Here's a quick guide to kicking a cold in the a$$ early:
Now there are something like 250 different common cold viruses known as "rhino viruses" which are responsible for roughly 50% of upper respiratory infections. As we are exposed to these different "rhino viruses" our body develops antibodies that will usually prevent future infection from the same strain. I would get into the viral mechanism of action, but i'll just say that antibiotics don't work against viral infections as their pathophysiology of infection is quite different than bacterial. Now with the common cold basically these rhinoviruses invade cells in your nasal mucosa and begin viral replication. It's about this time that you become symptomatic(runny nose, headache, sneezing, sore throat, cough, or congestion)as the viral host cells die releasing more viral replications into the surrounding nasal mucosa tissues.
The key is you want to hit the cold right when your symptoms start. Now i will tell you all that there is NO CURE for the common cold at this time and it's symptoms are usually self limiting. Most theories in cold remedies aim at boosting the immune system response early on in the cold virus replication cycle to shorten it's overall duration/severity of infection.
-Vitamin C: (500mg 4x/daily) slightly reduces severity and duration of cold symptoms, however many studies have been inconclusive.
-Zinc Gluconate: (preferably lozenge or nasal spray form as studies seem to support this delivery method better due to better distrubution in infected nasal mucosa tissues to illicit benefits)While zinc's mechanism of action in cold prevention is unclear, it does show to have immune boosting/anti-viral properties.
-Hydration: is important to maintain the bodies state homeostasis and keep mucus accumulation thin for better experctoration.
-Antihistamines: (benadryl,claritin,vistaril,allegra) Help dry up (rhinorhea) runny nose symptoms.
-Antipyretics: (tylenol,ibuprofen).....keeping a fever under control is importat.
-Cough suppressants: (*codeine:by far the best at cough suppression due to direct effects in cerebral medulla, psuedoephedrine, dextromethorphan) help suppress cough reflex.
-Expectorants: (humibid,mucinex) keeps mucus accumulation thin for better expectoration.
-Calorie intake: During a state of infection your body uses extra calories to carry out disease fighting processes....make sure you give the body what it needs to do its job!
There are many other cold remedies which aim at alleviating cold symptoms, however many of them show unproven results in clinical testing thus i have not listed some of them.