take and when because a cold utterly drowns my brains).

• Drink lots of water. Also tea, herb tea, and yes, orange juice, which I believe in even without evidence, as an article of faith, because I am a vitamin C-ist.

• Be ready with cough meds and take the strongest thing I can get OTC if I feel the thing go into my chest, while watching out for that wicked gratuitous acetaminophen.

• Use Vicks to help clear sinuses. Use Vaseline and/or Chapstick to help keep nose and lip areas from getting sore.

• Eat lightly, but eat. Scrambled eggs and toast, for instance. With orange juice.

• Sleep.

• Steam. A big pot on the stove that I don’t allow to run dry. My husband also has a small humidifier in his room.

I go through all this because I have very susceptible lungs, left over from a bad bout with pneumonia as a 2-year-old and whooping cough at 14. If I can’t get the cold symptoms reined in fast enough, I may be coughing and gasping asthmatically for months. And a simple cold could kill my husband. So I take them very seriously.

If it turns into a sinus infection, I don’t fool around. I get antibiotics from my doctor. I know they don’t help with a virus, but they do help with the secondary stuff.

Oh, one more thing:

• Periodically I hunker down on the sofa with a book or a favorite movie and accept sympathy for the sorry, miserable sight that I am. I have a cozy blanket, a whole box of Kleenex beside, me and a paper trash bag. Sympathy in modest but genuine doses always helps.

Do it the old fashioned way. Piping hot chicken soup and herbal tea.

Thanks for the kind sympathy, @Jeruba! I was lucky that this didn’t start to manifest until the day I left, so the vacation wasn’t marred. But it came on strong on the first of two flights home (what fun! Flying with a cold!) and slapped me down hard.
I look on it as an excuse for self-indulgence, and this Q may have just the teensiest hint of self-pity and a plea for sympathy in it. :-)

Nothing beyond toughing it out is going to relieve the physical injustices. But you’re on the right track here in seeking us for distraction. Remember—misery loves company, and everything is relative. You should therefore aim at being insufferable to the point that all around you are at least as miserable as yourself. Summon your friends, relatives, pets to attend you and cater to your every whim. Cultivate the ability to exaggerate your suffering while exuding an air of stoic bravery. This requires talent, but we all know experts of the discipline, and you should dwell on those masters from your past cataloging their secrets while you await the arrival of those you will guilt-trip into attending your sickbed. This is also the time to sort through that list of particular household chores you despise and therefore neglect. Draw up a list. Filthy disgusting oven, dust laden blinds? This is your chance! But remember PREPARATION is everything. Every trash receptacle in your house should be piled with crumpled tissues and visible, and the medicine cabinet should be stripped, with the contents scattered over as many unlikely yet visible horizontal surfaces as can be managed. The very anticipation of the show you will put on should serve considerably in distracting from your suffering. Oh yes, before I forget, you should have a loosely arranged script at the ready to initiate the “volunteers” toward tackling those tasks you are “too sick” to manage. For example, those dusty blinds. “Last night I was miserable. I think it’s the dust on the blinds in the bedroom that aggravates my condition to the point that it’s impossible to sleep”. And never forget that while there are those who may be immune to the snares of your pity traps, it is essential that they at least pay a visit on the chance that you might infect them, thus following the directive—misery loves company!

Haha, @stanleybmanly, you forgot making them watch the movies that I want to watch, even if they hate them! :-P

No no no. You don’t want them watching ANYTHING. The cat box needs changing. You were planning to diassemble and wash all the light fixtures, but your head cold renders it dangerous to climb a ladder. I supppse you could invite your visitors to watch YOUR programs, but be certain that they first order in some yummy things to eat. You’re too sick to answer the door and risk a draft. Allow one of your guests to answer the door (and pick up the tab).

Good plan. Now I’ll have to train the dog to handle some of this.

Yes, exactly! The right dog can work wonders. But you don’t want any of those frenetic little dogs or neurotic chihuahuas, toy poodles, etc. Those animals must remain hidden from view. You want a dog that is basically lazy and prone to stay put in one place. In other words-too concerned to leave your side.

Happened to me on my vacation this year too. My cocktail that made the trip ok was mucinex-D during the day, a neti pot as needed, nyquil cough at night (no tylenol) and a shot of whiskey with honey, lemon in a half a cup of hot water. Almost made my vacation enjoyable.

Except for the Neti pot (I manage to make a stunning mess every time I try), that sounds like a pretty good regimen!

What is a neti pot?

https://www.webmd.com/allergies/video/truth-about-neti-pots

Make medicinal salsa.
1 lg sweet onion
4–5 cloves of garlic
1 can of Rotel petite diced tomatoes with green chilies
¼ cup of hot jalapeno slices…about 2 peppers. Fresh is best, but jar is okay too.
2–3 sweet peppers
worcestershire sauce
Hot sauce. I like Trappey’s Red Devil, but pick your own poison. Just remember…you have to eat it.

petite dice onion, garlic, and peppers. Saute in butter until just tender. Stir in can of Rotel, add 5 or 6 dashes of Worcestershire and double that of hot sauce. Stir and remove from heat. Can be eaten hot or cold.

Other alternatives: add a little chili powder and cumin, cilantro…whatever you like. Heating just blends flavors…can be made cold.

Eat with tortilla chips until your mouth is on fire. Let your mouth recover and eat some more. This will wipe out most low level colds.

Reasoning: Onions and garlic are nature’s antibiotics. Peppers have more Vitamin C than lemons. Tomatoes add Vitamin C and Lycopene. The heat (spice) will clear your sinuses.

That ^^^ looks really good, excellent even when I’m well!

It has been known to cure a head cold in about 3 hours.

Decongestant and antihistamine combined preferably the kind that just last 4–6 hours so you can just dose up twice a day and not have drugs in you all day. Once so you feel good in the middle of the day, and once to sleep well.

Also, ibuprofen during the day.

Hydrate and rest.

Check all warnings and dosage. You can try just decongestant and if that works don’t add the antihistamine and vice versa. Always use the least meds that are effective. If you get a combination pill you can’t do this, don’t get combo pills.

Hot lemonade. Press your thumbs just below the inner corner of your eyebrows to relieve sinus pressure and stuffiness.

Try to laugh a lot. Watch some funny movies.

I hope you feel better:)

Boil a pot of salted water, put a towel over it, stick your head under the towel, and breathe deep through your nose for 10 minutes.
Have someone go to a chinese restaurant and get you hot and sour soup.

I use Chloraseptic spay. Best to start using it at first signs of a cold. More times than not Chloraseptic will stop a cold.

More important. Don’t dwell on the cold. Ignore it. Pretend that you don’t have it. Don’t mention it to others. Don’t give a cold power by talking about it. Don’t let the cold stop you from having fun. If someone suggests that you may have a cold then refuse to admit it.

What you think about comes about.

As you think, so shall you be.

I never catch colds. (But when I do, I NEVER admit it).

Good health!

A hot toddy: Scotch whiskey, hot water, lemon juice and honey