Quick!!! Help me stop this cold in its tracks!!!
 

Leaving next Thurs. for Spain. Am starting to feel the effects of a cold coming on..I've started taking extra vitamin C and some echinacea...any more remedies to rid myself of this beast before next Thursday?!?!

Absinthe maybe :-)

I first read about taking Zicam here on these boards. I fluffed it off at first...but then tried it and it actually does work. My dh laughed at me too, but now he is also convinced. Geez, I sound like a bad infomercial! lol!

Lots of green tea with honey and lemon. Drink it hot.

Tea, vitamin C, echinacea, wash your hands a lot, drink buckets of water, and try to rest and sleep (if possible!).

There is only one treatment,paracetomol and gallons of water.Then try to sweat it out.
I know.. I am doing it now.
Tomorrow it should be gone.
oops.... sorry gotta run for a wee again.

Muck

And nobody mentioned Jewish Penicillin?
Chicken with carrots and celery, and drink as much broth as you can. If it won't help it won't hurt :)

Drink a lot of water. If the cold is in your throat, don't drink cold drinks. Hot soup, hot tea, plain hot water, hot lemonade, hot broth, hot herb tea are all good. You might also drink some Marsala wine (Sicilian penicillin).

Try Tylenol for Colds. In Canada, it comes in a day and a night version or in a mixed day/night pack.

In addition to paracetamol, it contains something like "pseudo-epinephrine" (sp?). The real thing is considered dangerous (although over-the-counter cold remedies in Italy contain it), but the pseudo version works just as well: it dries up your mucous membranes and lets you breathe. The night version contains something like codeine, which knocks you out and lets you sleep quite nicely.

thanks..haven't heard of paracetomol or zicam - are they over the counter or prescription drugs??

Paracetamol is the European name for the active ingredient in Tylenol.

Zicam is over the counter. I think it is actually called a homeopathic. Anyway, it is usually right in the cold remedy section of the pharmacies.

I haven't had a cold in years, yet I felt the sniffles on the plane to Frankfurt last month. Fortunately I had grabbed the box of Zicam just before leaving home and shoved it into my carry-on. (I'd learned of it on this board and bought for my wife and/or son and not for myself.)

Once we were in the rental car and on the autobahn, I reached back and into my bag while driving and got one of those nose swabs and inhaled. It was 2pm and I took another dose at 6 and at 10. I had a comfortable night and in the morning, presto! No cold!

Amazing.

Zicam sounds perfect! Just phoned our pharmacy and they've never heard of it! Guess it hasn't hit Canada yet. Wish I was closer to the border!

Another vote for Zicam!!! It's over-the-counter & costs about $10USD for a small bottle (it is considered a homeopathic but sold in mainstream drug stores; it is a zinc nasal spray). It is the one & only thing I have found that actually lessens symptoms and shortens time of a cold/flu, if not preventing it entirely from coming on. It's fairly new on the market in the past few years.

If not Zicam (name brand) you might try anything that is a 'zinc' product, spray, swabs, even tablets.

Try Emer'gen-C ....I know they have it at whole foods and walmart...not sure where else. It's a little packet you mix with water..has lots of vitamins.

I use a 4 pronged attack - Zicam, Cold-Eze tablets, Echinacea, and vitamin C. This knocks out about 70% of all my colds.
Warning, there is some controversy on Zicam damaging your olifactory nerves, but I believe this is very rare and due to misuse. I've used it when needed for a few years with nothing but success.

Get adequate rest.
Drink plenty of liquids--tea, water, especialy.
Change the pillowcase.
Start using a fresh toothbrush.

Well, maybe those last two aren't remedies but it won't hurt to get rid of the old ones. (Can germs lurk in 'em?)

Feel better!

You sure it's a cold? If you live in the Great Lakes region like I do it could be allergies - ragweed is killer right now and it's killing me! The best remedy in that case is a change of climates, and Spain might be just what you need.

Watch out for the ingredient pseudo-ephedrine!!!
It makes me go squirrely.
Unfortunately Health Canada has banned almost every other decongestant; I do not understand why they continue to allow pseudo-ephedrine when they have banned real ephedrine(the stuff that was in many over-the-counter diet pills and killed a number of people).
Pseudo has much the same effect as real ephedrine.
I have to be very very diligent about checking ingredients of cold medications to ensure they don't contain this stuff (just back from Greece where everything seemd to contain it so I had to suffer with no meds).
It makes my heart race and my mind go at warp speed. And if combined with codeine - yikes. It puts you into a kind of no-man's land where your body is knocked out (codeine) and your brain is going 100 miles an hour. The stuff of nightmares!

A word about zinc...I really believe it works. I had heard about it some years back from a fellow traveler.

My daughter and I went to London and on our second day there we both woke up feeling the unmistakable symptoms of an oncoming cold. Drat!

