The Common Cold - A Holistic Approach

http://www.karenrothnutrition.com While knowing that prevention is key to avoiding the common cold, its of little comfort once you are hit with one. The following are some key Dos and Donts if you are one of the unfortunate ones to catch a cold this season.

What to Increase:

Eat foods rich in Quercetin. Quercetin is a flavonoid found in many foods and besides being a powerful antioxidant, it reduces inflammation. Quercetin also contains natural anti-histamine and anti-inflammatory properties. Foods high in Quercetin include:




Onions
Apples (with skin)
Blueberries
Grapes
Black Beans
Red Cabbage


Drink plenty of filtered water and vegetable broths. These support the mucous membranes of the respiratory tract by keeping them moist and allowing them to better function.

Drinking ginger tea may reduce the intensity of a cold.

Get plenty of sleep. Rest allows the immune system the time it needs to rid the body of unwanted bacteria and viruses.

Vitamin C in high doses supports the immune system and may reduce the duration and severity of the common cold. Start with 1000 mg three times a day, and increase by 500 mg with each dose to bowel tolerance (diarrhea). Everyone has a different tolerance level for Vitamin C.

For a sore throat, natural ginger syrup can ease inflammation and reduce pain. My favorite is Ginger Tussin Syrup™ which can be found at: http://store01.prostores.com/servlet/nutritionalchoice/the-COLD-AND-FLU/Categ... You can also find high dosage Vitamin C in capsule and powder form.

What to Avoid:

•Avoid sugary foods and drinks including fruit juices. Sugar suppresses the immune system and will only prolong a cold.
•Avoid mucous-forming dairy products especially milk.
•Avoid junk food. The body doesnt need the extra burden of detoxifying the additives and preservatives.
•Avoid alcohol and tobacco which decrease immune function.
•Avoid stress which can lead to decreased immune function. What might start off as a common cold could turn into a more chronic condition.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Common cold
• eating healthy
• vitamin c
• cough syrup
• holistic nutrition

[TheLostCat2000]

Nice video but re: stopping inflammation, that's not such a good idea. People take all sorts of things to lower temperature and inflammation, but those are actually needed for a good response. Lowering the 2 only increases cold duration, there's plentiful research out there that supports this. Remember most of the problems from the virus is symptomatic responses, and are quite important to cleanse the virus from the body.

[NutritionalChoice]

Thank you for adding to this video.

[TheLostCat2000]

You're welcome. I'm glad to see also you suggest avoiding alcohol. Right now I have a cold and a friend of mine told me "Take whiskey and lemon and it'll be gone tomorrow, I was surprised to find he actually believed it to work. Sadly there's a lot of myths and bad advice around, but glad to see someone who takes a more relaxed way to give advice. Thanks also for talkng about artificial sweeteners. I've seen them in over the counter cold remedies and I also find it terrible they can sell these.

[NutritionalChoice]

Common sense easy to implement nutrition is my motto. I'm shocked at how many OTC supplements have artificial sweeteners!

[TheLostCat2000]

Good motto! I'm not sure about over there, but still here in the UK we allow Aspartame into our drinks and food, and recently was tested some drinks contained up 100mg per 0.5 litre which was illegal. Not only that I found baby products with both Saccharin and Aspartame in it, which I was under the illusion that it was banned in all BABY products, but I guess that's not the case. Vitamin C pills for kids contain Saccharin and Aspartame in them as well. Pretty sad really that they can do this...

[NutritionalChoice]

Our food and beverage products are loaded with aspartame, sucrolose and acesculfame potassium (ACE-K). It's sickening to me. Most people are getting the majority of that exposure from gums and mints. They don't even think to read the labels of those items.

[TheLostCat2000]

The ironic thing is that they sell those gums as "healthy for teeth and gums", but fail to mention "unhealthy for the rest of your body". I try to tell people to read labels of foods more often, but most people don't even bother. I think people need to be more educated on the danger of some of the ingredients in foods.

Keep the videos coming. I subscribed and look forward to watching and listening more from you.