I'm starting to get sick! What can I do to ward it off?

Rest; Fluids; Chicken broth/soup; Vitamin C; Echinacea; take decongestants and advil; keep your germs to yourself.

You can do a salt water flush especially if your sinuses are involved. This is a bit nasty. But you mix in some salt and water (¼ tsp salt to ½ cup water). Then you plug one nostril. Snort it up the other nostril. Spit it out your mouth. Switch nostrils. Until it is all used up.

I would also ditto @hearkat and recommend lots of Vit C and Rest. Also Advil.

Emergen-C

@hearkat Echinacea… do I go find some in a field or is it in a certain OTC medicine or what?

@RedPowerLady that is so gross I think I would rather be sick.

@all- is the advil just for symptoms or will it actually help prevent infection?

Ibuprofen or Tylenol will just help ease the symptoms and may help you sleep/rest easier.

@SpatzieLover thats what I thought.

I have been eating alot of hummus lately, think this has any effect?

No, but it’s good for you, so I’d keep eating it ;)

If you normally work out, I’d keep that up as well. There are some pretty convincing studies that show working out boosts the immune system (don’t go over doing it though…nothing more than you’d usually do)

I have been trying to get myself to work out, but in the morning is the only time I can, and it’s really cold when I wake up, and I am also sleepy. :/ lol

@patg7590 I agree. It’s nasty! It works though. Some people know how to do it so it’s a bit less gross but this is the way my doctor has told me to do it. Yuck!

I swear by V8 V Fusion. Every time I feel something coming on, I drink a ton of it.

@SarasWhimsy hmmm how about V8 splash? I have that….

As far as I know, Vitamin C doesn’t prevent you from getting sick, and it doesn’t help when you are already sick. It seems that if it is taken regularly before you get sick, you are often sick a shorter time. I think that you’ll just have to take it easy and ride it out

@oratio It can work to help reduce colds according to some studies:
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/vitamin-c-benefits.htm

It’s always worked for my family as well, from personal experience.

I take EMERGEN-C as SOON as I feel the slightest bit of sickness. It always works and I take it about every 5 hours or so. Get it at your local grocery store or Wal-mart. I LOVE IT!

@wickedbetty how much is it?

At like a small store, like wallgreens or Raleys, or a drug store, it will be like 11 dollars for a big of like 60 packets… Costco has big boxes for like 14 dollars and you get twice the amount. Walmart has the best price I have found, about 7 dollars. I like the tangerine falvor best. The red flavor sucks… Good luck to you!

sorry… forgot to tell you, you dissolve it in water and drink it. It can be hard to find, but it usually hide on the very top or the very bottom shelf.

@wickedbetty and I was about to snort the stuff…

shilolo had a great response here: http://www.fluther.com/disc/8568/are-there-homeopathic-analogs-to-antibiotics/#quip85090

Get thee to a decongestant. Stat.

haha, well, ya never know…

My old boss, an amateur nutritionist, used to say this: up your Vitamin C intake to 1000 mg (more than that is just wasted because you flush it) and drink water until your pee runs clear. My doctor pooh-poohed the Vitamin C bit, and I agreed that he was probably right but said that I was going to take it anyway. He laughed and said, “Well, it isn’t going to hurt you.”

I am susceptible to colds and viruses, and they can be very dangerous for me. So I start babying them at the first sign, with measures like that, and balancing rest against keeping busy just as if nothing were wrong, and anything else that sounds plausible. It all may just be psychological, but two out of three times I am able to brazen out an oncoming cold this way. The third time, I can’t tun fast enough and the cold catches me, but I keep on with the babying tactics and take whatever seems to help—Sudafed, Thera-Flu, tea, echinacea, whatever—and usually get off lightly even when tougher souls around me are being brought down.

@patg7590: Sorry – just got home from the gym.
Echinacea is a natural herb that you can purchase in the vitamin aisle or health food store, and it is also an ingredient in some cold medicines – especially cough drops.

You don’t need health insurance for a cold. I would never go to the doctor for a cold. If you already caught it—too late. Keep yourself well hydrated and get all of the sleep you can (don’t work out!). If your mucous is green you need an antibiotic, but if it just is a normal cold it will run it’s course in a week. For congestion I think the most effective med is Drixoral kept in the pharmacy, but no prescription needed. Ibuprofen if you have to drag yourself to work will make you feel better even if you don’t have a fever, 400 mg with food (if you weigh over 180 I would make it 600 mg), I would only take it in the morning for work, no need to overmedicate, takes 45 minutes to kick in.

The best thing is to avoid the cold in the first place, wash your hands and don’t touch your face.