Control your cough with homemade soup and less-expensive medications

[Cook for Good]

I work at home and try to stay out of the contagion zones the first few weeks after Christmas. It's likely, therefore, that I picked up my miserable cold in an ironic spot: taking ma mère to Les Mis, touring a  health club, or picking up my CSA box.

I hadn't been sick in more than a year. When I do come down with something, it's usually over in a flash. This time, my cough kept getting worse. Cough medicine made no dent. Yesterday, I walked up to the drug store determined to find a more effective medication, even codeine, so I could get some sleep.

Fortunately, I was too sick to have remembered to bring my credit card, so I couldn't pay $17 for the concoction recommended by the drug-store associate. I walked home to get the card. While I caught my breath, I did a little googling to verify her recommendation. Would an elixir that was three times as strong just mean three times zero in effectiveness? Evidently, according to Consumer Reports.

I'm now using store-brand pseudoephedrine, lozenges with pectin instead of medication, humidity, daily walks, and my new Coldnix Soup to fight the symptoms. I was really surprised when I read the oft-cited scientific study showing that chicken soup is effective in fighting a cold. The main soup tested was a vegetable-rich soup with pureed vegetables in chicken broth without the chicken meat in it. My Coldnix soup replaces the chicken with chickpeas and makes other adjustments. Whatever you do, make a real soup with lots of vegetables.

See the details and get the recipe at CookforGood.com.
http://www.cookforgood.com/blog/2013/1/11/quell-your-cough-the-thrifty-effective-way.html
http://www.cookforgood.com/recipe/coldnix-soup-chicken-free-cold-fighting-soup.html

What are you doing to minimize your cold symptoms if you have them?

[kolorado]

I rarely get sick either, neither do my kids but we tend to stay away from the germ factories during the height of the sick seasons.
I really like spicy food(usually tacos and chili, I load up on the tomatoes), fresh fruit and lots of hot herbal tea with lemon and honey for when I am sick. I didn't realize there was any science to the soup thing, that's pretty neat! Werther's butterscotch candies are my throat soothers of choice. For getting some sleep I have a hot toddy or a cordial like Bailey's before bed and use a hot water bottle or rice bag on my chest. It seems to work fine. If it drags on more than 5 days though I get some Robitussin. Usually just one or two doses is enough to break up the congestion at that point. I'll only spend that $5 and ingest medications if I've already tried natural methods and time.

[Jamesqf]

I like ginger myself.  Fresh ginger root grated into chicken soup, for instance, or the pickled ginger you get with sushi (which you can find in jars in the Asian food section).  That goes well with dark chocolate - may not do anything for a cold, but makes you feel better about it :-)

My quick too-sick-to-cook-from-scratch soup starts with chicken ramen (I suppose vegetable would work too).  Add about a tablespoon of chopped/grated ginger root, a stalk of celery, 2-3 stems green onions, carrots, peppers, or what have you.

[Zaga]

I had a horrible cough for 3 weeks in December, and I am also someone who rarely gets extremely sick.  Usually I get better within a few days, this was just painfully awful!

So, the home remedies I tried that worked:

1)  Cayenne pepper (just a pinch) in hot water.  The warm tinglies in my throat from that kept the cough controllable.  Can add this to tea or tea with honey if you want, but you won't really be able to taste the difference.

2)  To sleep - I couldn't sleep because I was coughing so much.  I made a concoction of hot water, honey, a whole fresh squeezed lemon, a pinch of cayenne pepper, and a shot or two of either whisky or rum.  The lemon for the vitamin C, the cayenne for the tingle, the liqueur to relax my throat, and the honey to make it all taste good and go down smooth.  This gave me 4 hours of sleep at a stretch.

Good luck, I hope you don't cough for 3 weeks straight!

Oh, and one more thing, cough drops only made this cough worse!  They work while they are actually in your mouth, but after they are gone the cough was worse than ever!

[Jamesqf]

Another suggestion to help sleep - weird, but it seems to work - is to rub Vicks Vaporub on the soles of your feet before going to bed, then put on a pair of socks.