How to Treat the Common Cold

Winter is a time when the common cold and the flu start to spread around. It’s especially common for children and college students to obtain easily since they are constantly surrounded by other students.  There is a simple recipe for prevention of catching a cold, and helping to treat it if you already have it.

When I was in the 8th grade I had a miserable cold, I could barely focus but I didn’t want to stay home from school. My teacher finally called my parents and told them I was too sick to be in school. My dad made a very strong batch of ginger tea, which completely wiped out my cold in a couple of days.  I also recently made this tea for my boyfriend who caught a cold. His mom also had the cold, but she wasn’t treated with the ginger tea. My boyfriend was better in about a week, but I believe his mother is still sick. So this tea is very helpful if it is prepared well and made at a strong concentration.

Ingredients:

Ginger Root
Water

Appliances:

Pot
Cheese grater (or some type of shredder)
Strainer (optional)

Directions:

Start a pot of water on the stove until it comes to a boil. Cut the ginger root in half and begin to grate it. If you do not have a grater you can just cut the ginger into small slices, but I find the tea is more effective if you shred the ginger because the concentration is stronger. After you have grated a lot of ginger put it into a pot of boiling water.  Allow it to boil until the water turns to a deep yellowish color. The more ginger you put in the water the stronger the tea will be. The strongest tea is the best. After it has turned a deep yellow color you can choose to either strain out the ginger or leave the ginger in your tea to chew on while you drink. You will know the tea is strong enough if it burns your throat a little bit when you drink it, like it tastes spicy. If you don’t wish to acquire a taste to the ginger then add a bit of lemon or honey.

Alternative remedy:

If your throat starts to feel like you are about to get a sore throat immediately get some ginger root and chew on it. I know, it’s not pleasant but it sure beats getting a horrible cold and have to take medicine until it heals, which could take weeks. You only have to chew on the ginger root a little while for about a day or so. Make sure the ginger is cut up into chewable pieces. You don’t have to swallow the ginger, just the juice--as if it were chewing gum. I did this all the time in high school, worked beautifully.

Hopefully this will help some people out! I always recommend ginger tea to my friends if they get sick.