So you want to get rid of the flu fast. Well, first thing, unlike so many who claim to offer such advice, we won't annoy you by starting off by telling how you could have avoided it. That's a discussion for another time. Now you've got it, so let's deal with it.
There are of course various medications you can get by prescription from your family physician. We're not M.D.s so won't presume to comment on your relationship with your medical professional. If that's the route you choose, probably best to be compliant with the treatment.
On the flu, particularly, though, I will just offer this one morsel of food thought for your consideration. Apparently, in recent years, medical anthropologists have been increasingly leaning toward an explanation for the terrible death toll of the 1918 flu pandemic that lays a good deal of the fault at the feet of the medical profession. It appears now that the virulence of the 1918 strain was dangerously aggravated by physicians prescribing mega-doses of aspirin. The extremely high dosages of aspirin would have caused patients' stomachs to bleed. This allowed the flu infection to penetrate their blood, leading to rapid death.
This observation is not meant to demonize the medical community. Surely those physicians did the very best they could in light of the prevailing medical knowledge. The lesson shouldn't be lost though that any time you're using potent pharmaceuticals even very small errors can have devastating outcomes. Using such drugs always involves some level of risk. Surely, for most cases of flu less risky options are viable.
Some of these are going to sound kind of corny, the advice that mom told you. But, heck, mom knew a thing or two. Get plenty of sleep and drink plenty of liquids. Water is the best fluid to drink. Also, keep clean: warm showers do that as well as providing relief for aching muscles. Keeping clean is important for getting the infection under control, both in terms of avoiding reintroducing it to your own system as well as to prevent spread to others.
A few words on fever are required. Fevers are not fun and often the temptation is to take measures to eliminate a fever. However, unless it reaches 103 degrees, this is a very bad idea. Your fever is your body's immune system doing battle with the flu -- why would you want to unilaterally disarm it? We humans didn't get to where we are today without evolving some pretty effective virus fighting biochemistry. Let your immune system do the job for which it has evolved!
Breathing in the essence of essential oils can provide some great relief. Get a steaming hot sink of water going, add the ingredients, and drape a towel over your head to capture the full effect, as you breath it in deeply. Ingredients to try are a couple teaspoons of freshly chopped ginger, eucalyptus or menthol. Probably best to use them individually and see which one works best for you.
vitamins can really be helpful, too. Take both A and C. Micellized A is best and the C should be food sourced, which is much more potent than the ascorbic acid sort (so you don't have to take as much, of course). Also vitamin D3 can be good, but better if you can get it through regular exposure to sunlight. Admittedly, this isn't always possible during flu season, but, if it is, it's the way to go.
And last but not least, another down home remedy, but a great one, is to drink warm liquids. They provide plenty of welcomed soothing of flu related discomfort. Tea will be a good choice, with Green tea especially recommended for speeding the passing of flu.
We hope this bunch of classic remedies help do the trick for you. Being classics doesn't make them any less effective, just tested by time. These are good places to start in figuring out how to get rid of the flu fast.
There are of course various medications you can get by prescription from your family physician. We're not M.D.s so won't presume to comment on your relationship with your medical professional. If that's the route you choose, probably best to be compliant with the treatment.
On the flu, particularly, though, I will just offer this one morsel of food thought for your consideration. Apparently, in recent years, medical anthropologists have been increasingly leaning toward an explanation for the terrible death toll of the 1918 flu pandemic that lays a good deal of the fault at the feet of the medical profession. It appears now that the virulence of the 1918 strain was dangerously aggravated by physicians prescribing mega-doses of aspirin. The extremely high dosages of aspirin would have caused patients' stomachs to bleed. This allowed the flu infection to penetrate their blood, leading to rapid death.
This observation is not meant to demonize the medical community. Surely those physicians did the very best they could in light of the prevailing medical knowledge. The lesson shouldn't be lost though that any time you're using potent pharmaceuticals even very small errors can have devastating outcomes. Using such drugs always involves some level of risk. Surely, for most cases of flu less risky options are viable.
Some of these are going to sound kind of corny, the advice that mom told you. But, heck, mom knew a thing or two. Get plenty of sleep and drink plenty of liquids. Water is the best fluid to drink. Also, keep clean: warm showers do that as well as providing relief for aching muscles. Keeping clean is important for getting the infection under control, both in terms of avoiding reintroducing it to your own system as well as to prevent spread to others.
A few words on fever are required. Fevers are not fun and often the temptation is to take measures to eliminate a fever. However, unless it reaches 103 degrees, this is a very bad idea. Your fever is your body's immune system doing battle with the flu -- why would you want to unilaterally disarm it? We humans didn't get to where we are today without evolving some pretty effective virus fighting biochemistry. Let your immune system do the job for which it has evolved!
Breathing in the essence of essential oils can provide some great relief. Get a steaming hot sink of water going, add the ingredients, and drape a towel over your head to capture the full effect, as you breath it in deeply. Ingredients to try are a couple teaspoons of freshly chopped ginger, eucalyptus or menthol. Probably best to use them individually and see which one works best for you.
vitamins can really be helpful, too. Take both A and C. Micellized A is best and the C should be food sourced, which is much more potent than the ascorbic acid sort (so you don't have to take as much, of course). Also vitamin D3 can be good, but better if you can get it through regular exposure to sunlight. Admittedly, this isn't always possible during flu season, but, if it is, it's the way to go.
And last but not least, another down home remedy, but a great one, is to drink warm liquids. They provide plenty of welcomed soothing of flu related discomfort. Tea will be a good choice, with Green tea especially recommended for speeding the passing of flu.
We hope this bunch of classic remedies help do the trick for you. Being classics doesn't make them any less effective, just tested by time. These are good places to start in figuring out how to get rid of the flu fast.
About the Author:
Be sure to follow Tosh Caliberni for the latest scoop on fast drug-free relief at the site: How to Get Rid of the Flu Fast . Also his piece on the 3 Top Ways to Get Rid of a Headache without Medicine can be a real life saver.
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