It’s that time of year again and chances are you will catch a cold from someone or somewhere, feel a bit rubbish and feel like you need to be enveloped in a nice cosy warm hug and have a delicious mug of hot chocolate (yum) or lemsip (yuk!) to make yourself feel a bit better.

Aww Sneeze! Sneeze! Woe is me I have a cold!

Only joking! Well actually I do have a cold and was feeling a bit sorry for myself yesterday but I think that was because I felt so cold I didn’t leave the house, not because I felt sorry for myself because I felt unwell – that was my original start but I changed my mind, as I always do!}

Colds really are just a mild inconvenience that you want to get rid of as quickly as possible. They are called the common cold because, guess what – they are common, there are LOADS of them around. We do build up an immunity to each cold that we get so are less likely to get them as we get older, but there are over 200 different viruses that cause colds and these combine to create over 1500 different colds! Children get a lot more than adults, possibly because they have not come into contact with as many to build up their own immunity but also because their hygiene is not the best. Just think of snotty kids coughing, spluttering and sneezing over everyone and cuffing it! Eewww I know it’s not all of them but you get the gist of it!!

So the good news is, we can speed things up and we can make ourselves feel a little better if we make a little bit of an effort. It’s just basic self-care and we owe it to ourselves. Let’s face it, we really don’t want to make too much fuss, so let’s make this quick and I hope it helps.

My personal opinion is this:

I know there are medications that suppress colds but I think the best thing to do is drink lots of fluids to flush that evil germ ridden bug out your system. Drink water or juice and FLOOD it out baby! Drinking lots of water is good for us anyway so we have a double whammy here!

Take extra vitamin C, either in tablet form, or orange juice or fruit. Vitamin C is great for our immune system and will help fight the virus. BTW viruses can’t be treated by antibiotics so that’s why it’s not worth going to the doctor IF it is just a cold. Actually the NHS say vitamin C won’t help so maybe it’s psychological but I just think every little helps!

Practise good hygiene. Without going into too much detail, sneeze or blow your nose into tissues and get rid of the tissue – don’t put it in your pocket, up your sleeve, down your bra, in your knickers (really?!) or anywhere else the germs can fester. Put it in the bin or down the toilet and flush away. Then wash your hands.

Use balm coated tissues to help alleviate a red nose, this hopefully will prevent the need for extra moisturiser around your nose, we don’t all like to go for the Rudolph look even if it is nearly Christmas.

Take paracetamol to get rid of a headache and lower temperature and rest as much as possible.

You don’t need to take time off work really with a cold either, hopefully you’ll get so engrossed in your work you’ll forget about it and make yourself feel a bit better during the day too! (Certain jobs might be a bit different.)

If you have any more serious symptoms, such as a cough that won’t go or you have pain or trouble breathing, it is important that you pay your doctor a visit to get checked out. Colds can lead to other complications, such as throat infections or chest infections or similar – these WILL need antibiotics to shift them.

Hope you feel better soon 💐