How to Get Rid of Colds with Home Remedies: 6 home remedies that ease cold symptoms

No home remedy is going to kill the virus causing your cold. There are over 200 possible rhinovirus variants, which is why there’s no vaccine and why you keep getting colds despite having survived the last one. What home remedies can do is support your immune system while it handles the actual work, and reduce how bad you feel in the meantime. That’s a worthwhile goal. These six are the ones that deliver on it.

If your symptoms worsen significantly after day 5, you develop a high fever, chest pain, or difficulty breathing, talk to a doctor. Home management is for mild-to-moderate cold symptoms, not complications.

Get Plenty of Rest

This is the one that actually moves the needle. Your immune system runs the whole eradication operation, and it does most of its best work while you’re asleep. Fighting a cold while staying fully active is like trying to mop the floor while someone keeps turning on the tap.

Sleep as much as you can. Cancel things if you can cancel them. Horizontal is better than upright. Most straightforward colds resolve in 5-7 days when you rest properly; the ones that drag on for two weeks are often the ones where the person refused to slow down during days 1-3.

Stay Hydrated

Dehydration during a cold makes everything worse. Your mucus membranes dry out (which worsens both congestion and throat irritation), and your body has fewer resources to transport immune cells and flush cellular debris.

Drink 2-3 liters (68-100 fl oz) throughout the day, spread out rather than gulped in one sitting. Plain water works. Warm herbal tea works and has the additional benefit of steam exposure. Broth counts. Avoid alcohol and minimize caffeine – both promote fluid loss at a time when you can’t afford it.

Cold drinks aren’t harmful but warm liquids feel better on an irritated throat and provide mild decongestant benefit from the steam.

Eat Nutritious Food

Your immune system is burning through nutrients faster than usual. Give it the building blocks it needs. Fresh fruits and vegetables, protein, whole grains. Not a dietary lecture – just the practical reality that a body fighting a virus needs fuel, and a few days of processed food and sugar contributes nothing useful.

Chicken soup gets cited in every cold article because it genuinely seems to help. The warm liquid helps with hydration and steam exposure, the sodium helps with fluid retention, and some compounds in chicken broth may have mild anti-inflammatory effects. Whether those effects are meaningful or it’s mostly the warmth and comfort, nobody’s turning down chicken soup when they’re sick.

Gargle with Salt Water

Quarter teaspoon of table salt dissolved in 8 fl oz (240 ml) of warm water. Gargle for 30 seconds, then spit. Repeat two or three times a day when symptoms are active.

Salt water helps with sore throat by reducing inflammation and drawing fluid out of swollen tissues. It also creates a briefly inhospitable environment in the throat for viral particles. Quick, cheap, and the relief is noticeable within a few minutes of doing it. The technique matters – tip your head back and let the water vibrate against the back of your throat rather than just swishing it in your cheeks.

Eat Spicy Foods

Capsaicin – the heat compound in chilli peppers – triggers a reflex that temporarily floods the nasal passages with drainage. Your nose runs, your eyes water, and then things clear up. It’s not subtle and it’s not long-lasting (30-60 minutes of relief), but that window is often enough to eat a meal comfortably or get to sleep.

A bowl of spicy soup, hot sauce on whatever you’re eating, a few slices of fresh jalapeño. The amount of capsaicin required is meaningful – "mild salsa" isn’t going to do much. Go hotter than you’d normally eat and the effect is clear.

Inhale Steam

Lean over a bowl of hot water (not boiling) with a towel draped over your head to trap the steam. Breathe slowly through your nose for 5-10 minutes.

Steam loosens congestion by hydrating swollen nasal tissue and thinning mucus, which makes it easier to clear. Some research suggests that the heat itself may impair viral replication in the upper respiratory tract, though the practical significance of this is debated. Regardless, the relief from congestion is real and immediate. Keep your face at least 12 in (30 cm) from the water surface to avoid burning your airway.

A hot shower accomplishes the same thing and is easier to sustain.