Best remedies to avoid getting sick?

September 20, 2017 9:11 AM

Mr. Circle and I leave in 3 days for the month-long European vacation of our dreams. I woke up this morning feeling like crap. Congested and exhausted. I blew it off as allergies and took some Flonase, but I'm feeling worse. What is my best defense to keep from getting sick, besides going home and going back to bed?

Added difficulty: a coworker thoughtfully baked myself and another employee a cake for our birthdays, that's being served this afternoon. I'd feel terrible leaving today.

posted by onecircleaday to Health & Fitness (29 answers total)

Best answer: I bet your colleague who likes you so much they they baked a cake for you would feel terrible that you stayed and gutted through miserably eating cake and getting sicker when you could have gone home and rested.
posted by sestaaak at 9:15 AM on September 20, 2017 [20 favorites]

If you're already sick, there is not much you can do. You could try to get some Sudafed, the stuff with pseudoephedrine in it that you have to talk to the pharmacist to get.
posted by Comrade_robot at 9:15 AM on September 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: You go home, take something that knocks you out, like nyquil or benadryl, and you sleep for 24-48 hours. That's the only way I've managed to work my way past the worst of a cold in anything less than a week. I was sick-ish for the next couple of days, but still perfectly functional and able to enjoy the rest of the vacation I got sick in the middle of.

I know it would suck to miss your birthday cake, but if you're sick, you're sick. If you want to feel better enough to enjoy the first few days of your vacation, then you call in sick for the next three days from work and sleep as much as humanly possible. Let Mr. Circle finish the packing, and sleep. Pushing it is what turns a minor head cold into something much grosser.
posted by PearlRose at 9:17 AM on September 20, 2017 [10 favorites]

Best answer: I typically do zinc - the Zicam Cold Remedy rapidmelts - they also have rapidmelts ultra, which you have to take less frequently. It's not proven, but I feel like this reduces the amount of time I am sick. I do not use the spray.

I read recently that salt water gargling can help.

Also, get as much rest as you possibly can, and drink lots of fluids. I enjoy tea - the warmth can help you feel better.

Hope you feel better soon!
posted by needlegrrl at 9:18 AM on September 20, 2017 [5 favorites]

Best answer: There ARE things you can do to shore up your defenses against catching a cold but once you've got one, the only thing that is physically going to help you recover faster is sleeping as much as you can. If you're a person who gets drowsy from OTC cold meds, take these to help you sleep longer. Or (not and, seriously do not mix these two suggestions) one hot toddy. ONE.

Shoot for like 12 hours a day if you can manage it. When you're not asleep, hydrate constantly. Sleeping as much or more than your body demands right now will make the difference between clearing your cold relatively quickly and bouncing back for the beginning of your vacation, or having it drag on for a week plus.

I leave the question of whether or not you leave today up to you, but I stress that sleep is the closest thing you have to a magic bullet here.
posted by superfluousm at 9:23 AM on September 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

If I feel something coming on or if everyone around me is sick and I don't want to catch it, I double (sometimes triple, not sure if this is a good idea or not) up on doses of Emergen-C. It pretty much never fails me and the sickness passes on by.
posted by TurquoiseZebra at 9:24 AM on September 20, 2017 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Go home. Skip the cake. Stop by your local food coop or hippie store and buy 8-10 Power Paks. Emergen-C will work too but Power Paks have less sugar and better minerals IMO. Buy a bottle of chelated zinc. Also buy a pack of oscillococonum. Take as many doses of all three as often as you can. Sleep through everything on your calendar. Do not eat any dairy or sugar. Cross your fingers.

This is usually what I do and it almost always works, or even if I do get sick, it's always super mild and easily cleared up.
posted by stellaluna at 9:26 AM on September 20, 2017 [5 favorites]

Best answer: If you're not too sick yet you can probably prop yourself up temporarily with a combination of sudafed, NSAIDs, caffeine, and lots of water. This will not actually make you less sick or stop you from getting sicker (in fact you may get sicker than you would have otherwise if you just mask your symptoms and power through rather than actually taking care of yourself) but it might temporarily make you feel well enough that you can continue performing more or less as normal for a day or two.

However, if your goal is to avoid being sick on your dream vacation, what you need to do is call in sick and take extra good care of yourself for the next few days. You can still treat the symptoms, but you also need lots of rest, no stress, and plenty of fresh air. If you want to get better fast you need to support and coddle your body rather than placing unnecessary demands on it.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 9:26 AM on September 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: For me, stress seems to be a big factor in whether I get sick and stay sick. Accept that you're under the weather, take care of yourself, and allow yourself to go into vacation mode ASAP, even if that means sleeping continuously for the next few days.

