How to Prevent A Cold – An Age Old Safe Proven Home Remedy

Author: Art Saborio

As we go into cold and flu season, here is a tip on how to prevent a cold or flu. Have you ever wondered if you mom or grand mother where right about preventing or treating a cold or flu? I remember being a kid and my mother wrapping me in warm blankets to make me sweat it out, putting a cloth over my forehead with rubbing alcohol to bring down my fever or making me gargle with salt to cure a sore throat.

Those were the days of home remedies, old wife tales, and other uncommon approaches to preventing or ridding a body of a virus. Everyone seemed to have their own take on how to apply, mix or methods to reaching the best results. Now it seems that one of those old remedies has scientific backing.

Gargling with simple salt can prevent a cold or flu. Yes, you heard me right; it has been scientifically shown to prevent the virus. Not only does it help after the first symptoms are felt, but it can actually prevent a cold or flu from entering the body. With so much emphasis on the flu season, this news is not only good, but needed.
An observation of four hundred people was conducted for sixty days. The study was carried out during the peak cold and flu season. A part of the group was instructed to gargle with a mixture of salt and water three times a day. When the results were examined, they found those that gargle had a forty percent drop in infections related to the upper respiratory tract.

Not only did this study show a preventative edge, it also gave weight behind the nature of the method. Those that did get some symptoms found their sore throat or stuffy nose improving or disappearing.

How Does It Work?
When you look at the way this works, it is quite simple and extremely effective. Salt pulls liquids from the infected, swollen tissue. This is the tissue that might be causing you pain in the way of a swollen throat or blocked nasal passage. Once the moisture is pulled away from the infected tissue, it works to loosen and clear your mucous passages. By clearing out these passages, you effectively remove bacteria, allergens and mostly anything else that is trying to make a person sick.

Instructions On How To Use Salt As A Preventive Measure:
Here is the method for properly getting the results shown above.

1. Take a regular six or eight ounce drinking cup.
   
2. Warm the water in a microwave, stove or electric tea-pot (Caution - make sure the water is warm and not hot.
   
3. Add 1 teaspoon of regular table salt. (Sea salt can work as well)
   
4. Put a bit in your mouth, tilt your head back and gargle. Count to ten and spit it out into the sink.
   
5. Continue to do this until all the water is gone from the cup.
   
6. Perform the steps above three times a day. Start in the morning when you wake up, then in mid-afternoon and finally before going to bed.
   

Do this during the peak flu and cold season as a preventive way to stay healthy. Also use it at the first sign of a cold or flu. It is an old home remedy that works as good today as it did hundreds of years ago.
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