That dreaded feeling...

[Verdandi]

Well, two days later I'm starting to think that my body successfully beat back the attackers before they got deeply entrenched. No sore throat yet and that's usually the very first undeniable symptom for me. So happily I haven't needed any of these remedies yet, aside from the echinacea (thanks for the notes on that!). But now I'm getting tempted to print this as reference for next time! I love Doomspark's system, only problem being that I'd have to skip the cats since they'd add allergies to the cold. Although if I'm sufficiently stuffed up I might be able to substitute dogs (less allergic to them) and get enough comfort to make up for the subsequent itching.

This is turning into a recipes for sickness version of the recipes thread in OOC, I love it

[Varlik]

Personnally I've always found sitting in a nice hot (wet) sauna for about 1/2 - 1 hour at 10 - 20 min intervals kills a cold fairly quickly. Luckily I have access to both dry and wet saunas for free so I use them massively during the winter and even during the summer if it's not warm enough for me.

[maddenus]

I Find that wrapping up

Wrap up really really hot when you go to bed. Make sure you are sweating then sleep lots. I find that I burn out a cold or flu better that way.

[ArrakeenNaedShoj]

I only mentioned the stuff about antibiotics for referrence, because many people(myself included up until a few years ago) believe that they work on viruses as well as bacteria.

I also mentioned that they work better on the Flu than a cold, because in most instances a cold is *just* the viral infection, while the flu is often accompanied by various bacterial infections(variations of strep being one of the more common) which is one of the reasons why the flu can often be more serious symptom wise than a cold. Keeping those added infections down with antibiotics while the body fights of the primary infection speeds the healing time and lowers the severity of the symptoms.

Of course, any time you take any antibiotic, for whatever reason, the minute you are off of it, you will need to replace as much of the good bacteria in your body as you can. Accidophilus(common yogurt) for example, lives in the stomach and is necessary for much of the digestive process but is usually killed off almost entirely after any antibiotic regiment.

Mind you, I am not a doctor, pharmacist, nurse, nutritionist or apothecary. I am just a guy that spent about a year and a half in and out of the emergency room with pretty much every known throat and sinus infection and am relaying what I learned from my experiences. I will never deny the fact that I may be wrong, and often am, so take everything I say with a grain of salt please.