Natural Medicine for a Common Cold

I've had a pretty bad cold this week, which isn't very convenient considering that I have finals coming up. Being a dance major and being sick don't go very well together. My family knows that I really don't like taking conventional medicine. I would rather figure out how to heal my cold naturally, using things that my body will appreciate, rather than pills that are completely foreign to it. I'll admit, I also think it's kind of fun to try to heal myself naturally, kind of like it's a competition.


I only have a few essential oils at this point including, peppermint, digest, orange, and fennel. The one that helped the most for my cold was the peppermint. Here are some of my tips for colds:


  • Nettle tea-takes away the aches and pains.
  • Peppermint essential oil (this one has a few):
    • place a drop on your finger and then rub it on your tongue, as well as you temples--this is amazing at clearing congestion (better than any conventional medicine I've had); it also relieves headaches and just takes away all the pressure in the sinuses.
  • Broth/Liquid: do not underestimate the power of the age-old chicken soup! If I had the time and space, I would definitely have made my own broth from scratch, however seeing as I am in college, I had to stick with the canned stuff. I ate chicken soup for basically every meal besides breakfast (green smoothies!). The soup had chicken, broccoli, carrots, and sweet potatoes as well as ginger and garlic. Other hot liquids like herbal teas can be very beneficial. Your body doesn't need so much food when your sick, because it's focusing on getting you better, not digestion. However, you do need TONS of liquid so drink, drink, drink! 
  • Lemon/honey tea: every morning I drank this and it helped sooth my sore throat so much. I only drank it in the morning, but feel free to do it as many times as you need! I roughly did a tablespoon RAW honey, half of a lemon squeezed, and a glass of warm-hot water. Mix it all together and enjoy! 
  • Ginger and garlic: these are great at detoxifying the body. I put ginger in my smoothies and soup when I'm sick to give me an extra boost.
I know this isn't much and hopefully I'll gain more and more wisdom as I get older, but I hope that this helps a little bit!!


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