BEATING SPRINGTIME CHEST COLDS

How to live with a chest cold infection and not let it get you down! No, there is no cure for the common cold, there are antibiotics for bacterial infections, but most of the time an infection of the chest is viral and not bacterial, so antibiotics will not work on a viral infection and their side effects will just worsen your condition. You just have to tough it out, be strong, treat yourself with special kindnesses, lower your expectations of your abilities that are easy to do when you are well but are a chore to do when you are sick.

Sometimes for some people a 50 mg. dosage 1x per day of the mineral tablet zinc while you have the head cold will be of some help. This works on some people and not on others. It increases the abilities of the immune system to be able to fight off the chest cold so it lasts for a shorter time than it would without the zinc.

Keep calm, prop your head up with pillows on your bed, cough when your throat is tickled and hold your hand over your mouth so the germs do not spread.

Use a vaporizer appliance in your bedroom to moisten the air, or if you have radiators put a pan of water over them that will heat up when the radiator is turned on and the steam will rise, or you could heat up water to boiling on your stove.

Taking vitamin C will help, each day you should take 250-500 mgs of vitamin C, and/or eat fresh oranges. This will help some but even with vitamin C in your diet, you may still be susceptible to catch the germ.

Try to do what you usually do, doing what you love to do each day, continuing your daily schedule, not to let the head cold limit your happiness, to still go to parties, to work, etc. but not while you are in the 5 day phase of still being contagious, not to spread your germs onto others and be the cause of another catching your cold.

Drink plenty of herb teas and pure water, reduce your intake of foods, your appetite will be lessened anyway so you will not be as hungry as you are when you are well.

There are over-the-counter medicines you can take that can reduce the fluids in your nose and keep you drier, but they all have side effects that could cause you to feel more unpleasant than without them. Most cold medicines cause drowsiness and this weakens the body's strength causing the body to have a harder time fighting off the infection and your cold will just last longer.

Stay indoors, or if you must go outside be sure to wear a hat over your head that covers your ears and a scarf that covers your throat. Do not be outside for long periods of time.

Keep washing your hands and showering once a day as you usually do, but do not wet your head with water, to postpone hair washing until when you are better.

Let your family and friends know you are sick so they can pray to G-d for you to heal, for them to sing the Mishe-Barakh prayer for you to get better and to again be healthy.

You, yourself pray to G-d, petition G-d to heal you and thank G-d for every moment of your life, whether you are in health or not.