Cold, Schmold

Lately my office has felt a bit like a ghost town…according to Human Resources at least 10% of our workforce has been away sick in the last two weeks. In a way, I think it represents a positive trend: people are clearly no longer dragging themselves into work with terrible colds, thank goodness. Somehow in recent years it became virtuous to come to work even when sick and infect all your colleagues with the latest cold or flu bug – people actually looked up to someone who came to work no matter how sick they were.

Thankfully, that seems to be changing (partly, I’m sure, due to education and media hype around recent pandemic scares). Nowadays, company policy clearly states that employees should promptly go home when they feel sick, and should stay home until 24 hours after their symptoms have cleared. Now that’s smart!

But, hey: life happens. So what to do if you find yourself at home taking a sick day? We know that in most cases, our bodies will fight off cold and flu bugs just fine, thank you very much, and all we really need to do is to treat the symptoms: headache, fever, sore throat, aches & pains. Of course a good pain reliever that also reduces fever is essential, but what about when you just feel all stuffy and fuzzy and … BLAH?

Enter Lisa’s Famous Hot Lemon Soother. This beverage has been passed down through the generations in my family and is well-known to make even the most miserable cold sufferer feel better (yes! even man-cold victims feel better!). Get out a recipe card and jot this one down, ’cause it’s a keeper:

• 2 cups hot water
• 3 tbsp lemon juice (or to taste)
• 2 tbsp honey (or to taste)

In my family the story is that this was the inspiration for NeoCitran –  too bad Granny Gertie didn’t patent her recipe, eh? But all kidding aside; a hot beverage soothes a sore throat and helps relieve chills, the lemon juice is chock full of vitamin C and honey has antibiotic properties – this home remedy packs a good, old-fashioned immune-boosting punch as well as being very, very soothing to the cold or flu victim.

Here’s hoping you don’t need to use it this season, though!