3 Tips That Will Actually Make Your Winter Sickness Feel Better (2024)

As the temperatures continue to drop lower and lower in Raleigh, you may start to notice your friends, family, and coworkers starting to succumb to colds, sinus infections, and the flu. While you might think that your immune system is strong enough to fight off any infection, you are still exposed to become infected with one of the many winter month maladies. Your first instinct might be to run to your Raleigh primary care physician for prescriptions, but many of these illnesses are viral and just require time and rest in order to recuperate.

Rest assured that colds, sinus infections, and the flu are not the same illness, but several home remedies work their magic when it comes to relieving the terrible symptoms of all three. Here are a few ways you can take care of your aches and pains while recovering from winter-time sickness.

You’ve probably heard, read, or even told this one to others over the years, but drinking plenty of fluids in when you’re ill is vital to your recovery. What you may not know is why: your body needs a certain amount of fluids each day to maintain most functions, but when you’re sick, your body is running overtime. Even if you aren’t vomiting, diarrheal, or feverish, your body is still using more resources than it would otherwise.

If you are vomiting, diarrheal, or feverish, you should especially up your fluid intake to counter-balance what you’ve lost. But you should remember to switch up the fluids with hot tea, clear broth or soup, or juice. The more water that you drink, the more that you flush electrolytes out of your system which can lead to you feeling much worse. Ensure that you’re getting enough salt with your fluids.

One of the worst parts of winter colds, flu, and sinus infections are sore throats, gunky lungs, and nasal congestion. Some medications can help you get through the day or sleep through the night, but don’t really take the symptoms away – they just seem to take the edge off. Luckily, there are a few comforting ways to clear out your lungs and nasal passages and soothe that terrible cough.

Taking a hot shower or a bath can really help to quell your various pains. The warmth from the bath can help soothe your lungs, and the steam will moisturize your throat and nasal passages that have been dried out from your sickness. Please note that if you’re feverish, a hot shower or bath can have adverse effects, so perhaps run a hot shower, but just use the water to give yourself a sponge bath.

If you’re just looking for the benefits of the steam without the shower, you can get the same effect with a towel and a container of hot water. A couple drops of peppermint or eucalyptus oil added to the steamy water can help break up the mucus too – add them to the water, drape the towel over your head and the container and breathe in the steam. You can use a bowl, a humidifier, and even a bathroom sink.

The idea of resting while we’re sick is well known, but how many people actually do it? There’s a lot of pressure in the modern world to keep up at the pace that we normally do with all of our obligations – work, social events, places we’d promised we be. Studies have shown that while we feel we can ignore our symptoms or mask them with drugs and medicine, this is worse for everyone in the long run.

To start off with, when you’re sick but you decide to go into work or school, get on a bus or the subway or a taxi, or even simply grocery shopping, you’re spreading your illness everywhere. Even if you’re trying to keep it to yourself, every touch, every cough, every sneeze releases your germs out into the populace. Staying home, lying down under a blanket will not only help you keep everyone else from getting sick, but help you get better faster.

Think of it this way: your body is fighting a battle against an invading virus, and it has a limited amount of resources to do that and continue running your body. We suggest utilizing fruits and juices with iron supplements in them in order to help fight the sickness. When you’re sick and you try to continue to your day-to-day activities without getting enough rest, you are taking resources away from the battle being waged. This, in turn, means it takes longer to get better instead of helping your body to fight off the infection.

Many times you won’t need to visit your primary care physician for a cough or the sniffles. However, if your symptoms are severe, if they don’t improve after several days, or if they get worse, it’s time to make an appointment with your general practitioner. Med One Medical Group is fully equipped to handle and prescribe whatever ailments you might have, so please call us at 919-850-1300 to make an appointment today.