What’s Your Go-To Remedy?

• Posted on September 28, 2010
• by Karen Fayeth
• 6 Comments

So yeah, it’s Tuesday and I’m still nice and sick.

This whole cold thing has settled deep into my chest. I have that raspy almost smokers cough sounding voice, and when I laugh, I get on a wheezing cough jag that doesn’t resolve until I see stars in my eyes and my ribs hurt.

Fun stuff.

And so as I do when I feel poorly, I begin to remember all the suggested home remedies that friends and family have provided over the years. Many of them do actually make me feel better.

Here’s my top five, in no particular order.

1. Pho Noodle Soup

This was the remedy I went with yesterday and it did help for a while. The uber hot beef broth cooking the thinly sliced meat paired with the yummy rice noodles. It just screams hydration and the protein in the soup is good nutrition.

The warm soup always makes me sleepy, and getting rest is good for my immunity.

Add a healthy dose of that Sriracha Rooster sauce, and it all just says to me “oh yeah…I’m on the mend.”

2. Sopa de Camaron

I don’t know what it is about Mexican shrimp soup, but it’s like a cure in a bowl. The veggies, the hot broth, the shrimps and a bit of avocado to smooth it all out.

Very satisfying, filling and warm. Again, it puts me right to sleep and gives me nice dreams.

3. Chicken Soup

Known colloquially as “Jewish Penicillin” there has actually been some research that suggests that chicken soup inhibits inflammation which helps a weary cold sufferer endure through the inevitable cycle of the common cold.

I’ll take chicken soup in all forms including with veggies, with noodles, or with a big beautiful Matzoh ball floating in there. It’s all good!

4. Pinto Bean water

This one is recommended by frequent commenter Ephraim. There have been times when, struggling to find something palatable to eat, I’ve dished up a bowl of beans and added a lot of the water that the beans were cooked in to make it more like a soup, thus easier for me to swallow with a sore throat.

Can’t deny it, it helps. And what’s not to like about bacon flavored bean water? Am I right? I think I am.

5. Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup, Dayquil, Sprite

Parodied in the South Park SARS episode, there is no denying the “middle class white man’s cure” is helpful.

I think with the addition of some saltines, this is the perfect comforting treat for when I am down on the couch with the crud.

It’s especially comforting when brought on a TV tray by a doting mom (or husband) who will check my temperature with closed lips applied to my forehead.

Really, at the end of the day, the best “cure” for the common cold is rest, hydration and managing the symptoms. All of the above help toward that end.

Meanwhile…*hack coff* I’m still in the middle of the indignities of this upper respiratory attack.

Bleah.