Many people do not like taking a lot of medicines when they are sick, and prefer to take care of the problem naturally. By letting your body fight off illness without the aid of medications will allow your body to strengthen, and make it easier to fight off the next illness that you experience. There are many ways to fight off the cold and flu without medication, and some of it comes quite naturally to your body. In addition, there are steps that you can take that are natural and can help treat the cold and flu, and it will help you get through the illness easier and faster.
1.) Blow Your Nose Often And Correctly
Instead of sniffing the mucus that a cold brings along back into your head, you should blow your nose regularly. The phlegm that is in the mucus carries much of the germs that are making you sick, and if you sniff them back into your head, you are preventing your body from getting rid of them. However, if you blow too hard, the pressure can carry that phlegm back into your ear passages, causing an earache. Instead of blowing with a lot of pressure, press one finger over one nostril, while blowing gently to clear the other.
2.) Gargle For A Sore Throat
A sore throat can be the most taxing of symptoms that comes along with the flu and cold. Having a sore throat can prevent you from eating certain things, talking correctly, and it makes it difficult to be comfortable when you are trying to feel better. Many people take medications because of this symptom alone, but there is a natural way to make the sore throat feel better. By gargling salt water, a sore throat can be moistened, and it can bring relief to the pain that you are feeling. Put a half a teaspoon in 8 ounces of warm water four times a day and continue until your throat feels completely better.
3.) Take A Steamy Shower
Showers not only make people fell better by cleaning them, and leaving them feeling fresh, but steamy showers can help make you feel relief from cold and flu symptoms. The steam moisturizes nasal passages and helps you breathe a bit easier if you are suffering from a stuffy nose. It also helps you relax, and washes the germs off of the body. If you are experiencing dizziness from the flu, you can let the hot water run while you sit in a chair nearby.
4.) Sleep With An Extra Pillow Under Your Head
This may seem like a weird treatment to flu and cold symptoms, but it actually helps relieve congestion in the sinuses. By elevating your head, the nasal passages do not have the chance to become as congested as they could be. You are allowing any mucus to move downward instead of staying in one place in the nasal passages. Play around with the angles of the pillow so you are comfortable and can still get a good nights rest.
5.) Stay Warm And Rest Often
Do you ever wonder why you are always told to keep warm when you are sick, even though you may have a fever and are burning up already? It is because if your body is warm, all of your body’s energy can be directed toward fighting the illness, rather than trying to keep you warm. Fighting an illness can take a toll on the body. By resting, you will help the body by giving it extra energy that it does not have while fighting off the illness.