Teas for colds: treating correctly

When we feel generally unwell and have a fever, the first thing we do is go to the kitchen and... brew tea for a cold - that is, for an acute respiratory disease (ARI), which is caused by over 200 viruses known to medicine, and which we usually call a cold.

It is these viruses that trigger the disease mechanism when they enter our body – the mucous membrane of the upper respiratory tract. And against the background of a decrease in the body's protective functions under unfavorable circumstances in the form of a sharp interseasonal cold snap and hypothermia, it is much easier for viruses to manifest themselves – as a disease.

The symptoms of a cold are known to everyone: general malaise, fever, headache, sneezing, runny nose, sore throat, cough. You need to fight the virus and try to defeat it at the first signs, and the easiest way is cold teas, which significantly improve the condition of the patient.

It should be kept in mind that doctors categorically do not recommend using medication to bring down a temperature that does not exceed +38°C, since at elevated temperatures the body begins to produce more of our main defenders against viral infections - antibodies and interferon.

Cold teas from the pharmacy: to drink or not to drink?

Teas for colds are much easier to prepare than, for example, frying an egg, but their healing effect in the fight for our health is very high. You will say that messing around with homemade tea for colds is an anachronism and you can buy more modern products at the pharmacy? Yes, you can, but it will not be quite tea...

In recent years, our pharmacies have become filled with a great variety of different packaged powders for acute respiratory infections, which are dissolved in hot water and drunk like teas for colds. They relieve many symptoms of acute respiratory diseases: they bring down the temperature, relieve headaches and nasal congestion.

But these are not teas, but medicinal preparations, since they contain certain antipyretic and analgesic drugs and vasoconstrictors that stimulate the nervous system. In addition, synthetic flavors are added to cold teas in the pharmacy.

Many types of such drugs are contraindicated for pregnant and lactating women, children under 12 years of age, and elderly people with kidney or liver problems.

Ginger tea for colds

Aromatic ginger tea for colds can work wonders. Ginger root, which came to us from East Asia, contains valuable essential oils, vitamins, a number of microelements and amino acids that strengthen the immune system, stimulate the process of hematopoiesis and promote sweating.

The latter is exactly what we need at the first symptoms of a cold, because during increased sweating, toxins are removed from the body faster. In addition, ginger copes well with coughs, clearing the upper respiratory tract.

Ginger Tea Recipe for Colds

A cup of ginger tea before bed will allow you to wake up in the morning feeling like a completely healthy person. There are no difficulties in brewing such tea for colds, the main thing is to have a piece of fresh ginger root.

Recipe for ginger tea for colds: in a 0.5 liter earthenware or glass teapot, put a tablespoon of black or green tea leaves, finely chopped ginger root (a piece about the size of a walnut), pour boiling water and cover with a lid. The tea should be infused for 10-15 minutes.

It is useful to drink this cold tea with honey - put it in a cup or as a snack. It goes without saying that to achieve the maximum positive healing effect of any cold tea, you should get under the blanket and sweat.

This recipe can be supplemented at your discretion with a slice of lemon or lime, cinnamon (1 stick), cloves (2-3 pieces) and even cardamom (1 pod). This will cost a little more, but it will give the healing drink additional flavors and useful properties. By the way, ginger tea can also be drunk cold: it perfectly quenches thirst.

Tea with honey for colds

Freshly brewed hot tea itself has always been considered an excellent remedy for colds: it warms, relieves chills and sore throat, helps overcome headaches and improves overall well-being.

And most recipes describing the preparation of teas for colds do not do without tea itself - black or green. The main conditions for obtaining the "right" tea are good quality brewing and soft water (but this is a separate topic).

Since time immemorial, honey has been used to treat various diseases. And all thanks to the fact that this miracle product contains almost all vitamins, glucose and fructose, as well as many minerals, microelements and enzymes necessary for our body. Imagine that a spoonful of honey eaten during breakfast can increase your performance, relieve stress and improve your mood.

Tea combined with honey gives a double positive effect in the fight against colds, primarily by causing profuse sweating. So tea with honey for colds can be considered a classic of the correct home treatment of acute respiratory diseases.

And now about how to properly drink tea with honey for a cold. The Chinese method is best here: tea should be drunk often, in small sips and always hot.

Herbal tea for colds

Medicinal plants are a real natural treasure trove of health. Their chemical composition includes essential oils, saponins, glycosides, lipids, vitamins, enzymes, organic acids, plant hormones, phytoncides. Therefore, herbal tea for colds is an effective aid in the fight against the disease without pharmacy drugs.

The simplest recipe for herbal tea for colds: when brewing regular tea, add a pinch of dried mint, lemon balm or thyme to the teapot. Let the tea brew for 5-10 minutes and drink it hot, adding a teaspoon of honey to the cup.

