Colds & Flu Cheat Sheet – Natural Remedies
Today, I have a printable quick reference sheet (“cheat sheet”) for you to save for the next time a cold or flu strikes your house!
Plus even more natural cold and flu remedy recipes and tips below!

A couple of weeks ago, our family came down with co-vid, 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 c.vid. 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 c*vid; 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!
Thanks for this list, it will be printed as soon as I have a chance Monday morning.
Hi Jerilea, I’m so glad you like the list! ❤
I appreciate the colds and flu herbal cheat sheet, Jan!
Thank you so much!
Hi Mary, Happy to hear you like the printable! :)