Looking for the best cure.

 “Do you know that the common cold could last up to 8 days?” says one of the commercials in TV. Well... It looks like I’m beating a record right now, because I’ve been trying to overcome the cold for 3 weeks now. This is the first time in my life that I’ve been struggling with a sickness for that long. I don’t know the reason, neither do doctors who examined me.

 First of all, I simply tried vitamin C, some medicaments that should make you sweat a little in the night (like fervex) and cough syrup. When it didn’t work out I went to a doctor and she gave me antibiotics. Did that help? Not at all. But I don’t want to weaken my organism even more so I don’t even try to take anoter portion of medicine that is killing every bacteria in my body, even the good ones. I think it’s time for home remedies.

 Tea with ginger, cloves and lemon, milk with honey and garlic, chicken soup. Moreover, gargling a throat with camomile. This is what my grandmother told me to do in order to ged rid of cold when I was little. And laying in bed, trying my grandmother advices got me thinking about home remedies from other countries. In Spain and Korea they must have their own one, right? Of course they have. Here they are!

  In Korea citrus and honey seem to be as popular as they are in Poland. For sore throat and cough Korean parents give their children warm pear with honey. They say that it really heals the symptoms, not only supress them like majority of medicines available in pharmacies. Asian pears are slightly different that the one we eat in Poland. They are bigger, round in shape and what is the most important fact, they are full of Vitamin C and K. Honey, in turn, is really effective against infections. Many elder Koreans say that this duo is better than any antibiotic.

Photo by : www.shinshine.com

 Another way to fight with a cold is to drink a Yuja Tea (from Korean 유자). It’s not actually a tea but more like marmelade made from citrus fruit called Yuja, which reminds me a quince that we use in a similar way in Poland. You need to chop the fruit in small pieces, add sugar and... wait. After couple of days Yuja begins to let juices that with a sugar create a syrup. In order to make that salutary tea you just need to add a syrup to warm water. Of course you can buy a ready-made Yuja Tea in a grocery store if you don’t want to play shaman in your kitchen. 

photo by : www.blog.ideasinfood.com

 What I learned while reading articles is that Koreans tend to fight colds with a lot of heat and sweat. Those mentioned remedies are set to really cure your symptoms thanks to chemical components they contain (like Vitamin C and antioxidants). But according to Koreans, you also neat to sweat your sickness out of you. How? For example by eating spicy soup or a stew. In Korean cuisine they use a lot of hot pepper paste or flakes in general and when they want to ged rid of fever they just make their dishes even more spicy and hot in order to sweat like a thoroughbred.

 And what about Spanish people? What do they use to cure the cold in their homes? I read a lot about their ways to beat the sickness and it seems like we have more in common with Spanish people that we’ve probably imagined. They bet on ginger in genral. They brew tea with ginger and lemon, sometimes they add honey or garlic. They also eat chicken soup and drink camomile. Sound familiar, right? What is more, they use a lot of elderberry products like tea or syrups, calling this plant “natural aspirine”.

Photo by : www.holadoctor.com

 Reading all this I’m sure now that my Nana was right. So I’m going to bury myself in pillows and blankets, drinking lemon tea with ginger and honey all day. Maybe this is the best cure since such a different nationalities use the same methods for centuries? We will see.