If you're not absolutely flat on your back, I find that getting a little exercise each day (taking a short walk, doing gentle yoga) is helpful when I have a cold, but YMMV. Don't push yourself!
posted by toastedcheese at 9:30 AM on September 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Sleep and fluids. Sleep and fluids. Also, some more sleep and fluids.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:40 AM on September 20, 2017 [6 favorites]

Best answer: Here is my best recipe. Take 1/2 cup of fresh ginger root, and simmer it in two quarts of water for 20 minutes, make sure it does not boil over. then save that liquid. Get a 16 ounce cup, or big glass, and put in honey (to sweeten), lemon juice for the vitamin C and the acidic fluid to cleanse the surfaces of your throat, and add 1/2 tsp tabasco sauce, or 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, for the anti-inflammatory properties. This should taste good, if you like, you can add black tea, or green tea, glass per glass. Drink this all up, and if you can tolerate ibuprofen, take two 200 mg pills, then take a nap. Keep up drinking the tea mix over the next 24 hours, but sleep the full night. The ginger and cayenne are microvascular dilators, and open up, hopefully the receptor sites to receive your own immune system. Fast colds operate by creating inflammation and swelling that blocks your response to the illness. This stuff works for me. When you are out of the ginger base for this, then make some more. If you have dry ginger around, you can use this, using about 1/2 tsp for 16 ounces of boiling tea water. This is my quick fix. You just have to keep up the tea for a couple of days, it makes you feel better all over.
posted by Oyéah at 9:52 AM on September 20, 2017 [8 favorites]

Best answer: For a cold, along with sleeping as much as I can, as much vitamin C as possible and as spicy a sauce as I can manage (on plain white rice usually works for me). A ginger and honey tea is also great.
posted by jeather at 10:12 AM on September 20, 2017

Best answer: I try to roast it out. As soon as I can after the first sign of trouble, I take a blazing hot shower and drink some hot soup with capsaicin in it (Oyéah's tea sounds even better, actually) and throw numerous quilts on the bed and go to sleep under them for as long as possible. I don't eat anything, on the theory that "my body needs the energy it would use digesting food to burn out this virus."

Usually it turns out I was just exhausted and not getting a cold after all and I wake up good as new. Sometimes I was actually getting a cold and on those occasions, unsurprisingly, I wake up with a cold. I realize that the overwhelming likelihood is that none of my rituals have any effect on rhinoviruses, but I don't care: just in case there is anything to the placebo effect, I on purpose choose to believe that in those cases where I get a cold, it's because I "caught it too late."

If I were in your shoes, I would do whatever rituals in this thread appeal to you and also get a supply of suda. I wouldn't use it, though, except on flight days because of the potential for awful, vacation-destroying ear problems from flying while congested.

Don't do those nasal spray things, whatever you do. I used to reach for the Afrin every time I got a cold, but one terrible Christmas eve I knocked out my sense of smell with it and then googled and found out that anosmia can be permanent. It came back, but not for 24 hours, and it was the most terrifying day ever. Never again.
posted by Don Pepino at 10:14 AM on September 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Go home and go right to bed, seriously. (Also, if you're getting sick, staying and eating cake with your coworkers seems like a good way to also get them sick, so you can assuage your guilt about ditching the birthday by remembering that keeping your germs to yourself is actually doing everyone a favor!)

Hydrate constantly, but honestly, the only way I've staved off a cold is by sleeping as much as humanly possible.
posted by Countess Sandwich at 10:14 AM on September 20, 2017 [3 favorites]

Rest and zinc. Cold-eeze or Zicam are my wonder drugs for stopping a cold in its track but you have to take it at the first sign of symptoms. I also take an extra multi-vitamin, i.e. one in the morning and another at night for a few days.
posted by shoesietart at 10:25 AM on September 20, 2017

Age old remedy: "Beef and bed".
Eat some beef (a big fat hamburger, a steak, some vietnamese pho soup, whatever).
Go to bed. Try to sleep for 10 hours.
Works like a charm.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 10:33 AM on September 20, 2017

Go to the doctor and get 'The Shots' -- Decadron & Rocephin.
posted by gregr at 10:44 AM on September 20, 2017

Best answer: Wash your hands lots. And also change your sheets before you get into your bed next, and change your pillow case every time you get back into the bed. Change your toothbrush now and again before you go on vacation. Floss 2x a day. Use a hot or cold compress on your face, whichever sounds like it will feel better to you. Wipe all the door knobs in your house with Clorox wipes. Also your phone and anything else you're touching a lot.

Chicken soup, whatever is your favorite kind that you don't have to cook yourself. If that means opening a can, feel no guilt. All the sleep. Whatever gets water and vitamins into you (if you take anmulti vitamin with a glass of water, great, if you drink an emergency packet, I'm not going to judge...I have a box of hem somewhere). More sleep. Neti pot or other sinus rinse 2x a day (not more!!) Solid food. More sleep. Tea with ginger, honey, lemon (or any citrus). Sleep again.