I recalled the zinc advice and went to the local chemist for a small bottle of capsules.

They were a rather large dose, more than is standard in the States I think, and it made us both rather nauseious. I later learned to take it with a meal.

The bottom line was that we were both much better by evening. Another capsule before bed and we both woke the next day feeling as if we'd just gotten over a bad cold, some residule nose blowing and the like, but feeling altogether fine.

Now I take a capsule once a week or so and I don't beleive I've had a cold since that time.

Now there are zinc pills, rubs, nose sprays, lozenges, etc.

However you take it, I really beleive that for a great many people zinc is a godsend.

Good luck...If you find a miracle out there, remember us and let us know.

Another vote for Zicam here. That stuff works great - I usually take the chewable tabs, which taste pretty vile, by the way. They start off tasting like a piece of strawberry bubble gum, but if you chew it for much longer, it starts to disintegrate and gets nasty. I usually swallow the tab before it gets to that point.

I also take the Zicam in conjunction with Airborne - that alka-selzer type tablet you dissolve in water.

I think the main thing is to start taking something now, before it develops into a full blown cold.

could pseudo-eph- whatever be sudafed? common decongestant in the u.s. known for its "no-doze" qualities.

too much will make anyone squirrely!

I totally believe in zinc. When you start to feel a cold coming on, take some, and echinacea, and some C. Works like a charm for me every time!

Zinc can make some people feel nauseous. I know for my sister Zicam made her feel sicker than having a cold (so although it's worked for me, it's not for everyone).

I lived in Holland and got a cold or flu very often in the cool wet climate. None of the store remedies worked so I came up with one that is foolproof. When the nose gets blocked and the sinus starts throbbing bundle up in several shirts and sweaters and extra socks and long pants and a stocking cap. Before you do that buy a fifth of Hennessy cognac. Start drinking. You can mix the first few glasses with tea or lemon juice but then go neat. When you have passed the point of pouring it all in the glass find your bed and cover up with a few blankets. Sweat it out. You'll probably still be drunk in the morning but the cold will be gone.

And if you follow Scotch's advise come back and post your report "CanuckDrunkInSpain"

Bourbon and NyQuil... you sleep for 2 straight days, but you wake up with the cold gone!

My husband converted me to Cold-Eze and I'm definitely a believer now. It tastes a lot better than other zinc pills so when I think I'm coming down with a cold I just suck on them all day until I feel better. It's stopped quite a few colds in their tracks.

hopscocth..I was told to hang a hat on a bedpost, drink brandy till I saw two hats..wake up next day - allegedly the cold's gone..I suspect the resulting hangover drives removes awareness of any other discomforts

Here's another believer in Zicam. I only wish I had realized they now have something for cough and throat symptoms before my recent cold symptoms appeared. I immediately started using the nasal gel, which I had in my medicine cabinet, and have had no stuffiness or congestion, which is the part of a cold that always makes you feel so awful.

The cold did, however, settle in my chest, and I've had a pretty bad cough. I don't feel bad, but just have a persistent cough. When I went to get some cough medicine, I found the Zicam zinc tablets in the pharmacy. After starting to use them, my cough is subsiding, but you really do need to start the Zicam at the first sign of a cold for maximum effect.

Hopscotch, reading your remedy for a cold reminded me of my father's remedy. He was raised in Austrailia. About once a year, usually after Christmas, he too got a terrible cold. He was a Scot. He would take a really hot shower, put on long johns, flannel PJ's, a wood robe, drink a big cup of
scotch mixed with a bit of boiling hot water, honey and a bit of lemon and than get into bed with a ton of blankets. He would stay there for 24 hours, sweating and very sick. And than, he was completely cured!! I tried that once and believe it or not it worked!!

Hopscotch. Actually the robe was wool not wood. But by the time he departed the bed I believe the sheets were stiff as wood.

drink a Danactive a day and stay in bed.

If the cold includes a sore throat, a tea made of tincture of echinacea and goldenseal works wonders. Take it as early as possible, and drink some every 4 hours or so. Have nipped many colds/sore throats in the bud this way. (Its helpful for colds without sore throat, but not as miraculous).

I find that raw garlic will solve all your ills.. take a head of garlic or more, chop it and saute with EVO and toss with pasta or anything for that matter.. seems to work for me and my family and friends who now all swear by it..double happiness if you put it in some chicken soup..Eat fresh parsley to combat the bad breath odors..

I can't believe noone has suggested snorting salt water! Fill a glass with warm salt water, pour a little in your hand and snort it up your nose. Oowey. The guck will come out and you will prevent sinus infections. Do this every day until the symptoms are gone.

Well, Canuck, did any or all of these methods work?

Canuck,
How is the patient doing? Which cure did you take?