Here's my advice to myself and my friends, based on years of getting colds. As an asthmatic in the rainy, moldy, pollen-filled Northwest, I have had a lot of experience! This is what works for me.
A "cold" is a viral infection by a virus that attacks your nasal lining cells. A virus latches onto a nasal lining cell and injects its own DNA, so that the cell becomes a factory to fill itself with virus copies until it bursts and releases its new viruses, spreading the disease.
Your body will fight it off by making a gummy mucus - a "runny nose" - to wash out those viruses and dead cells. It will also produce antibodies to block and kill the virus. Your nose and mouth are connected so the mucus will mostly drain down into your esophagus and then stomach, where strong acid and enzymes destroy the virus. Or a little might drip out your nose, if you let it.
How can you help this fight? Well, help the mucus do its job, while preventing any secondary infection. (Secondary happens because all those dead nose cells are great habitats for bacteria. You can tell when bacteria is growing because your nose will clog with yellow-green muck.
So the key is to keep yellow-green muck from clogging your nose, throat, bronchai or sinuses.)
1) First, wash your hands often, especially after touching danger surfaces and before touching your face. This helps keep others from getting sick, and protects you from getting sicker.
2) Take zinc and vitamin C as soon as you get that first clear nasal drip. Your nose will first drip clear water until mucus and dead cells start appearing. Drink fluids. Try spicy soups. Whatever helps your nose run.
3) Don't exhaust yourself. Exercise is good, but in moderation. Sweating seems to cause your nose to open and clear itself, so that's good.
4) Try a hot compress or heating pad one your nose/sinuses. Heat will bring blood flow, which helps with antibody and mucus flow.
5) While you are awake, try to help your nose clear itself, by sucking (not blowing) your nose, to move the waste into your stomach. Blowing is bad for me, because it pushes the virus mucus up into your sinuses - more on that below. I generally do NOT take decongestants (oxymetazoline like Afrin) in the daytime, unless I have to do a business meeting or the like; the Afrin dries your nose, which does NOT clear the virus. I do use a saline spray and a personal vaporizer to help wash out my nose. If your do spray something in your nose, see below.
6) At night, try to keep your nose clear enough that you do not mouth-breathe. I do this by sucking my nose clear if I'm awake. And if my nose starts getting overwhelmed and closing up, then I use a decongestant like oxymetazoline (Afrin, etc.) BUT I try to make ONE QUIRT work for a night.
I think it is critical to keep your nose a little useable, and also to NOT BLOW diseased material up into your sinuses. You should also try to keep your sinuses draining. They drain through little tubes that go into the top of your nasal arch. If your nose/sinus starts to get really closed up despite (1)..(6), you'll need some medicine.
How I spray medicine in my nose:
I try to spray the minimum medicine. Using a lot of decongestant is very bad because (a) it will drain into your throat and irritate it, and (b) it will cause rebound congestion and get you dependent on it.
(A) I try to get at least on nostril clear enough to get some air through it. I do any of (1)..(6) above, sucking one clear.
(B) I spray the ONE SQUIRT of medicine into my best clear-ish nostril, while breathing gently in JUST while you squirt - you don't want to breathe that medicine past your nasal area.
(C) I stop my nose breathing until I can turn my head upside down(!!). By being upside down, gravity will help keep that medicine in my nose, instead of draining down my throat. And it will get the medicine into the TOP of my nose, where tiny tubes connect my nose to my sinuses. Some medicine to get to my sinus areas, opening those tubes.
(D) Once my head is (mostly) upside down, I sniff rapidly in-and-out, like a dog sniffing for scent. This sniffing moves the medicine back and forth in my nose, spreading it everywhere. A couple of inches into your nose, the two nasal passages merge into one, so this sniffing will move the medicine into the other nostril. Your nose also has a set of "fins" inside it - this sniffing coats those fins.
(E) If I have a sinus involvement already (it's been a while for me!) then I may hold my nose a blow, like clearing my ears for an airplane landing, but with my head upside down. That forces the medicine (and unfortunately the diseased mucus) into my sinuses. So I only do this if my sinuses are already in trouble.
After 30-60 seconds, I'm done.
Towards the end of your cold, you will always get some bacteria. If you get a little cough, it means some of that crap is draining into your bronchia. Get it out. I recommend:
1) take a shower of hot water
2) get on your knees and put your head way down
3) breathe out, out, out until you are literally squeezing that stuff out of your lungs
4) Cough and spit that crap out.
5) Be Careful! Standing up again can make you dizzy! And breathing out hard can make you dizzy! So try this carefully!
