Feel like reading the good news about the flu? Then you’ve come to the right place. If the right place is your very own home. Because that’s where the fight against flu can begin. Years and years of informal testing have proven that many home remedies can be very effective in fighting the flu.
Before we get started we should warn you that not all home remedies are appropriate if you’re flu symptoms are particularly serious. If your fever reads over 102°F for more than 24 hours contact your doctor.
Home remedies for the flu can be matched quite closely to the symptoms that they address. Here are some examples:
CONGESTION
Prepare a hub of hot steamy water in the kitchen or the bathroom, add fresh ginger. Put a towel over your head so that you capture the steam rising up from the water then lean over the steam. This remedy may prove even more effective with the addition of some over-the-counter ointment like Vicks. Adding a few eucalyptus drops to the water may provide a similar effect. Herbalists tell us that eucalyptus is a common remedy for opening up the bronchial tubes and easing labored breathing.
Drink plenty of liquids. The common recommendation of eight eight-ounce glasses of water on a daily basis for better health is important to adhere to when you have the flu. Drinking more fluids won’t make you more congested as a rule, it will help you get rid of the congestion that you have.
Another liquid approach to battling congestion involves taking a warm shower. Once again steam will serve to ease your congestion and help move the mucus out of your nose and chest. Dry yourself off carefully to avoid any sort of chills or fluctuations in temperature, which might add to your misery.
STUFFED UP NOSE
Instead of investing in over-the-counter decongestants to remedy your stuffed up nose, the time honored saline rinse may prove equally effective, if not more so. A saline rinse irrigates your nasal passages with salt water. It also can flush virus particles from your nasal passages as well.
A ceramic pot called a neti pot is also available at most drugstores. Neti pots utilize gravity to force the saline solution into one nostril and out of the other.
SCRATCHY IRRITATED THROAT
Simple over-the-counter cough syrup can provide effective relief for a scratchy irritated throat. If you want to stay strictly away a from even over the counter medications, a spoonful of honey may also relieve sore throat.
Cough drops or hard candy can also calm throat irritations.
Yes it’s true, chicken soup can help with symptoms of the flu. Hot soup is a powerful trigger for mucus production, whether made from the chicken or not. Adding spices such as curry, garlic or pepper to hot soup can thin mucus that has accumulated in the throat and other air passages.
Actual research on the tiny hairs that line respiratory passages called cilia has shown that they work better immediately after administering hot chicken soup. This is not to suggest that hot chicken soup should ever make its way directly into your respiratory and nasal passages. Drinking it from a cup works just fine!