Colds & Flu Cheat Sheet – Natural Remedies

Here’s a printable quick reference sheet (“cheat sheet”) for the next time a cold or flu strikes your house!

A couple of weeks ago, our family came down with covid, and the intense brain fog and fatigue made it harder to remember my favorite simple remedies for sore throat, cough, and stuffy sinuses.

We’re all better now, so I decided to make us up a cheat sheet, to more easily refer to my quickest and easiest-to-make remedies. It’s now taped inside my herbal medicine cabinet, for fast reference when needed!

Note that this list is specific to my family’s favorite quick remedies for cold & flu, a couple which overlap Stephen Buhner’s herbal recommendations for covid. Your family might respond better to different remedies, but I’m still sharing it in hopes it may be a helpful starting place for some – you may want to type up your own list to hang in your herbal/medicine cabinet. ❤

To grab your Colds & Flu Reference Sheet:

Just click on the thumbnail image above, or HERE, and you’ll be taken directly to the PDF file. From there, you can download and/or print. (Be aware the specific pdf links change when updated, but you’ll always find the most current one linked to on this page – so bookmark, pin, or share this page, not the pdf itself.)

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Tincture sources:

• Mountain Rose Herbs (a large selection of high quality tinctures, also dried herbs)
• Etsy (for harder to find tinctures, such as Japanese Honeysuckle)
• Woodland Essence (especially helpful for followers of Stephen Buhner’s protocols)
• Usnea tincture recipe (@ Unruly Gardening Site)
• Lemon balm tincture recipe (@ this site)
• Elderberry tincture recipe (@ this site)
• Ginger tincture recipe (@ this site)
• My favorite cold & flu tincture recipe (spilanthes + lemon balm + echinacea = works awesome in the throat spray recipe!)

More of my natural cold & flu remedies & articles:

• DIY Herbal Throat Spray
• 14 Ways to Use Ground Ginger
• How to Make Ginger Tincture
• Honey & Lemon Sore Throat Candy Drops
• DIY Herbal Cough Drops
• Sinus & Headache Balm
• 7 Winter Wellness Essential Oil Recipes
• Herbal Jello
• Ginger Lemon Honey Tonic
• Ginger & Lemon Balm Honey Syrup
• Whiskey Rose Cough Remedy
• 7 Remedies & Recipes for Dry Chapped Lips
• Super Healing Cold Sore Lip Balm

A few more winter wellness tips:

• Run a vaporizer with a few drops of eucalyptus essential oil. (Use Plant Therapy’s Sniffle Stopper instead of eucalyptus for kids 2 to 10.) I also add 2 drops of bay leaf essential oil (per Stephen Buhner’s paper on covid; but handle with caution – don’t use bay leaf, Laurus nobilis, essential oil topically or use around young children.)
• Zinc lozenges, such as Zicam, can be helpful to take when you feel a cold coming on.
• We take vitamin D in the winter months to keep our immune system boosted – Vitamin D3 w/ organic coconut oil by Natural Stacks is our go-to. (Use coupon code NERDYFARMWIFE to save 15% on their products.) ?
• Add a few astragalus root slices to simmer in soups, stews, broth as a tonic herb, that helps support your immune system.
• Stay home, stay warm, rest up, and feel better! ❤

If you’re pregnant, nursing, have medical concerns or questions, or feel worse, check with a professional health care provider for personalized advice!