Folk Remedies for the Common Cold

The common cold has no known cure; however, it is possible to control some of the symptoms. While there are medicinal treatments, many people opt to utilize folk remedies to treat the common cold.
While the effectiveness of these remedies vary, they sometimes work and can be of additional assistance when battling illness.

Tea Remedies

• Tea is a popular remedy for curing colds, and the diverse ingredients recommended means you can find one to suit you. You might try a tea made by boiling the leaves of the Boneset plant, or Indian Sage; however, remember that once boiled, this tea must be chilled and served cold, because it is said to cause upset stomach and vomiting if taken hot. With that in mind, the tea is believed to relieve most symptoms of the common cold.

  Another recipe involves making a tea from grated ginger root. Adding hot water (but not boiling) to ginger to relieve cold symptoms; for added kick, you might try mixing it with honey and a splash of whiskey. Other popular tea remedies require following the ginger tea instructions and substituting pine needles or cayenne pepper for the ginger root.

A remedy for stuffy nose

• It's tough to concentrate on anything else when you can't breathe normally. One remedy to relieve a stuffy nose involves using a South Asian spice to open up those passageways and allow free breathing. Turmeric, also taken in parts of Asia to relieve stomach problems and used as a topical antiseptic, is a spice commonly found in foods such as curry and is part of the ginger family.

  One folk remedy for the common cold requires you to wrap some turmeric in cheesecloth or a clean cloth of some other sort and light the wrapping on fire. When the turmeric begins to burn, inhale the fumes. The fumes should increase the discharge of mucous from the nose and open up the sinuses to allow easy breathing.

A remedy to relieve sore throat

• Coughing and swelling of the throat both contribute to the pain associated with having a cold. This bit of very simple folk medicine is a tried and true practice in many households. Simply add salt to warm water and gargle with it. It isn't the greatest taste, and the fact that the water needs to have a pretty heavy salt content makes it worse. However, the salt's disinfecting properties will help with the inflamed throat and, if the solution is salty enough, it can actually pull the water out of the throat's mucous membrane, which will cause swelling to go down. Similarly, salty water can be dripped into the nasal passages to open up a stuffy head for a short time.