My boss gave me the flu, and I've spent most of today looking up and making/taking home remedies. I thought it would be interesting to hear some of your tried and true home remedies (for the flu and more.)

Ginger for nausea. If you have no root ginger and/or you can't make it to the store, powder also works pretty well.

I also add chilli to sweet tea if I have a thick cold but it should be said that I have a pretty high tolerance for the hot stuff.

Eat lots of spicy food -- as much heat as you can handle. It increases your body temperature, giving your immune system a huge boost. Plus spicy food is loaded with antioxidants and will make the mucus pour out of your nose.

Suck it up teasing but its true, it has to do it's time you can't cure it just relieve some symptoms like muscular pain and fever. For the sore throat it's your little soldiers that are doing a chemical war vs the invaders, those chemicals to kill the meanies are a side effect, cough drops are fine.
So drink lots of liquid (super important, you dehydrate faster with a flu), veggie broth with some iodize salt will help. Get lots of rest and do nasal irrigation if your are suffering from nose stuffiness!

So far, I've been drinking ginger elderberry tea with lemon, coconut water, fresh green juices with lemon and ginger, and lots of extra water.

I bought a few cans of soup and managed to make a couple fresh batches.

I've used the neti pot a few times, and I've been using vitamin E oil on my nose and above my lip to keep from turning into Rudolph.

My throat hasn't been too sore, for which I thank my olive leaf complex spray.

I love the use of onion and garlic. Since I've started using these in my cooking I have had far fewer colds.

I thought I've posted already...hmmmm....Hopefully you're better. Home remedies are good and good advice here. What you're doing sounds great and will help ease the symptoms and get you on your feet quicker.

But when an incurable virus hits, I'm of the "suck it up, it just has to run it's course" camp. Resting, eating very healthy things like smoothies, juices, greens, etc. is what I try to do.

Fortunately I don't get sick that often and when I do it's for 24 hours or so and then I bounce back. Prevention by staying healthy and keeping your immune system up helps.

I agree with Tweety! The flu can be pretty miserable and it is nice to have something to take the edge off. But nothing beats lots of rest and supporting your immune system with healthy food (that you can keep down when you are not feeling too well). Fruits and vegetables are especially easy to digest and easy on the body so it doesn't have to work so hard while it fights the virus inside of it.

Since I have gotten healthier and stronger over the last year, I have rarely gotten sick myself and my coworkers have been hit with all sorts of colds and flu over the last month. I work in a cubicle and my coworkers behind and in front of me both got sick. I have been fortunate to not get sick yet. But even when I do get sick or injured, it is a short course and my body bounces back faster.

I used to consume pineapple and turmeric a lot when I had achilles tendinitis from running. They are natural anti inflammatories and helped a good bit, along with hot and cold soaks and epsom salt soaks. If I get nausea or upset stomach I will sip on organic ginger tea and use peppermint oil in the bathtub. Sometimes for headaches I will rub on arnica oil. I haven't tried it, but I wonder if peppermint oil would help for soothing inflammed sinuses? Also, as others mentioned, hot spices can open up airways a bit too. Nothing like a simple homemade warm vegetable soup or fruit smoothie with leafy greens for healing and comfort.

I guess my #1 remedy is a healthy diet year round. Your body is so much more capable of dealing with things like colds and flu when it's strong and healthy (though I know that doesn't help in the moment). I just drink plenty of water, take the day off whatever I had planned because your body desperately needs rest and then I let my body do what it was designed to. I always feel half delirious and achy when I have flu, so I just lay there with no lights on and try to sleep as much as possible for a day or two until I feel better. I always seem to recover faster than everyone else because I don't take fever reducers or symptom maskers, don't overexert myself and when you eat healthy all the time, these things don't take you out as bad for as long. I do monitor my fever and if it ever did go over 103, I may consider taking an aspirin at that point (though I haven't had that high a fever since childhood). Anything less than that isn't going to harm an adult, and is your bodes #1 best defense in the moment against that virus. A fever reducer, in essence, reduces your bodes ability to fight. And no matter what I'm sick with, I stick strictly to the B-R-A-T (banana, rice, apples, toast) foods and water or lemon water until I'm better or anything else is liable to upset my stomach on top of the illness. Apples above any other substance seem to do the most for me when I have an upset stomach. If your naseauous too, I find a couple drops of lemon juice on the tounge will help (as counterintuitive as that sounds). Hope you feel better soon!

When I was sick with a nasty flu during finals week, coughing all over, and stuck in bed most of the day, i decided to try this cool coconut water the campus store had. Within a few moments I felt SOO much better. My symptoms lessened and I felt much more comfortable. Only lasted for an hour, but that hour felt great. I tried some more the next day and it gave me the same relief feeling. Pure coconut water I'd say is a miracle water! It has potassion, magnesium and electrolytes which I think really gives you a boost.

Besides being sure to eat a healthy whole - foods based diet, I typically only use natural products when I'm sick. Usually taking a combination of elderberry syrup (homemade, but there are store bought brands) and aged garlic supplement kick things out of my system pretty quick. This year I got the flu for the first time in over a decade and the actual sickness was gone with two days doing the is and taking a shot of acv in the mornings. I'm still hoarse, but I'm definitely over being sick.

