Finds of the Week

Treatments for the coughs and colds of the winter season

'Tis the season again. The season for coughs, colds, stuffed noses and sore throats that is. With the latest cold going through our house, I have been struck with a sore throat and more congestion than you want to know about. For the throat I am relying again on a recent discovery. A. Vogel brand has an echinacea sore throat spray that works surprisingly well. It is just echinacea tincture in a bottle with a spray applicator at the end of a long arm so that it gets right to the back of your mouth and onto the affected area.

Feeling run down from the cold, I decided to take a friend up on her suggestion to use goldenseal for relief. I bought a tincture of Echinacea and goldenseal at The Vitamin Shop downtown from Prairie Doctor Brand. This is a local company headed by one man who knows his herbs and his sources. The other brand that they had to offer was Natural Factors, which is also a Canadian company and grows their own Echinacea.

And for my cough I use the herbal cough syrup Nin Jiom. The Pei Pa Kei blend is a mix of mystery (to me, they are listed on the label) Chinese herbs in a honey extract base. It is a thick, sweet syrup that works effectively. The syrup even has its own Wikipedia page! This syrup is available at most health food stores and comes in two sizes. The glass bottle is worth keeping with its Chinese characters along the base and on the plastic lid.

The combination of these three medicines seemed to help keep things in my nose and chest loose and moving. The cold hung on for a week of coughing and nose blowing, but it felt a little more mild than the usual attack. I will be returning to this trio in the future when the same symptoms arise.

And for Natasha, we discovered Homeolab's Kids 0-9 Phytux Cough & Cold. This homeopathic medicine claims to help relieve symptoms associated with cough and cold like dry cough, chest congestion, mucus build-up, aches and pains and fever. It seems to work for us, though it might just be the novelty of having medicine and the fruity flavour of the purple liquid that do the trick. Either way, we are on our third bottle already this year.

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