Ingredients:

Here I give some home remedies for common cold, cough and fever.

There is a saying that with medicine, flu (influenza) related illness of cold, cough, fever subsides in a week and without medicine it takes 7 long days!!! During this period, body evolves a mechanism to fight virus. Once a person is infected by one type of virus and the body has successfully fought it, he would never fall ill again because of that virus in his lifetime. Each time a person is infected by a flu, its of a different strain or variety which he hasn't seen before. Elders are less prone to common colds compared to children because they would have already fought with different strains of virus, in their life!!!

I believe in giving adequate time to the body to develop its own resistance and immunity instead of taking recourse to anti-biotics .

Therefore listed below are the tips to fight common cold which I follow for myself and for my family members. These tips help the patient to get some relief and develop immunity. My visits to the doctors for common cold and its related complications are almost negligible.  

The ingredients used in the home-remedies are the ones commonly available and used in everyday cooking (The glossary is provided towards the end of this article).  Hope these remedies will be useful to my viewers too.

Kashayam (Concoction): See the above Box for ingredients

Method:

Take water in a bowl and heat the bowl & boil water. In a mortar & pestle crush dried ginger and liquorice. Take a mixie jar and add coriander seeds, black pepper, clove, bay leaves, turmeric powder and crushed dried ginger and liquorice. Grind the spices to a fine powder. When water is boiling add the prepared spice powder and mix well. cover the bowl partially and cook on low flame for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes switch off the flame and cover the bowl fully. Keep this concoction aside for 2 to 3 minutes. Take a serving mug and place a tea strainer in it. Strain the prepared concoction into the mug.

Serve the concoction piping hot to adults, luke warm to small children. Avoid giving this concoction to infants. This preparation gives relief from severe cold, cough and fever.

Honey-Lemon syrup:

Take one teaspoon of lemon juice and add this to two teaspoons of honey. Mix this preparation well and serve in two hours duration to get relief from cold, cough and fever. This preparation works well for all ages starting from infants to aged.

Salt Solution Gargling:

Mix two teaspoons of salt in a glass of warm water and mix well. Use this salt solution and gargle twice or thrice a day depending on the severity to get relief from cold and cough.

Talisadi Churnam:

Mix a teaspoon of Talisadi Churnam with honey to form syrup. Give this preparation three times a day to get relief from cold and cough.

Talisadi churnam will be available at ayurvedic stores.

Vicks VapoRub:

When a person is suffering from cold we usually apply Vicks to nose and chest. Rub some Vicks under feet before going to bed and cover with socks to get relief.

Onion Remedy:

Place half sliced onion under feet and cover with socks before going to bed. This remedy gives relief from fever.

Mustard Remedy:

Grind one and a half tea spoons of mustard seeds to a smooth paste adding some water. Add this paste to a big glass of hot milk and drink to get relief from fever. Mustard helps in reducing fever. Mustard oil is applied to chest and under feet to give relief from cold and fever. Mustard brings warmth to the body.

Black Pepper-Turmeric Remedy:

To a big glass of hot milk add one-eighth tea spoon of turmeric powder and one and half tea spoons of black pepper powder and mix. Take this preparation to get relief from cold and cough.

The remedies shown and given here may be used as First-Aid to reduce cold, cough and fever. These are tested and tasted preparations which will do no harm to one’s body. Hence use these preparations to reduce the suffering for three days. If the suffering continues after three days it is advisable to consult a doctor.

Points To Notice:

The ingredients used are harmless and are easily available in kitchen and market.

While preparing kashayam spice powder add a fig and few black raisins also if available.

The liquorice brings a sweet flavor to the kashayam. It soothes the throat and gives relief from severe cough. Chew a piece of liquorice to get immediate relief from cough---on travel this helps as it will be difficult to prepare the concoction on travel.

Black pepper and dried ginger are strong and hence it is advisable not to give the concoction (Kashayam) to infants. Give honey-lemon to infants and they would merrily lick it.

Hope these preparations would help my viewers also in soothing the sufferings from common cold, cough and fever.

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Anonymous said... Hi Gayathriji, your remedies are awesome...keep up the good work!!! March 2, 2011 9:07 PM Inder said... HI gayathriji...Hats of to your chitkas:)..really awesome March 2, 2011 9:08 PM

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