Common Cold

Easy Health Options Staff

Read before hanging out under the mistletoe

A kiss under the mistletoe is a longstanding holiday tradition, steeped in ancient lore. Depending on the health of your kissing partner, when you indulge in a 10-second kiss, you exchange much more than good tidings…

Joyce Hollman

The not-so-surprising reason these OTC decongestants may be banned

With cold and flu season approaching, you need to hear an ugly truth: Many decongestants we’ve turned to for sinus pain and pressure have been deemed ineffective and will leave drugstore shelves soon. Here’s why some work and some don’t…

Carolyn Gretton

Using saltwater to shorten colds and stop the spread

Households with children know they often bring home more than homework. That makes it hard to avoid whatever “crud” is going around. Unless you know the saline solution trick that activates an immune defense…

Joyce Hollman

Recipe for recovery: The science in chicken soup

Is chicken soup the best recovery for a cold? A lot of cultures worldwide swear by it and have for thousands of years. Here’s the science behind how chicken soup, done right, can speed up your recovery from colds and flu this winter…

Tracey G. Ingram, AuD

What garlic can do for the common cold

Garlic has been used medicinally for centuries. And modern research has found it can stand up to many strains of bacteria. But what about the common cold? Let’s see how it stacks up…

Joyce Hollman

Feed a cold, starve a fever (or leave it be for faster recovery)

A fever is the body’s reaction to infection. Turning the heat up improves the performance of immune cells and stresses the pathogen behind the illness. So is it any wonder that the practice of medicating fever is coming into question or that skipping it could clear infection in half the time?