As we enter cold and flu season each year, could it be that Grandma knows best when it comes to natural remedies to heal the common cold? Here are a few of our favourite cold remedies. 

Healing cuppa

For tea drinkers, making yourself a cup of lemon, honey and hot water to soothe a sore throat and help clear congested airways.

Breathe steam

Bending your head under a towel over a sink of boiling water might look like a funny thing to do, but it’s really effective at loosening mucus and clearing the airways. Add an essential oil such as eucalyptus or tea tree oil and you’ll find yourself breathing clearly in no time.

Chicken Soup

We all know that chicken soup is good for the soul but could it also heal a common cold? Chicken soup has been offered as a cure-all for a long time, but research has backed this up with the journal Chest revealing that Chicken Soup is indeed an effective remedy cold remedy. The soup’s heat clears the airways, while its water keeps you hydrated and replaces fluids and the combination of fats, garlic and spices work together to break up mucus and calm the throat.

Garlic

If it can ward off vampires, then surely it can tackle the common cold too, right? Our grandmother’s era thought so as crushed garlic in with warm milk was a common remedy. Allicin, an active compound in garlic, is known to act as a decongestant and garlic has high antioxidant and antiviral properties. It is also an expectorant, which helps you cough up phlegm. While four to eight cloves of raw garlic a day is preferable to really stop a cold in its tracks if you or your breath can’t handle it in raw form you can lightly cook it within a nutritious meal.

Gargle salt

It might not sound like the most pleasant drink, but dissolving a few pinches of salt into a cup of warm water and gargling can help with an itchy or sore throat.

Vitamin C

Boosting your Vitamin C levels will help your immune system fight off a cold. Red capsicums and oranges are a good natural source, but buying some vitamin C tablets and keeping them on hand is a good alternative. Vitamin C has been shown to cut the duration of a cold by half in an adult and by a day in children.

Whilst getting sick occasionally with a cold might be inevitable, there are some habits you can adopt for a healthy lifestyle.