Definitely leave work now and get started on the sleeping. I would be pissed if you ate cake with me and I got sick. And if I didn't get sick I'd be sad for you if you spent the first days of your trip sick. I bet you can take a slice of cake with you to eat later. Cake will probably help.
posted by bilabial at 10:51 AM on September 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

I swear I once stopped a cold in its tracks by making Julia Child's garlic soup recipe. I was starting to feel the scratchy throat, a little run down; made the soup and was as good as new the next day. I have not tried it again because you just don't deploy that kind of magic unless you need to.

1 head of garlic — each clove separated and peeled. (about 16 cloves)
2 quarts of water
1/4 tsp of sage
1/4 tsp of thyme
1/2 bay leaf
4 parsley sprigs
3 tbl olive oil +
3 egg yolks
an additional 4 tbls olive oil

Peel the garlic. Add all ingredients up to egg yolks in the water, and boil for 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Beat egg yolks in the serving bowl and slowly add in the additional 4 tablespoons oil, beating with whisk the whole time. It’s like you’re making mayonnaise.

Just before serving, add one ladleful of the hot soup to the egg mixture, slowly. Beat some more. Pour the rest of the soup broth into a the bowl, through a strainer. Smush the garlic gloves through strainer to squeeze out extra juice at the end.
posted by Liesl at 10:53 AM on September 20, 2017 [7 favorites]

I don't put a lot of stock in home remedies but this one has reliably kept me on my feet when my wife and two small kids have been laid up with whatever is going around.

Pour a glass of red wine.
Into the glass, crush 1-2 large or 2-3 small cloves garlic.
Allow to rest 10-15 minutes.
Consume as quickly as possible.
Sleep through the night.

Best I can figure, the alcohol from the wine carries some beneficial compound from the garlic into the liver and the blood. I'm not a medical researcher or even a scientist.
posted by gauche at 10:59 AM on September 20, 2017

Response by poster: OP here. I went home. I'm working on Oyeah's recipe*, drinking a ton of water and chicken broth, cloroxing all the doorknobs and my phone, and am about to PTFO in my pajamas. With my cat.

Fingers crossed.

*I have crystallized ginger but it has sugar in it. Can I use this after I run out of fresh ginger, and skip the honey?
posted by onecircleaday at 11:00 AM on September 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

Best answer: When I bake cakes for occasions, it's partly an excuse to have some fresh delicious cake myself without having to eat the whole thing. You'll be missed at your own party, but maybe not as much as you think.
posted by amtho at 11:01 AM on September 20, 2017

You can absolutely use the crystallized ginger. The sugar is fine, you might just use less honey than usual. The lemon/honey/ginger drink is highly personal.
posted by bilabial at 11:23 AM on September 20, 2017

If you are still stuffed up when you fly I suggest decongestants and nose drops. Pressure changes are really painful and I was once deafened for 24 hours after flying with a cold.
posted by Botanizer at 11:28 AM on September 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

Yes, I'll just mention one more time that you should definitely take decongestants if you're going to fly and are feeling stuffed up. My aunt blew out an eardrum going to...? China? I can't remember but it was someplace where she was really looking forward to going but not that familiar with, and first thing upon stepping off the plane she had to somehow find a doctor to help deal with it while jetlagged and disoriented and in agony and partially deaf--and I think she had balance problems, too. Also, she had a cold. You won't have a cold, though, because you're probably just exhausted and your cat is going to heal you while you sleep. It's definite. Bon voyage!
posted by Don Pepino at 12:29 PM on September 20, 2017

There is no need to change your toothbrush if you have a viral URI. If you end up taking antibiotics for whatever you have (which I highly doubt will happen), then you might consider it, but it's still not strictly required. Changing your toothbrush now when you feel like you might be coming down with something will only remedy your wallet from being too heavy by a couple of dollars.

My suggestion would be to stock up on real Sudafed, ibuprofen or Tylenol, and maybe some Throat Coat teabags or anesthetic cough drops. Whether you recover by your time of departure or still feel less than perfect and need some extra comforts while traveling, you should be able to make it to Europe and will certainly be able to enjoy most of your month long trip.
posted by telegraph at 1:43 PM on September 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

You can boil the crystallized ginger and use honey if you need more sweet. It should be just sweet enough to be pleasant, spicy enough you sweat a bit, tart enough that you salivate. Thanks for trying this recipe.
posted by Oyéah at 2:54 PM on September 20, 2017

Your co-workers can freeze a piece of cake for your return.
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:06 PM on September 20, 2017

Response by poster: Following up - I took almost everyone's advice and drank the ginger-tea that Oyeah recommended. I feel much better today. Even came back at work. I think the culprit was too much stress and bad allergies. The Sudafed dried everything out and the benadryl knocked me out. The tea was fantastic - warmed me right up and helped me sleep.

Side note - I had no idea that you could damage your hearing by flying with a cold. Yikes. Mr. Circle bought two sets of depressurizing plane earplugs just in case.

Looking forward to our vacation (and bringing plane earplugs, Sudafed and Emergen-C just to be safe).

Thanks, all.

Edited to add: this is proof that cats really do have magical healing powers.
posted by onecircleaday at 8:54 AM on September 21, 2017 [1 favorite]