4 Things I didn't know about treating a common cold

After having played "dodge ball" with a cold that I could feel was trying to take me earlier this week, it finally caught up with me yesterday afternoon. My usual remedy of sweating it out with a short run or a brisk walk right at the onset helped stave it off initially. But, I'll be darned if it didn't finally do its smack down yesterday.

Needless to say, today I'll be sitting around at home doing all the traditional after-it-hits-you cold remedies I know about. These include:

• Lots of rest
• Orange juice
• Lots of fluids
• Vitamin C
• Chicken soup
• NyQuil
• Throat lozenges
• Oh, and lots and lots of Kleenex

I've also heard about, but never tried, the following home remedies:

• Garlic
• Ginger tea
• Echinacea
• Eucalyptus steam inhalation
• Zinc

After having trawled the web a bit this morning researching common Cold remedies (I think I'm psychologically seeking solace among fallen brethren), I'm thinking of trying some of those in the list above. After all, what else have I got to do today, right?

Also, those above seem to be some of the home remedies that came up most often across the five or six articles I Googled, Stumbled or Digg'd up this morning. Here's a list of some of the articles I visited and found either helpful or at least interesting in some way:

• Mayo clinic - What works, what doesn't, what can't hurt
• WebMD - Cold remedies
  
• WebMD - 12 Tips to Treat Colds and Flu the Natural Way
• About.com - Alternative Medecine: Common Cold Remedies
• Your life regained - Natural Remedies for Common Cold and Flu
• Cold Remedies That Really Work - Chris Gupta

Then there are these 4 things I didn't know.

As often happens when I read other blogs and the experiences and insights of others, I come across little nuggets that I didn't know before. Here are a few. Have you heard of these?

• Cold viruses may enter through your ear?? I mean, I don't know. It sounds plausible. In the article, Chris Gupta shares an interesting snippet (see also the comments) about a 1928 hypothesis positing that cold and flu viruses enter through the ear canal. Though diss'd by the medical community at the time, it set the stage a decade later for a remedy suggesting a few diluted drops of 3% hydrogen peroxide in each ear a few times each day.

• There's a "wrong way" to blow your nose. (See Cold Remedy #3 of this webmd article.) Evidently, if you have poor, uh, technique, you could end up blowing germs into your ear passages. (Hmm... another case for the hydrogen peroxide approach?)

• Make your own salt water rinse to irrigate your nose. (See Cold Remedy #4 of the webmd article in the previous bullet.) Apparently, it helps to break up the congestion while also removing virus particles and bacteria. Hmm... makes sense.

• Miso soup. Apparently, it's an old Japanese remedy. No quibbling here. This one's a no-brainer. I looove miso soup.

Have you heard of the remedies above? Have you tried them? Do they work? Let me know in the comments below. And, if you have other things you'd recommend I try (short of drilling a hole in my head) let me know. I'm pretty much gonna be cooped up all weekend. I'm willing to try anything.

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