Common Cold: What to Do?

Rhinitis in the context of a cold is usually harmless and disappears by itself, especially if you actively support your immune system in recovery. Therefore, medications are not necessarily needed to treat a cold and a stuffy nose. Often, home remedies and a few simple tips are enough to get the discomfort under control. What helps against the common cold and how you can successfully prevent a runny nose, you will learn below.

First measures for a runny nose

A first important step in the treatment of rhinitis is to create the right environment. Therefore, keep the following tips in mind:

  • Ensure a comfortable indoor climate: rooms that are too warm and dry are nothing for your stressed nasal mucosa. Set up a humidifier or alternatively hang damp towels. You can also put a bowl of water on the heater.
  • Even if so just in winter the humidity is lowered, do not forget to ventilate several times a day: so the “virus-infected” air is exchanged for fresh. The best way is the so-called shock ventilation.
  • Avoid smoky, overheated rooms.

Common cold: what helps against the symptoms?

Treat a cold with nasal spray

Nasal sprays and drops decongest the nasal mucosa and provide a quiet night. Some contain sympathomimetics – you should use these only for a short time, otherwise a drug rhinitis (a so-called nasal spray addiction) can develop, which in turn is a possible cause of rhinitis. Before using such remedies for rhinitis in babies or young children, be sure to consult a doctor: The remedies can affect the child’s heart and circulatory system. It is better to use special nasal drops and sprays for small children. Preparations that moisten the nasal mucosa are harmless. This also makes the mucous membrane swell, the tough mucus is liquefied and can flow off better. They contain, for example, natural sea salt or Emser salt.

Other medicines for the common cold

For allergic rhinitis, tablets containing cromoglicic acid help. If the mucus is particularly tough, mucolytic preparations containing acetylsalicylic acid, ambroxol or herbal agents such as ivy or myrtol are effective. Incidentally, because cold-related rhinitis is a viral illness, antibiotics do not usually help against the common cold.

Home remedies: inhalation, compresses and rinses.

For the common cold, home remedies can often serve well and relieve discomfort:

  • Steam baths with chamomile, mineral salts or marshmallow are proven home remedies for colds. Anise, eucalyptus or sage are also good for inhalation. Inhalers have the advantage over the classic “bowl-and-towel method” that the steam does not irritate the eyes.
  • Nasal rinses with sea salt also moisten the nasal mucosa and make it decongest. Use a nasal douche for this purpose, for example. Through the rinses not only pent-up secretion is dissolved, but also pathogens are washed away from the nasal mucosa.
  • Alternatively, lie down in bed with a warm chest compress and sweat out the common cold. Make the wrap either only with damp towels or give additionally cooked, mashed, still warm potatoes in it. A dry towel over it and then off to bed and healthy sleep!

Drink: Effective against colds

The most important thing is to drink enough fluids. Drink at least two, preferably three liters a day. With unsweetened herbal teas you kill two birds with one stone: the hot tea liquefies the tough mucus, in addition, the herbs unfold their healing effect. For example, try an infusion with fennel, sage, yarrow or dried currants. Elderberry juice has also proven its worth. You can drink it pure or mixed with tea. And of course, homemade chicken soup also helps – it nourishes and contains a lot of liquid!

Help from homeopathy

Against watery rhinitis can be applied remedies from the field of homeopathy, such as.

  • Allium cepa (onion).
  • Euphrasia officinalis (eyebright) or
  • Natrium chloratum (table salt)

In homeopathy for children is particularly suitable Sambucus nigra (black elderberry).

Acupressure – pressure for the common cold

Yintang, a particularly important acupressure point for the common cold, sits right in the middle between your eyebrows. If this is too painful for you, choose the point colon 4, which sits in the middle of the fleshy crease between your thumb and index finger. Press the chosen point as hard as you can stand it for a minute or two, and repeat the process as needed after half an hour. Stuffy nose – what to do? Tips and home remedies

Complications of the common cold

Sometimes rhinitis causes more serious complications and makes a visit to the doctor inevitable. When the mucous membrane swells very much and the secretion can no longer drain from the sinuses, sinusitis occurs, accompanied by severe headache and often fever. In children, the common cold can also lead to a very painful middle ear infection. For infants and young children, even a “normal” cold is problematic, as they breathe almost exclusively through their nose. A cold makes this more difficult. Therefore, they may refuse to eat, which can quickly worsen their general condition.

When to see a doctor for a cold?

Rhinitis is usually harmless. However, you should definitely see a doctor in the following cases:

  • If the discomfort lasts longer than seven days
  • If you have pain in the head or forehead area, in the ears or the jaw
  • If you get a high fever
  • If you cough strongly or suffer from breathing difficulties
  • If infants or small children are affected

Prevent rhinitis – 5 tips

As with all diseases, the best thing to do with the common cold is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Consider the following tips to prevent a cold:

  1. Keep your immune system fit by eating a balanced diet and exercising in the fresh air.
  2. Sleep in a cool and well-ventilated bedroom and also pay attention to the humidity there.
  3. Keep your nasal mucosa moist by drinking enough and possibly inhaling.
  4. Blow your nose properly: hold one nostril and blow through the other.
  5. Use the same paper handkerchief rather once less than once more.

It is also advisable to avoid large crowds whenever possible during the cold season to avoid catching a cold.