Among the many recipes for herbal tea for colds, the most effective are the following compositions:

• Diaphoretic tea from linden blossom: 2 tablespoons of dried linden blossoms per 1 glass of boiling water, leave for 20 minutes, take 2 glasses per day.
• Blackcurrant leaf tea is good for reducing fever. To prepare it, take 2 tablespoons of crushed leaves, pour 0.5 liters of boiling water over them and let it brew under the lid for 30 minutes. Drink a glass 3-4 times a day, adding a teaspoon of honey or currants ground with sugar to the glass of tea.
• An effective diaphoretic remedy of folk medicine is black elderberry flower tea. To prepare it, pour 1 tablespoon of dried flowers with 1 glass of boiling water, leave for 20 minutes in a closed container, and then strain. Drink hot at night or take half a glass 15 minutes before meals 3-4 times a day.
• Chamomile tea is not to everyone's taste because of the strong specific smell of this plant, so herbal tea for colds will be much more pleasant if you add the same amount of dried mint to 1 cup of boiling water in addition to 1 tablespoon of dried chamomile flowers. The tea should be infused for 15 minutes and drunk throughout the day. Chamomile helps with any inflammatory processes, and mint helps to normalize the temperature and stop headaches. And adding 1 tablespoon of oregano to this tea will make the drink an effective cough remedy.

Tea with lemon for colds

The simplest cold tea is regular hot tea, which not only warms you up when you're chilled and overcooled, but also helps with a sore throat and stuffy nose. And if you add a slice of lemon to the tea, you get a wonderful cold remedy with vitamin C.

This vitamin stimulates the human immune system, and the recovery process is faster. Therefore, in case of ailments of this nature, vitamin C is recommended to be taken in "shock doses".

In addition, lemon has strong antiseptic and bactericidal properties, since its peel contains essential oils, pectins and phytoncides. So when you add lemon to teas for colds, any drink becomes even more useful. And eat lemon with the peel: it contains three times more vitamin C than the pulp.

However, it is important to keep in mind that the high temperature of the water when brewing tea destroys the vitamin C contained in the lemon. To avoid this, you should first brew the tea, pour it into a cup, let it cool a little, and only then add the lemon. And instead of sugar, add a teaspoon of honey and drink to your health.

Raspberry tea for colds

Raspberries - in addition to glucose, fructose, pectin, tannins, flavonoids, various microelements and vitamins - contain organic acids, including salicylic acid. It is due to this that raspberries have antipyretic properties and are useful for colds.

Raspberry tea for colds can be prepared in three ways.

1. Method one: add a couple of teaspoons of raspberry jam or raspberries mashed with sugar (from home-made preparations) to a cup of freshly brewed black or green tea. Drink without restrictions, but after such tea it is better to wrap up warmly and lie down.
2. The second method: put 2 tablespoons of dried raspberries and 1 teaspoon of black tea in a teapot, pour 0.5 liters of boiling water and leave for 15-20 minutes. Drink with honey, best before bed.
3. The third method of making raspberry tea for colds involves using the leaves of the plant. To do this, pour 1-2 tablespoons of dried raspberry leaves with 1.5 cups of boiling water and leave for 1-1.5 hours. Instead of sugar, you can also add raspberry jam or a spoonful of honey to this tea.

Cold Tea for Children

Remember that you can give children regular black tea no earlier than one and a half to two years. And if your baby has a cold, it is better to prepare a special medicinal tea (decoction) - from rose hips, chamomile, oregano, linden. Also, a vitamin antipyretic fruit drink from cranberries or viburnum will help cure a child of a cold.

Cold tea for children made from linden blossom: pour 2 tablespoons of dried linden blossoms into a faience teapot with 1 glass of boiling water, leave for 10 minutes and drink warm, half a glass 3 times a day, adding a little honey.

Raspberry tea with honey: pour 2 tablespoons of dried (or 100 g of fresh) raspberries with 1 glass of boiling water, leave for 10-15 minutes, add 1 tablespoon of honey. Take warm at night.

Cold tea with rose hips: place 100 g of dried rose hips in a thermos, pour a liter of boiling water and leave for 8-10 hours. Drink sweetened with honey.

Berry cranberry juice: for 1.5 liters of water, 1 cup of cranberries and 0.5 cups of sugar. Sort and wash the cranberries, crush with a wooden spoon (in an enamel or glass bowl) or chop with a blender. Squeeze out the juice, pour water over the pulp and boil, then strain and add sugar. Mix the decoction with the juice - and the juice is ready. It is recommended to drink it three times a day after meals, 150-200 ml.

Cold tea Insti

The drug Insty, which has recently been used for self-treatment of colds, is an extract of white willow bark, adhatoda vascularis leaves, fragrant violet, licorice root, Chinese tea, fennel fruits, eucalyptus leaves and valerian root. Insty cold tea also contains menthol, corn starch, sucrose and lemon flavoring.

As stated in the manufacturer's instructions (a Pakistani company), this herbal preparation is used as an expectorant, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic. One dose of tea should be dissolved in a glass of hot water and drunk slowly after meals. Take tea 2-3 times a day.

Contraindications for the use of Insti tea include pregnancy and breastfeeding, childhood and adolescence under 18, and hypersensitivity to the components of the drug. It is also noted that this tea should be taken with caution in case of liver, kidney, cardiovascular diseases, and increased blood clotting.

