Herbal Cold Remedies

Luckily, there are several herbal cold remedies to choose from. That's good news because the common cold affects every person in the world at one time or another. The cold can be caused by more than 200 different types of virus. It is caused by breathing in the water droplets that have been infected or by picking up the germs on your hands and then transferring them to your mouth or nose.

Symptoms and Treatment of Colds

Everyone can recognize the usual symptoms of the common cold, but I wanted to go over them anyway. They are: aching joints, sore throat, swollen glands, runny nose, stuffy nose, sneezing, watery eyes, cough, congestion, slight fever, lack of appetite, and tiredness with irritability. Since there is no cure for the common cold the goal of treatment is to lessen the severity of the symptoms.

Herbal Cold Remedies

Gan Mao Lin: This patented Chinese herbal pill will help to deal with several of the symptoms of the common cold. Take 3-4 pills three times a day.

Mix 12g of Ban La Gen(isatis), 12g of Lian Qiao(forsythia fruit), 12g of Niu Bang Zi(great burdock fruit), 8g of Bo He(field mint), 10g of Huang Qin(baical skullcap root), and 6g of Gan Cao(licorice) in a ceramic or glass pot. Add 3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the liquid and let it cool. Drink 1 cup 3 times a day for 3-5 days or until the symptoms have passed.

You can use a number of other supplements such as 500-100mg of vitamin C every four hours, 1000mg of bioflavonoids to increase the potency of the vitamin C, and you can use 25mg of zinc in a lozenge every two waking hours. The zinc is good for its antiviral properties. Some other herbs are andrographis, licorice, lemon balm, osha, oil of oregano, and astragalus.

The Best of the Herbal Cold Remedies

If I had to choose one remedy over all others though, it would definitely be oil of oregano. Sure, I can tell you that it’s a potent antifungal and antiviral herb, but even better, I can tell you that I used to suffer from colds, flu, and respiratory ailments of all types every winter. That is until I started using oregano oil regularly. These days, I can barely remember what it’s like to have a cold. If you already have a cold, taking it can reduce the severity and duration of the cold. That has at least been my experience.

While there is no cure for the common cold, any number of the herbal cold remedies listed above can reduce the severity of your symptoms and possibly shorten the duration of the cold itself.

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