No magic here. I just focus on keeping bacteria from getting into my sinuses and bronchia.
A "cold" is a viral infection by a virus that attacks your nasal lining cells. A virus latches onto a nasal lining cell and injects its own DNA, so that the cell becomes a factory to fill itself with virus copies until it bursts and releases its new viruses, spreading the disease.
Your body will fight it off by making a gummy mucus - a "runny nose" - to wash out those viruses and dead cells. It will also produce antibodies to block and kill the virus. Your nose and mouth are connected so the mucus will mostly drain down into your esophagus and then stomach, where strong acid and enzymes destroy the virus. Or a little might drip out your nose, if you let it.
How can you help this fight? Well, help the mucus do its job, while preventing any secondary infection. (Secondary happens because all those dead nose cells are great habitats for bacteria. You can tell when bacteria is growing because your nose will clog with yellow-green muck.
So the key is to keep yellow-green muck from clogging your nose, throat, bronchai or sinuses.)
1) First, wash your hands often, especially after touching danger surfaces and before touching your face. This helps keep others from getting sick, and protects you from getting sicker.
2) Take zinc and vitamin C as soon as you get that first clear nasal drip. Your nose will first drip clear water until mucus and dead cells start appearing. Drink fluids. Try spicy soups. Whatever helps your nose run.
3) Don't exhaust yourself. Exercise is good, but in moderation. Sweating seems to cause your nose to open and clear itself, so that's good.
4) Try a hot compress or heating pad one your nose/sinuses. Heat will bring blood flow, which helps with antibody and mucus flow.
5) While you are awake, try to help your nose clear itself, by sucking (not blowing) your nose, to move the waste into your stomach. Blowing is bad for me, because it pushes the virus mucus up into your sinuses - more on that below. I generally do NOT take decongestants (oxymetazoline like Afrin) in the daytime, unless I have to do a business meeting or the like; the Afrin dries your nose, which does NOT clear the virus. I do use a saline spray and a personal vaporizer to help wash out my nose. If your do spray something in your nose, see below.
6) At night, try to keep your nose clear enough that you do not mouth-breathe. I do this by sucking my nose clear if I'm awake. And if my nose starts getting overwhelmed and closing up, then I use a decongestant like oxymetazoline (Afrin, etc.) BUT I try to make ONE QUIRT work for a night.
I think it is critical to keep your nose a little useable, and also to NOT BLOW diseased material up into your sinuses. You should also try to keep your sinuses draining. They drain through little tubes that go into the top of your nasal arch. If your nose/sinus starts to get really closed up despite (1)..(6), you'll need some medicine.
How I spray medicine in my nose:
I try to spray the minimum medicine. Using a lot of decongestant is very bad because (a) it will drain into your throat and irritate it, and (b) it will cause rebound congestion and get you dependent on it.
(A) I try to get at least on nostril clear enough to get some air through it. I do any of (1)..(6) above, sucking one clear.
(B) I spray the ONE SQUIRT of medicine into my best clear-ish nostril, while breathing gently in JUST while you squirt - you don't want to breathe that medicine past your nasal area.
(C) I stop my nose breathing until I can turn my head upside down(!!). By being upside down, gravity will help keep that medicine in my nose, instead of draining down my throat. And it will get the medicine into the TOP of my nose, where tiny tubes connect my nose to my sinuses. Some medicine to get to my sinus areas, opening those tubes.
(D) Once my head is (mostly) upside down, I sniff rapidly in-and-out, like a dog sniffing for scent. This sniffing moves the medicine back and forth in my nose, spreading it everywhere. A couple of inches into your nose, the two nasal passages merge into one, so this sniffing will move the medicine into the other nostril. Your nose also has a set of "fins" inside it - this sniffing coats those fins.
(E) If I have a sinus involvement already (it's been a while for me!) then I may hold my nose a blow, like clearing my ears for an airplane landing, but with my head upside down. That forces the medicine (and unfortunately the diseased mucus) into my sinuses. So I only do this if my sinuses are already in trouble.
After 30-60 seconds, I'm done.
Towards the end of your cold, you will always get some bacteria. If you get a little cough, it means some of that crap is draining into your bronchia. Get it out. I recommend:
1) take a shower of hot water
2) get on your knees and put your head way down
3) breathe out, out, out until you are literally squeezing that stuff out of your lungs
4) Cough and spit that crap out.
5) Be Careful! Standing up again can make you dizzy! And breathing out hard can make you dizzy! So try this carefully!
No magic here. I just focus on keeping bacteria from getting into my sinuses and bronchia.
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