Insti cold tea contains mostly white willow bark, which is used for pain, inflammation and high temperature. But its excess can cause stomach irritation, nausea and ringing in the ears. Licorice has an expectorant, diuretic and laxative effect. Eucalyptus leaves and fragrant violet are similar in action to licorice, but violet can be used as an emetic. But adhatoda vascularis turned out to be an evergreen shrub that grows in China, India, Pakistan and Vietnam. In its native lands, adhatoda extract is used to treat coughs and various inflammations. In addition to essential oils, its leaves contain a significant amount of quinazoline derivatives, which have hypnotic and abortive properties.

Hot teas for colds

There is a proverb - "Keep the house good, and the tea warm." Hot teas for colds - with honey, raspberries, with dry medicinal herbs - warm, remove toxins, wash the throat mucosa, relieve pain. The more hot tea you drink at the first signs of a cold, the higher the likelihood that you will endure the disease easier and get back to normal faster.

And to somehow diversify the "tea menu", prepare original hot teas for colds. For example, tea with orange and cloves. The method of its preparation is as follows: for 0.5 liters of water take 1 tbsp. of black or green tea, 1 orange, 2 cloves, a little vanilla sugar. Grate the orange zest and put it in a teapot together with 2 tbsp. of sugar and cloves, and pour boiling water over it. Infuse for 15 minutes.

Cold tea can be made with apples. To do this, add dried apples (150-200 g) to water (1 l) and boil for 20-30 minutes. Strain the resulting broth and add 1 tbsp. honey and 1 tbsp. lemon juice. Brew regular black tea at the same time and combine it with the apple broth. Drink hot without restrictions.

Here is a recipe for cranberry tea with cinnamon and orange: for 0.5 l of water - 100 g of cranberries, 100 g of sugar, half a stick of cinnamon, 3 cloves, juice of 1 orange. Rub the cranberries through a sieve and squeeze out the juice. Squeeze the juice from the orange and mix it with the cranberry juice. Brew tea (black or green) and add the juice mixture, sugar and spices. Let it brew for 15 minutes.

Tea with vodka for colds

People have long believed that "tea is not vodka, you can't drink too much of it." And at the first symptoms of an acute respiratory disease, they would open a flask and cut a pickle... However, it has been proven experimentally that strong alcoholic drinks can help activate the body's defenses for a short time only in a healthy person. And if you already have symptoms of a cold, vodka will not help.

Moreover, drinking vodka at high temperatures is strictly not recommended, since any alcohol leads to dehydration of the body and slows down the process of removing toxins.

But you can drink tea with vodka for a cold - to increase sweating. The recipe for this drink is simple: take 3 parts strong black tea, 1 part vodka and 1 part honey, mix thoroughly and bring to a boil. Drink 1 glass warm before bed.

Tea with cognac for colds

If you are frozen, but there are no obvious signs of a cold yet (your temperature is normal), you can drink 50 g of cognac and, as usual, have a lemon as a snack.

But if the temperature has risen, then cognac is unlikely to cope with it. But tea with cognac for a cold, drunk at night, will ease the condition: it will relieve chills, ease headaches, cause profuse sweating and improve sleep.

To prepare it, you need to brew regular black tea and add 2 tablespoons of cognac and 1 teaspoon of honey to a glass of liquid. Drink it hot, wrap yourself up well and go to bed.

Tea with cognac can also be prepared using this recipe: for a glass of hot black tea – 30 g of cognac, a slice of lemon (or orange), half a stick of cinnamon, sugar to taste. Eat the lemon with the peel – this is an additional benefit.

Green tea for colds

In China, green tea is considered a drink of longevity and is used to treat hundreds of illnesses. It is not for nothing that Chinese wisdom says: "Every cup of tea drunk ruins the pharmacist"...

Compared to black tea, green tea contains more useful substances, including enzymes, tannins, trace elements, minerals, alkaloids, amino acids, vitamins (A, B1, B2, B3, C, E, P), and essential oils.

Green tea contains antioxidants that not only remove existing toxins but also prevent the appearance of new ones. That is why it is so useful to drink green tea for colds at the initial stages of any viral disease.

In case of hypothermia, it is recommended to brew tea according to the following recipe: mix 3 parts freshly brewed green tea with 1 part dessert red wine and sweeten with 1 tablespoon of honey.

When you feel very cold, you can drink diaphoretic green tea. To do this, just add a piece of lemon and a little (on the tip of a knife) ground black pepper to a cup of hot, freshly brewed tea. This cold tea should not be drunk by those who have high blood pressure and problems with the cardiovascular system.

Green tea with cranberries and mint, prepared according to the following recipe, will help everyone sweat without exception: 2 teaspoons of dry tea leaves, 1 tablespoon of dried or fresh peppermint, brew with 1 glass of boiling water. Separately grind 2 tablespoons of cranberries with 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar. Then combine the tea and cranberries, stir and drink before it cools down.