Catching a cold is never a fun trip. Once it takes residence in your body, the virus becomes bent on making your life a living hell, clogging your sinuses, making your eyes water and, of course, the lovely coughing fits.
Our innate hatred for colds has us stocking on cold meds, and we gorge on them whenever the virus plagues us. Even though those over-the-counter medicines work, indeed, they take too long and have too many side effects.
To avoid this, here is a method that will only take 24 hours to get rid of the cold altogether.
1. Shower
Since sinuses are clogged by hardened mucus, a hot shower will make the mucus melt and unclog them, giving way for proper respiration to occur.
2. Breakfast
Start your breakfast with a gulp of elderberry syrup to bolster your immune system’s functions and allow you to thwart any resident viruses within your body much faster than usual. In other words, it will kick start your immune system. Also, make sure your meal is nutritious and fulfilling, with it including eggs, tea and bacon. The former is a potent antibacterial, and tea is just great at soothing nerves. As for bacon… why not?
3. Lunch
You’ve made it to lunch, and you have to reward yourself for surviving a cold this far. Drink chicken soup, eat some chickpeas-based dish and indulge yourself with a banana or thirty to give yourself the minerals, proteins and fibers it needs to function properly.
4. Exercise
Ignore the rumour stating that you should avoid working out while plagued with a cold or flu. Exercising actually helps drain your body from the virus at a faster rate, accelerating your body’s functions and giving way to your immune system, that has already been amped up by the syrup, to target the virus more efficiently. A power walk will do just fine.
5. Nasal spray
Makes you sneeze, but it will unclog your nose and make breathing a possibility again. Use it continuously throughout the day, and once before going to sleep. Speaking of which, sleep. A lot. Like, hibernate. This will give your body ample time to flush out the virus with it focusing on nothing else but that certain action.
6. Hydration
Hydration, hydration, hydration. Drink lots of water, juices (preferably orange juice) and warm beverages (tea, milk) to keep your body hydrated after all the fluids mucus and sweating take up during the day of fighting off the cold.
And done! By the end of the day, your cold will most probably have died off! If it doesn’t, you’re dying and the next sneeze will make your brain come out of your nose. On a serious note, you can repeat this process another day, and your cold will definitely be gone by then.
