Brrrrrr!
 

Now that the nights are drawing in and the leaves are turning colour and the first gale of the autumn is about to blow in from the North Atlantic, my thoughts have turned to cold remedies. I like to be prepared! Being a Taurean and a smoker whenever I get a cold it usually settles on my chest and hangs around for weeks.

My great great Grandmother, lime-wash lizzie, (Acrylic had not been invented then and she couldn't spell distemper) while she wasn't organising the Moaning Old Washer Women and Mill Girls Almalgamated Union, of which she was a founder member, swore by boiled onions as a sure and certain preventative for the common cold. She could very often be found during the winter months - September to July - with her chest and throat swathed in poultices made of boiled onions. She claimed that she had never caught a cold in her life and claimed this as vindication of her onion obsession. The fact that nobody wanted to venture within several feet of her thus reducing the possibility of her catching anything to zero seems to have been lost on the barmy old dear.

Does anyone have any favourite cold remedies they would like to share?

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urrgghhh dont fancy stinking of onions LOL tho they say garlic is good to prevent colds, me i prefer hot blackcurrant lemsip when im full of a cold altho aromatherapy pure lemon oil on a tissue or poultice is good for stuffy noses.

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Ooooh & not forgeting a good nip of brandy well if it doesn't get rid of the cold after several glasses of that doubt you'll feel it as much anyway pmsl :)

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Whiskey squeeze of lemon and a teaspoon of sugar in hat water. That before bed and I feel better and it helps sweat it out. :D

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Theres many variations with the whiskey rather than sugar they put honey instead.

mmmmmm Russians have the ole voddie & its cold there in winter :)

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Once tried it with sugar and hated it didnt taste the same and as for vodie russians drink so much of it they dont feel the cold or anything else for that matter.

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:rofl38: Spuggie thats very true everything goes numb if you have plently of it LOL

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Makes me wonder how russia manages anything with their medicinal drinking. Mind you with those long cold nights what else is there to do.....

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Mmmmmmm there are other ways of keeping warm & when the voddies too much LOL;)

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Yes making something say like a deerskin coat and fur hat as well as..........iceskating.

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Blimey they know how to have a good time dont they :eek: LOL

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Try anything else and it would fall of with the cold. Even icecles snap.
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

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:rofl38: ouch sounds painful or bits would freeze together :eek: :lol:

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Brings a new meaning to frozen meat and veg. :D

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Ooo u have to bang them about in order to seperate them :D

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Could be worse if they use a pan of hot water to do the thawing. :eek:

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:rofl38: :eek: things crack dont they ????:surprise:

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Depends on the size of the crack. A small one is ok when just below freeing while a large one is better when below -25 degrees so we are ok in the uk. Besides wouldnt want the fuel bill or the medical ones for that matter :eek:

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:surprise: Blimey spuggie one ponders how you know about these things:rofl38:

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Worked in -15 degrees and thats without a wind chill factor and have seen the outcome from certain acts of nature and trust me there are place frostbite aint welcome. :D

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Blimey :surprise: i bet there isn't an all ouchie, geez hate to think what you mean acts of nature:confused: you did there LOL

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Bladder emptying :D Unless you had something else in mind. :eek:

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PMSL!!!!!!! be no good for tinks then puddles would be least of her probs there LOL mind you neither would mine stand the cold thats what starts it off:rofl38:

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If tinks is about then i would need ice skates.
:D

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If you have a bad chest, crush some garlic rub it on the bottom of your feet, put socks on..........a couple of hours later, you will be able to smell the garlic on your breath, and your chest will feel easier.........................:D

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You would be able to keep dracula away with that lot nevermind a cold. :eek:

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Cheap version of lemsip... boiled lemonade & two paracetamols I'm drinking mine now tastes great has the same effect and less than a quarter of the price

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when we were kids you got your chest rubbed with camphorated oil ,,and a dose of olive oil and raspberry viniger :beer58:

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hot lemonade & 2 paracetamols..taste nicer than lemsip sachets!

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Maybe the best idea woulbe not to catch a cold in the first place. :alright:

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my nan swore by a dish of boiled onions with a towel over your head ! it stinks vile but it works.

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Don't have kids - they seem to be a source of a lot of colds

We had hardly any before we had children. In the winter our son used to get them all the time from nursery - he used to clear up over christmas when he was at home, but as soon as he went back in the new year he picked another one up!

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Lemsip with a shot of Gin in it. Tastes liek gin and bitter lemon, teh booze helps you sleep whilst teh drugs help you sweta it out

Or..

Brandy/Whisk(e)y all ins. I prefer Jif Lime Juice to Lemon Juice but it must be honey not sugar.

Bene and hot is also nice if you have a cold or and upset tummy.

Hangovers are treated with Indian Brandy in hot water. :)

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My nan swore by ZamBuk... She used it for everything from rubbing on muscles and around joints for rheumatic pains and aches to rubbing on the chest for colds. There was always a smell of ZamBuk in her house. I recently came across some at a shop in Skipton arcade. It made me smile when I saw the tin. They were also selling dog oil which she also used for her arthritis. I do remember her giving me a good dose of syrup of figs as a kid as a cure for my not going to the loo for about 4 days....... needless to say, I didn't get off the loo for about 4 days after that......:D

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Pmsl Vorlon so true, ive been nowt but ill since kids went to school im sure they collect them for me so they can take advantage:rolleyes:

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well im just getting over my cold...had it since about sunday...dosed myself up with lemsip and paracetamols!!! also plenty of sleep. and if youve got a blocked stuffy nose then rub vick's vapo stuff on your chest..hmm actually im feeling a bit stuffy...any volunteers to give me a hand?? ;)

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My Old Auntie used to swear by a mixture of Dark Rum, Honey.....equal quantities mixed with the juice of two lemons....the concoction was thoroughly mixed and was taken by the spoonful every 4 hours from the onset of a sore throat......I think the equal quantites were a big table spoon.....table spoons DID seem to be bigger than the ones that we use now....I think they held something in the region of 30 mls......she swore by it and colds used to vanish almost overnight......if you did get a bad chest you would be put into a brownpaper vest and your chest would be rubbed with goose grease.....my how that stuff stank.....no-one would sit next to you in class.

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well at least it stopped it spreading!. One of my pet hates at work is those people who come in absolutely smothered in a cold/flu/lurgy. We work in a fully air con'd building and all it does is spread the germs around all 1000 employees in this building. I wouln't mind if they would lose money over it but we all get 6 months sick on full pay!

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Whisky, lemon juice, honey, 4 cloves, top it up with hot water.

Other than that, go to bed with a bottle of gin and a hot brunette.

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I read in the paper the other day that Procter and Gamble (I think) are going to market a new product in the next few months which claims to reduce the effects of the common cold quite drastically and can reduce recovery time by something like a third. Apparently it is a gel that you squirt up your nose. Rhinoviruses prefer an acidic environment and the gel is alkaline. A quick squirt three or four times a day and they soon get the message!

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Another trick that is supposed to work is to coat the inside of the nostrils with petroleum jelly......apparently this traps the virus in the nose so it doesn't get into your system.....I haven't tried it so I can't vouch for the efficacy of such a remedy.

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