Home Remedies for Flu

The flu is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. It can cause mild to severe illness, and at times can lead to death. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the best way to prevent the flu is by getting a flu vaccination each year.

If you do come down with the flu, you feel better faster by taking care of yourself by trying some of these home remedies.

• Rest. With flu, you have little choice. The illness sends you to bed. “There’s a clear message in that need for bed rest,” says Anne Simons, M.D., an assistant professor of family and community medicine at the University of California’s San Francisco Medical Center. “It’s your body’s way of investing all its energy in making you well.”

• Drink plenty of fluids. The maker of one over-the-counter flu formula surveyed a large number of family doctors, asking which home remedies they considered most important when treating flu. Seventy-nine percent called fluids “very important.” Why? Because fever is dehydrating, and even minor dehydration adds to flu misery. In addition, hot fluids help relieve such flu symptoms as sore throat, nasal congestion, and cough.

Diet

• Fight back with mushroom soup. Speaking of hot fluids, one of the best is mushroom soup. But you can’t use any old mushrooms, says Boulder, Colorado herbalist Mindy Green, who teaches at the Rocky Mountain Center for Botanical Studies. You need shiitake, maitake, and reishi mushrooms, which many studies show help strengthen the immune response to viral infections.

• Liquids Only Fasting Diet. Try a liquids-only fast for a day or two, just water, juices, teas, and soups, says Alan Brauer, M.D., director of TotalCare Medical Center in Palo Alto, California, one of the nation’s oldest clinics to combine mainstream and complementary medicine. “It takes a lot less energy to digest liquids than solid food,” he explains. “A liquid diet allows your body to invest more energy in fighting your flu.”