Crap. I dodged the bullet last year, and it’s catching up with me now. Of course, everyone I know who got that silly flu shot has it, too. So I guess I showed them. Erik: 1, Modern Medical Science: zip.
Excuse me while my sinuses drain.
There. I figured I’d share a tea recipe that really helps with some of the symptoms, along with a brief pseudoscientific explanation as to how.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 tablespoon whole-leaf black tea
- 2-3 whole cloves
- 4 cardamom pods (1/2 teaspoon if ground)
- 5-6 black pepper kernels
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- whole milk
Put the spices in a pot and bring to a quick boil. Let it simmer for at least five minutes. Longer is fine. Add the tea and allow to simmer for two more minutes. Add 1/2 a shot glass of milk and bring to a boil. Strain and drink.
Don’t worry if the whole concoction smells like wet dog, it tastes better. It’ll start clearing up the head congestion fairly quickly, and it’ll suppress the cough reflex.
And how does it work? Well, let’s start with the cardamom. It works as an expectorant, and it’s commonly used in Asia and Scandanavia to improve circulation to the lungs. It’s also good at preventing and stopping muscle spasms. In the long term, it’s good for detoxifying the body in general.
Ginger is a natural painkiller and anticoagulant. An active ingredient is the chemical thromboxane, which operates on a similar mechanism to aspirin, but without the tendency to cause stomach distress. Studies have also found ginger to be an excellent treatment for nausea and menstrual pain.
Cloves make an excellent local anesthetic. It’s not uncommon for people suffering minor toothaches to chew on cloves for relief. It also helps to reduce vomiting and flatulence. Yep. It also kills halitosis.
Black pepper stimulates the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach, which expedites digestion. It’s also a diuretic and antioxidant.
As for the tea, it’s a natural calmative, despite its slight quantities of caffeine. It contains theobromine, which lowers blood pressure and suppresses the cough reflex.
There’s been some controversy over the effect of milk on tea. A German study claimed that milk was found to reduce the antioxidant effects of tea, while a Scottish study seemed to debunk this. It’s doubtful it has any real effect in the short term.
Now, a few footnotes. You can vary the ingredients to taste, just make sure they’re all in there. Some folks add cinnamon; it can’t hurt.
Someone will scream, “that’s just like that Chai thing the guy with the goatee makes at the Frowny Existentialist Spoken Word place!” It isn’t. Chai has a much higher caffeine content, and it uses large amounts of sugar in the mix. I don’t recommend that if you’re feeling sick.
Sugar has a negative effect on the immune system and can cause anxiety, which will exacerbate symptoms like the chills, sneezing and coughing. It also prevents the body from retaining fluids and can lead to dehydration. Lay off the sugar until you’re feeling better.
I didn’t invent this concoction. In fact, I don’t know who did. An ex-girlfriend of mine (and a cool one) made it for me once, and she’d gotten it from a friend of her sister. So, it’s a bit like a chain letter, but one that actually delivers something useful. Its taxonomy is similar to something called Indian Railway (Railroad?) Tea, to which I’ve seen references.