h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Try to keep warm and dry. Being cold and/or wet doesn't cause colds, but it can lower your natural resistance to infection.

The vitamin C and garlic theories are currently unproven. However, they can't do you any harm (unless you take them to excess), so go ahead and try them. As a cautionary note, some people reckon that the effective agent in garlic is bound up with the stuff that makes garlic smell. These people say that odourless garlic capsules are therefore less effective. So you could end up using the real thing and losing your friends for the duration.

As a 'natural' cure, try a 'tea' made out of elderberry and peppermint - it's reckoned to kill a cold in no time. I don't know where you can buy this, so you might have to make it yourself.

Pamper yourself if you want to (it will probably make you feel better), but remember, it's *only* a cold.

Finally, a cold lasts 7 days if you treat it and a week if you don't. So why bother?

Why bother? Well possibly because whether the treatment works or not, as long as the sufferer believes it is making a difference it probably will.

Is it the Buddhists who say that it's all in the mind?

While we're trading thoughts, I thought I'd mention that the word "cure" is terrible unfortunate. It's not h2g2's fault. Everyone uses the word "cure." But of course, there is no cure for the common cold. If there were, we wouldn't spend so much time trying to alleviate symptoms.

Apparently you should also try to keep zinc levels up. I've also heard that whiskey is supposed to be good...
If you're a singer/public speaker, buy some Vocalzones. They taste disgusting but do the job really, really well. (available at most chemists in the UK, incl Boots)
Another thing is, don't be a fresher at a university. We have variants of Fresher Flu going round the whole time- at least miss as many lectures as possible unless they're well ventilated b/c the results of sitting in a room with 200 ppl of which 85% have a different cold... well, best left to the imagination I guess. My maths lecturer last year was getting sooo mad at the people coughing, we were like, We can't help it!

Apparently you should also try to keep zinc levels up. I've also heard that whiskey is supposed to be good...
If you're a singer/public speaker, buy some Vocalzones. They taste disgusting but do the job really, really well. (available at most chemists in the UK, incl Boots)
Another thing is, don't be a fresher at a university. We have variants of Fresher Flu going round the whole time- at least miss as many lectures as possible unless they're well ventilated b/c the results of sitting in a room with 200 ppl of which 85% have a different cold... well, best left to the imagination I guess. My maths lecturer last year was getting sooo mad at the people coughing, we were like, We can't help it!

Another tip if you're a singer or teacher (I've been both...) or otherwise depend on your voice more than most: if you get a sore throat, don't *EVER* take any of the throat sprays or lozenges with anaesthetic in them.

An alarming number of sore throat treatments have mild anaesthetics nowadays. It may make your throat hurt a lot less, but sadly your throat is hurting for a reason - to tell you not to try and speak. If you numb your throat, and then carry on talking or singing, you will do it a lot of damage. It is not unheard of for people to do irreparable damange like this - nothing as bad as permanently losing or changing your normal speaking voice, but easily enough to damage your range and tone if you're an opera singer, or to reduce your vocal power and sustainability for speaking in large rooms without amplification.

If you do unwittingly take such a medicine, and then realise, your best bet is simply to shut up to as greater an extent as possible - pretend you've lost your voice even if you haven't.