Kitchen remedies for colds and coughs

Warming brew

At the first sign of a snivel, put some ginger root, liquorice root and a cinnamon stick into a mug of water and simmer for 10 minutes. Pour into a mug that contains the juice of half a lemon and a spoonful of honey. Stir and drink whilst hot maybe 3-4 times a day. Here in Scotland, a nip of whisky would also be added for medicinal purposes only!! Take 2000mg Vitamin C daily too.

Cough syrups

Here is a traditional recipe made from cupboard contents incase someone goes down with a cough during the winter, especially the kids:

Take 2 lemons, 2 fl oz glycerine and  pint local honey…

Juice the lemons and pour through a fine strainer and add the juice to the glycerine and honey. Pour into bottle and keep in the fridge. Spoonful as needed…simple, natural and does the job!!

Another cough favourite in our house was the Swede medicine (great when it is nighttime and you need a remedy on what you have in the house). When one of my children would begin a cold and start to cough, I would cut the top off a Swede (saving that bit) and scoop out the middle to obviously use in soup. I would then fill the centre of the swede with dark brown molasses sugar, replace the top and leave for the night. In the morning, the sugar would have turned to a rich cough medicine that was an excellent remedy for kid’s coughs and tasted delicious to boot.

Medicinal Bath

Daily, put some tea tree, Cajeput or Niaouli into the bath and soak for 20 minutes and if you are sitting watching TV, put your feet into a hot footbath containing 1 tbsp English mustard powder and soak your feet for 15 minutes, topping up with a hot kettle if necessary. Put on some warm socks afterwards and stay cosy.

More help…

When going to bed, put a few drops lavender spike or eucalyptus oil on your pillow if your nose is blocked to help you breathe more easily through the night, and Witches Gold in a burner to kill off the airborne viruses. Also inhale it from a tissue through the day

At the first sign of a cough, massage some carrier oil with added eucalyptus or Niaouli into the neck, back and chest and take some Echinacea or thyme to help to avoid it turning into a chest infection. Drink lots of herbal teas and stay away from dairy products as they just increase the mucus and make matters worse (and that includes chocolate even though you are feeling rotten).

These few remedies should help minimize the infection and help the body restore balance as soon as possible. Although I get a cold at the change of season every season (I believe it helps the immune system keep up with the viruses), my seasonal colds are usually in and out in about 3 days if I stick to doing this lot. Hope this info helps you too