Ah, fall. The crunch of rust-colored leaves under your boots. A crisp bite in the air. And, a sniffle in your nose. Wait, what? Unfortunately, many of us know all too well that autumn has arrived by the simultaneous occurrence of the common seasonal cold. In addition to a stuffy nose, other common cold symptoms that plague us can include a cough, aches throughout the body, fatigue, fever, and sore throat.
From a young age, we learn that there is no cure for the common cold—you can treat the symptoms but you cannot, unfortunately, rid yourself of a seasonal cold altogether once it takes up residence in your body. In addition to over the counter cold remedies, people also often rely upon tea, soup, or even oil of oregano in an effort to rid themselves of colds in the most efficient manner possible. Could cannabis, perhaps, also be useful in the treatment of colds?
Managing seasonal cold symptoms
While there is admittedly still quite a bit of research that needs to be done on the effects of cannabis on people suffering from colds, there is some evidence that points to cannabis as an option for the treatment of some cold-related symptoms, so long as the cannabis is used responsibly. Both THC and CBD have proven to have pain-relieving, anti-inflammatory, and sleep-inducing properties, all of which could potentially have an impact on people struggling with pain and inflammation (like from a sore throat, for example), as well as lack of sleep, due to the common cold.
Consuming cannabis for colds
This might seem like a no-brainer, but we’ll state it here anyway: if you are suffering from a cold, it is best not to consume your marijuana by smoking it. Doing so will definitely irritate your lungs, throat, and nose, leading you to ultimately feel worse than you did before starting. So, if you’re interested in exploring cannabis as a treatment for your seasonal cold, please look to other methods of consumption.
Hot drinks that pack a punch
We’ve probably all heard that hot tea with lemon is a great beverage option for a stuffed up nose or a sore throat. Try adding a spoonful or two of some cannabis-infused honey to your hot beverage as a way to reap the benefits of cannabis. You could also try infusing some cannabis into your chicken broth or bone broth, both of which are often recommended to help treat cold symptoms and are easy for sore throats and touchy stomachs to handle.
Cannabis-infused body care
Sometimes the best cure-all for a seasonal cold is to take a nice, hot bath. You can easily amp up the benefits of that hot soaking session by adding a scoop of THC-rich bath products, like bath salts, to take your muscle’s relaxation to the next level. After you get out of the bath, it could be beneficial to grab a CBD balm and massage it into your temples or into any muscles with lingering pain.
Sleeping off cold symptoms
There’s not much worse than being unable to sleep at night due to an inability to breathe (thanks to a stuffy nose) or difficulty swallowing (thanks to a sore throat). If a cold is keeping you from getting the sleep that you need to get a full night’s rest and be well on the way to recovery, it may be time to consider utilizing cannabis as a sleep aid.
There are many different capsules and tinctures that are infused with marijuana and designed to help you get the maximum amount of good quality shut-eye so that you can leave your cold well in the past.
Stopping a seasonal cold in its tracks
While you can’t immediately cure a cold once it has entered your body, there are certainly a number of things that can be done to stop the spread and do your best to avoid getting one in the first place. The basics include frequently washing your hands, sneezing or coughing into your arm rather than your hands (or into the open air!) and staying home when you do get sick.
And, though sharing a joint among friends can be a fun way to spend an evening, it can also be a surefire way to spread unwanted germs quickly and widely.
Cannabis as a cold-fighter
Whether or not cannabis will work as a reliever of common cold symptoms for you personally is not something that we can answer. It’s likely that each individual may find that a different combination of cannabis-infused remedies may bring them relief from their unpleasant cold symptoms, but, until more research is done, nothing is guaranteed. It is always recommended that you pay attention to dosages and start slower rather than faster when beginning a marijuana regimen, whether it be to treat your ailments, to decrease stress, or to have a good time with friends.
