Common cold is also known as acute coryza. This is basically defined as a short term inflammation of the upper part of the respiratory system. This is normally caused by virus. This was said to be prevalent than other diseases in the respiratory system. An average person is expected to suffer from this health alteration trice annually. The average duration of this disease is about 3 to ten days. In the first days, the affected person suffers great deal of discomfort. However, this is thought to be a natural means of expelling the toxic chemicals or microorganisms that entered one’s body.
Symptoms
- The initial symptom of this disease is throat soreness. A person may feel that there is discomfort in his throat and he experiences difficulty in swallowing.
- A person affected can also experience its typical symptoms like sneezing, increase in core temperature, body pain, chills, runny nose and increase sore throat. You may also observe that the skin that surrounds the nostrils is also a little bit inflamed.
- In most instances, patients with common colds also experience lack of appetite.
Causes
- The primary cause of the common colds is exposure to viral microorganisms. The intensity of the condition depends upon the person’s health state as well as the other environmental factors.
- There are also times that the general condition of the immune system of the person is the other cause for this upper respiratory tract infection. Examples of the activities that can lower one’s resistance to this condition are lack of sleep, fatigue and depression.
- The environmental causes of this condition are sudden change in the environmental temperature, presence of irritating inhalations as well as availability of dust.
- Other causes of colds are wrong dietary habit like over ingestion of starchy, white breads, white flour, and carbohydrates and mucus forming foods.
Natural Remedies
- The first suggested treatment for common colds is the diet modification. In this, the affected person must be in fasting for two days. He is only allowed to ingest warm water with matching honey and lemon juice.
- Minimize or stop eating starchy and mucus forming foods like white breads, pasta, noodles, biscuits, pies, cakes, ice creams, etc. They are the foods that can trigger your system to form mucus and leads to problems like common colds and sore throats. Instead eat apples, carrots or turnips when you need snacks. They can satisfy your taste as well as gives benefits to your body.
- In the first three days of the health ailment, it is suggested for you to ingest fresh fruits. This is helpful in order to increase the Vitamin C content in your body. When there are proper amounts of Vitamin C in one’s body, there is fast development and maturation of the white blood cells in your system. These are the cells responsible in fighting infections like common colds. Drink fresh juices from ripe pineapples, juices of lemons but your fruit juice must not mix with sugar. You can eat guava fruits. They have rich in vitamin C also eat raw ripe tomatoes as salads.
- Increase in water intake is also a natural treatment for common colds. Ideally, you must take not less than eight glasses of water. When there is proper amount of water in the body, there will be an agent that will dilute the mucous associated with common cold. Aside from that, the infection fighting cells or the leukocytes will be delivered fast in the affected part with the aid of increasing your water intake.
- Proper rest and sleep is also a secret to fight off the common colds. When a person has right amount of sleep. It helps in the regeneration of the cell functions. This means that if you want to have optimal white blood cell function, you have to sleep at least six to eight hours a day.
- Garlic is also one of the oldest treatment or remedy for common colds. You can have this garlic in your vegetable soup meals. Garlic has innate anti-viral properties that will help kill the causative agent of the disease. You can also have this steamed or friend for other serving options.
- The antiseptic properties of turmeric are also applicable for common colds. This is not just effective in relieving colds but also in healing sore throat. To use this, you have to secure turmeric powder and have it in half teaspoon. It is advised that you will mix it together with a glass of milk. This can be done once daily.
- Avoidance of stress is also a nice way for you not to acquire common colds. Stress is thought to be a factor that lowers the immunity capabilities of a person. By the time that an individual is stressed, he is prone to infection. With this, you have to limit your exposure to stressful things in your life. If you are effective in doing this, you will notice that you will not easily get infectious type of diseases.