Last week, I was in San Fransisco at the Pinterest In the Making Conference. It was amazing – the city, the conference, the hotel, the people… one of my very favorite cities ever! Then, after a six hour plane ride, I got home and ended up with a doozy of a head cold, or as it happens to affect me, a face cold. I felt like someone punched me. Multiple times. In the face. Since my simple colds usually turn into sinus infections because my sinuses don’t drain correctly, I tried to nip it in the bud as soon as the sneezing and constant nose blowing began. But since I’m trying to give more “natural” remedies a try lately, I looked for other ways to stop the cold in it’s tracks before resorting to antibiotics. Of course, I scoured Pinterest for help. I came across tons of posts touting the miracle-like curing abilities of apple cider vinegar and since I have it in my cabinet, I decided to give it a try. So, does apple cider vinegar cure colds?
Well, per the multiple posts I found, I took it a few times that first day, and a twice the second day, but there wasn’t any kind of relief of the symptoms, and I continued to feel worse as the days went on. The results weren’t worth continuing with the experiment after the second day.
Long story short, it didn’t do a darn thing for my cold. Nada. Nothing. Zilch. First, let’s establish that I know that nothing so far has been proven to “cure” the common cold, so I wasn’t exactly hopeful for a full recovery overnight. But the way that people talked about their miraculous results gave me a little bit of hope that I could at least keep it from developing into a full blown sinus infection.
I’m not saying that apple cider vinegar is not helpful in other ways, but curing a cold isn’t one of them. In my experience, it does help with the itch from poison ivy, but does so for a little while only – or as my husband says, until the burning from the vinegar stops. I’ve also tried it multiple times as a toner for my face, watered down and full strength, and those results weren’t stellar either – just mild redness for a little bit. I do have a friend who uses it for his feet, to help with stink, and he swears by it.
In the end, I had to resort to my usual combo of suphedrine and ibuprofen to help with the symptoms. I also took many hot showers to help clear the congestion, which at least helps for a little while, and drank a lot of hot tea with lemon. As I type this, I still have some nasal congestion, but not enough to continue to treat it with any medicines.
So, does apple cider vinegar cure colds? Nope. Have you tried using apple cider vinegar in other ways that really work? Tell me about it – I’ve got almost a full bottle left and I’d love to use it!
If you are into weird things that might work.. you might be interested in this post when we tried whether mustard takes the sting out of (very) minor burns.
Thanks for stopping by!
Eliesa
Kim G says
so when I start to feel a cold coming on, I immediately start using my essential oils (young living). I use Raven, RC and Thieves all at the same time and thankfully, it will either shorten my cold and I will only have a slight cold or it will go away completely and I won’t get one. But, I have to start immediately when I feel like it is starting (sore throat, is my big tip off). I put RC and Thieves on the bottoms of my feet and Raven on my chest, then I rotate the 3 oils. I will also diffuse one of the 3 oils at night and rotate them each night. I work in a doctor’s office and everyone on my team got sick this year (they were scrubbing down their work desks with the hardcore smelly sanitizer stuff that you have to wear gloves to use). I used my thieves spray (smells like cinnamon and doesn’t give me a headache) and I never once got sick. Even my husband and son got sick, I continued using my oils and stayed my distance!!! I swear by my oils and they are a natural product and leave your body when they are done working. Hope this helps.