Natural, Effective Remedies for Colds and Flu

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Licorice root is sweet and makes most herbal blends taste great. When I have a respiratory infection, it’s a key ingredient in the teas I brew. One study found that drinking 6 cups a day of a tea containing licorice relieved throat pain. This tea, Throat Coat, also contains slippery elm bark, marshmallow root, wild cherry bark, bitter fennel fruit, cinnamon bark and sweet orange peel.

However, don’t take licorice for more than four to six weeks — it causes your kidneys to retain water and sodium and lose potassium. Don’t take it at all if you’re pregnant, have high blood pressure or low blood potassium, or take a potassium depleting diuretic.

Common Sense for Colds and Flu

The usual lifestyle factors influence immune function, so to avoid getting sick in the first place, eat well and emphasize whole grains, fruits and vegetables in your diet. Also try to sleep at least eight hours a night. Wash your hands often, and sneeze into your arm, not your hand (see Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching). Avoid exposure to cigarette smoke, which stalls respiratory defenses, and keep alcohol to a minimum because excessive amounts impair immunity. Exercise regularly and moderately. If you come down with a cold, light exercise is fine and can help clear respiratory mucus. If you have a fever, rest.

Over-the-counter Cold Medications

According to a recent review of studies on children and adults published by the American Academy of Family Physicians, research (and there isn’t much of it) has failed to demonstrate that over-the-counter cold medications do much good; in fact, they can do harm. For instance, first-generation antihistamines (characterized by greater drowsiness) were designed to reduce nasal secretions, but this dehydrating effect makes them harder to expel and more likely to collect in the sinuses and cause infection.

Other over-the-counter products, such as decongestants, shrink swollen respiratory linings, thus relieving stuffiness. But they also cause jitteriness, insomnia and elevated heart rate and blood pressure. Plus, they’ve been linked to heart attacks and strokes. In 2000, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began taking steps to remove the decongestant phenylpropanolamine (PPA) from the market because it increases the risk of hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding into the brain). If you still have any PPA-containing cough and cold remedies in your medicine chest, toss them.

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