Hot milk and Turmeric ready to drink
I don’t know what is worse when I have a cold, a cough, or that unable to breathe, my head is going to explode feeling. Probably both.
As I wrote last week, I had a cold for the first time in I don’t know how many years. The cold settled in my head but had a non-productive cough. Both of the symptoms were tiring and annoying. But rather than mask the symptoms, I used herbal remedies to help actually relieve the issues. And you know what? They worked! Within 3 days of getting the cold and using the remedies I was better. It took me a few more days to regain my stamina, but within 3 days all my congestion and coughing was done.
I can’t guarantee that you will be totally better in the three days it took me, but I can tell you that using these herbal remedies was much gentler on my system and I didn’t get that loopy/groggy feeling that I have in the past when I took over the counter cold medications.
I used two herbal remedies for congestion. The first was simple hot milk with turmeric. Turmeric is an amazing spice that research is finding is very useful in health related issues. The recipe is simple. Dissolve 1 tsp turmeric powder in milk and heat. It turns the milk really yellow. If you must use sweetener, use a local honey.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have either much turmeric or milk in the house. So I couldn’t continue this recipe (though it did relieve my congestion for a while). So instead I followed a friend’s advice and began drinking a concoction of lemons, honey, ginger and cayenne.
My friend didn’t remember proportions, but through my awesome google searching skills, I found this recipe. I drank a cup every few hours. I have to admit I made mine pretty spicy, and I believe it was the capsaicin in the cayenne that did a lot of immediate relieving of my congestion. I also followed up the cup of infusion with a date with my neti pot (please boil the water you use in your neti pot and let it cool to body temperature before use). This helped get rid of excess mucous as well.
Making sure I drank some of this infusion (and used the neti pot) just prior to bed insured me of a good nights sleep where I actually ended up being able to breathe through my nose most of the night.
So the next time you are congested, try one (or both) of these remedies.
Ingredients for the congestion remedy
cooking up the congestion remedy
The finished congestion infusion
