The Common (Cayenne) Cold
By Rebecca | March 19, 2008
I am just getting over my first cold of this cold season and, all things considered, it went pretty good. Mostly due to some good advice from my mom: Cayenne Pepper pills. Turns out that Mexican restaurants aren’t the only ones to discover that a dose of spicy pepper will really clean out your sinuses. Health food companies have actually taken Cayenne Pepper and placed it in little medicine capsules that you can swallow easily. Thus you get all of the health benefits of the pepper without suffering second degree burns from your teeth to your esophagus.
My mom told me about these earlier in the summer when I had a cough that wouldn’t quit. I bought a bottle of pills from the health food section of my local grocery store. They didn’t help my cough any. (Turns out the cough was due to an infection and an antibiotic cleared it up.)
Well, several days ago I felt that tell-tell tickle in my ears and throat that told me I was going to be miserable for the next 4 or 5 days. Right away I started sucking on Zinc Lozenges. Again, this is another favorite of my mom’s. In the past, I would suck them constantly until the aching subsided several days later. The problem with the Zinc Lozenges is that I don’t really like the taste and they make my mouth feel like cotton. There are other forms of Zinc-cold-preventive products on the market but I never feel like I get the Zinc where I need it–right in the back of my throat.
So, I remembered the slightly used bottle of Cayenne Pepper Pills. Here was just the occasion to test them out. I could hear my mom’s voice echoing in my brain, “Just take those for a couple of days and your cold’ll clear right up.”
Over the next few days I downed one capsule at each meal with a large glass of calcium-enriched orange juice. I was out of Zinc so I just prayed that the Cayenne was as good as my mom promised. Turns out, it was better.
I had the tickle a couple of days and had a real good stuffy nose another day. (It was probably just as well since that was the day my daughter kept coming to me with things that were stinky and saying, “Smell this, Mom!”) But after that the cold lifted like fog burned away by the noon day sun. I even convinced my husband to take the pills to keep him from catching the cold. To date, he hasn’t gotten sick.
Now, this isn’t exactly the kind of thing I could give to my kids. (My oldest barely started kindergarten.) But luckily they think the Zinc Lozenges and Vitamin C tablets are candy. And, they really love my orange juice. All in all, I think we’re pretty well set to take on the common cold any time he wants a fight.
Topics: Cayenne Pepper, Health, Herbal Remedies, Word of Wisdom |