Edited to add: Also, coconut water is great for keeping electrolytes up. And sleep, sleep, SLEEP! It seems Impossible for some to just sit down and chill, but why do you think kids naturally sleep a ton when they're sick? They haven't lost that ability yet to listen to their bodies. Sleep is amazing when you're sick!

Just dont brush your teeth after drinking vinegar, as it makes tooth enamel go soft for an hour.
And make sure its 'real' apple cider vinegar. I've noticed stores are selling imitation acv now. The label sould list only one ingredient.
The same logic can go to eating less for a few days. Food digestion is a process that involves major immune system involvement. The flu kills a persons appetite because their body doesnt want the immune system to be preoccupied with processing food. If you feel like eating less, then eat less, but when you do eat aim for more nutrient dense fruit/vegetable foods. Nearly everyones body has enough extra calories and protein laying around to last a few days, its just vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that need replacing.

Can you clarify this statement. Doesn't make sense to me that digestion, a natural human process for survival involves "major immune system involvement". It does with allergies, auto-immune disorders but a healthy person with none of these?

It makes sense that if you have no appetite or energy for eating to just relax about it and not force it so your body doesn't use energy for digestion that it needs to fight off the illness...then again fighting off illness and boosting immunity is enhanced with healthy intake (healthy not volume).

When digesting food, not only does lots and lots of blood get diverted to the intestines (and with the blood, the bloods immune cells) but the gut is also packed with immune machinery (lymphatic systems, etc.) to make sure no infections get into you from the food. The intestines are a persons largest interface with the environment, a thin porous barrier right into the blood, and its filled with nutrient rich food and bacteria. Its the biggest vulnerability so its developed big defenses. Theres even emerging evidence that the immune system has a sort of training system in the intestines to make sure immune cells can differentiate self from other.
If you count the digestive system as a part of the immune system, its the largest part.

Makes sense. The digestive system is excellent at nourishing and makes sense the immune system and our normal flora is involved in that to keep what we eat from making us sick.

But why cut down on eating deliberately when sick, if the appetite isn't affected that is? Is the idea that because those defenses going to the gut are needed elsewhere to fight the flu/cold? I wonder if healthy food like antioxidants stimulate the immune system more than it diverts from the immune system?

I would think a well nourished immune system is best. The body is using a lot of energy and resources to fight the infection. There's always opinions out there, and conventional medicine doesn't always have the answers. People need to gather information and decide what's best for them personally. : http://news.health.com/2013/01/08/wa...change_article


Again if you have no appetite, then don't force it, relax and get rest. The only time in my life I've had no appetite was food poisoning in Peru recently. When I've had colds or flu (rarely) I always eat heartily.

Well, your most likely right. I didnt mean to imply people should eat less even if still hungry, thats why I said 'If you feel like eating less, then eat less'. Its just been my experience that, when sick, people are usually encouraged to eat beyond what quantity their body tells them to. That happened with me every time I ever got the flu as a kid and force feeding myself never seemed to provide any benefit.
Hunger or its absence is a rather well adapted response, people should trust it when theyre sick for a few days.

I agree...let your body be your guide, eat when it tells you to, and don't when it doesn't.

I think what we do that's worse, and I'm guilty, is we don't rest when our body says rest. We go to work sniffing, sneezing and coughing as if nothing's wrong. Like the boss that gave the OP the flu.

wash your hair with curd which is the best for dandruff.

Home remedies (honey, Chinese herbs, garlic, green tea, neti pots..) do not help prevent flu or shorten duration of symptoms.

Saline drops may help in blocked nose but they do not shorten the duration of symptoms.

Vitamins C, D and E have also not been proven effective.

Oral zinc supplements, if started early after onset of symptoms may shorten duration of symptoms a bit.

http://www.ehealthstar.com/what-is-t...ld-and-flu.php

Sleep, drink lots of fluids and pain killers to reduce the fever.

I swear by echinacea. You can get it in a vitamin/tablet form, capsule or liquid. And the earlier you start taking it the easier it is to beat a cold or flu. You can also take it as a preventative remedy during the cold/flu season

Agree! They recommend you take it for no longer than 2 weeks, then resume after a week break if desired. I take it whenever i feel the first symptoms of a virus, and often that stops the illness. Zinc is good as a preventive too, especially for men.

Are you trying to kill people? Your body is already at an elevated temperature during sickness, raising it an extra degree or two while you have the flu could give you brain damage.

Indian grocery is best known for its natural treatments. Many Indian spices has good affects on flu patient. Drink ginger made tea 2-3 times a day. It provides warmth to your body. Use onion, garlic in your regular meals. Drink Boil water.

When I worked at the health food restaurant we would chop up a clove of garlic and down it with a shot of olive oil. If we were stuffed up we would inhale a few grains of cayenne through our nose. It burned but it worked. Don't do any more than a few tiny grains or it will really BURN. If you do to much you can rinse with saline. Both clean out the sinuses. Drink plenty of Miso soup with ginger and colorful veggies. All of these things work to warm up your chi and boost your immune system. Goldenseal is also good but your not supposed to take it at the same time as echinacea for some reason. Rest and meditate on your breath often.

Best Home remedies from my point of view are Ginger, Garlic and Onion