How to Cure Your Springtime Cold

Winter is the cold and flu season, but springtime can bring sickness, too.

Catching a cold just as warm weather begins is one of the worst ways to start the year,

but as long as you have a handful of these natural remedies, you should start feeling

better faster.

Homemade Inhaler

If you have asthma ― or know someone who does ― you understand the power of inhalers

to open your airways, which is precisely what you need to feel better during a cold.

After procuring a blank inhaler, usually from an aromatics purveyor, you can mix your own

inhaler blend from essential oils to make you breathe easier.

The best recipe is as follows, but you can tweak it to your preferences:

• 5-7 drops eucalyptus
• 4 drops black spruce
• 4 drops tea tree
• 2 drops lavender
• 1 drop lime

Healthful Heater

As long as you aren’t running a fever, applying a heat to your chest and head can be especially

soothing when you’re sick.

Moist heat, like that from a hot water bottle, tends to loosen phlegm and break up congestion

deep in your sinuses and lungs.

Usually, placing the heat on your back, between your shoulder blades, is most effective, but

resting it on your chest may also be beneficial.

Essential Bath Salts

A bath is usually just what your body needs when you are suffering from sickness, but adding

specific salts can make you feel even better after your soak.

While you might be able to find sinus-clearing salts at the store, you can also make your own

solution at home with the right ingredients:

• 1 cup Epsom salt
• 3 drops eucalyptus essential oil
• 3 drops peppermint essential oil
• 3 drops lavender essential oil

Adding about three tablespoons to a full tub should be enough to have you breathing deep

in no time.

Strong Tea

Tea is one of the oldest remedies for any sickness, including the common cold.

There are a number of plants with curative properties that work to kill whatever virus is

sending you sniffling and mitigate whatever irritating symptoms you feel.

An antiviral beverage, like one made from calendula flower, thyme, or lemon balm, will

help your body fight the infection and make you feel stronger and healthier much faster.

Organic Gargle

Sore throats make everything harder, from drinking tea to breathing.

Store-bought gargles effectively numb the pain, but the jumble of chemical components

is terrifyingly absurd.

Instead, you can make a completely natural gargle using a couple ingredients you already

have in your kitchen cupboard:

• 1 cup water
• 4 tablespoons dried sage
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar

You must steep the sage in boiling water for about 15 minutes, after which you may add the

salt and vinegar.

While it isn’t the tastiest concoction, it should draw out the excess fluid in your throat and

reduce the pain you feel whenever you swallow.

Warm Soup

For some reason not entirely backed by science, soup remains one of the best meals for

the sick and ailing.

There are dozens of healthful, immune-boosting vegan soups you (or your loving caretaker)

can whip up while you recover.

Some of the best include:

• Carrot yam ginger soup
• Warm hummus soup
• Cream of broccoli soup
• Toasted pecan soup

Simple Syrup

Unfortunately, sugar and water won’t help you recover from your springtime cold, but

you can make a number of other natural cough syrups that will.

If you have a sick kid, you will have an inordinately hard time convincing them to drink

down some bitter tea, but it is amazingly simple to get them to swallow a sweet syrup.

Here is the tastiest and most beneficial concoction:

• 1 tablespoon licorice root
• 1 tablespoon marshmallow root
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon chopped ginger
• 4 cups water
• 1 cup agave syrup

You simmer the herbs and water until the mixture is reduced by half, then you add the

agave syrup and heat for another 10 minutes or so.

One or two tablespoons per day is enough to relieve the worst sore throat, coughing,

and congestion.

Garlic

The most essential of seasonings also has well-known antiseptic and antispasmodic

properties.

Adding garlic to your favorite foods, drinking garlic-infused tea, or munching on some

raw root could help stifle your cough and even lower your fever.

Mustard

Mustard is another delicious treat that secretly helps you get well.

Eating mustard might help open your respiratory passages, but applying a plaster

(a mixture of a tablespoon of mustard with three tablespoons of flour, one egg white,

and a small amount of warm water) to your chest is like an all-natural version of Vick’s.

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