There’s a lot of common cold symptoms going around now, which seasonally what tends to happen in the winter months. For generations, people have known how to treat this kind of thing at home.
Last week I heard one of sons coughing at night and the next morning told him how much vitamin C to take. After a few days, I heard him still coughing in the night and asked him if he had taken the vitamin C I told him to take the first day. No, he sheepishly admitted. I obviously knew that because he wouldn’t still be coughing if he had!
It’s not as if there’s just one way to respond to cold symptoms, though. There are many different remedies people have used effectively for many generations in cultures across the world to heal upper respiratory illnesses and chest congestion, using ingredients that are natural antibiotics.
Plasters and poultices with onion and mustard as a base were a common practice. There are lots of cough syrup/tea recipes include whiskey or bourbon (‘hot toddy’). Below I’m sharing non-alcoholic syrup and tea recipes variations, so you can see how much flexibility there is with the general concept. (The first two listed are what I make.)
- Mix equal parts freshly squeezed lemon juice and honey. Take a spoonful every few hours.
- Chop onion, cover with honey. Let sit for several hours; it will become a thin and watery consistency. Strain out onions (you can eat them) and take a spoonful every few hours.
- Layer raw onion, fresh ginger and raw garlic into a pint jar until half full and then fill the rest of the jar with raw honey. Shake periodically over twelve hour period. Strain, use like cough syrup, a tablespoon every 4 hours.
- Onion tea – boil cut up onions with peels included until soft. Strain, mix with honey and drink hot.
- Slice a large onion, sprinkling sugar between the slices and put into a jar. Add water to weight it down. The juice runs out after a few hours, take a spoonful every few hours.
- 1 teaspoonful each of dried rosemary and thyme. Add boiling water and let it steep. Strain it and drink. Can sweeten with honey and add a sprinkle of cinnamon. Drink hot or cold.
- Boil a red onion, drink liquid with honey.
- Mix small amount of horseradish/ginger and mashed garlic with honey, pour a cup of boiling water over it. Allow to cool slightly then sip. You can also add couple tablespoons of lemon to the “tea”.
- Oregano (natural antibiotic) and thyme (removes mucus) tea with a teaspoon of honey.
- Honey-lemon-ginger warm tea, with a bit of coconut oil
- Mix raw apple cider vinegar with equal parts of raw honey.
- Red onions (peel on), lemons (sliced, peel on), honey, garlic, ground horseradish. Ad enough eater to cover, heat until just boiling. Cool. Strain, take a teaspoon at a time or add to a cup of hot water as tea.
Isn’t it marvelous that lemons are in season in the winter at the time that people need that natural vitamin C the most, and that onions and garlic can be stored year round? So even at times that people had no grocery stores, the ingredients they needed to to boost their immune systems were available. These are all very affordable ingredients – even honey, which is the most expensive, is still considerably less expensive than store bought cough syrup with its questionable ingredients!
If you have your own recipe that you’ve found helpful, or use any of these and they work for you, please share in the comment section below.
Avivah
Thanks Avivah, this is very helpful. I have heard about many of these ingredients in the past but was missing actual recipes. I was told in general lemons and apple cider vinegar promote healthy kidney function and are good for people who are prone to kidney stones. Also, recently, someone told me that they boil onion peels and drink it as tea b/c onions contain natural quercetin (which fights off various germs including the one that starts with “C”). I haven’t been brave enough to do it yet and just take quercetin tablets but presumably onion peels are much cheaper!
Thank you for letting me know it was helpful, Rivka!
I didn’t know that onion peels have quercetin in them! Our ancestors had so much wisdom, and naturally discovered what had healing powers without the benefits of studies that we have. I’ve never made cough syrup with the peels because I didn’t see there being any increased value, but now that you shared this I’m going to rethink it for my next batch! I believe that foods in their natural state are generally the most bioavailable for us, versus getting the synthetic form, but tablets and powders and powders still have their place. It’s really good to know that if we didn’t have them, though, that we have similar benefits in the foods themselves.
You are so knowledgeable! Thank you!
Are there any solutions that don’t have honey for someone who is not allowed to consume honey?
Hi, Brindy!
Last night when I went shopping I bought some pure date syrup (no sugar added) to use in my next batch. It’s more affordable than honey and it seems to me it should work well. Some people use sugar, but it’s hard for me to recommend it since it suppresses the immune system.
If you can’t use any kind of sweetener, you can have the benefit of the onion/garlic/lemon by drinking the juice itself. But that’s a kind of intense way to ingest it! 🙂