What is the best to get rid of a small cold

When dealing with a small cold, Andrew Huberman advises that if you're feeling a little run down, you should avoid anything that's overly stressful or challenging, including cold challenges, heat challenges, or intense exercise. The reason is to allow your body to focus all its resources on overcoming the infection. If you must engage in deliberate cold exposure, make sure to warm up well afterwards, possibly by drinking some hot fluid like tea. Furthermore, he suggests engaging in mild activities like short walks, if you're up for it, to help with blood circulation, but overall, the traditional advice to rest when sick is very sound. Additionally, he advocates for nasal breathing as a general health practice and as a means to prevent infection, since the mouth is a major entry point for infections 1.

Here are some common cold remedies that are backed by scientific peer-reviewed research, as discussed by Andrew Huberman:

1. Quality Sleep: Ensuring enough quality sleep each night is crucial, as sleep deprivation weakens the innate immune system's effectiveness against colds.
2. Exercise: Specific types of exercise, with certain duration and intensity, can help bolster the immune system. Specific exercise protocols have been shown to achieve this.
3. Nutrition: Adequate nutrition is necessary for immune function. Caloric deficits can compromise the immune system, though intermittent fasting has been implicated in brief improvements.
4. Stress Management: Chronic stress can impair the immune system, but it's important to note that the relationship between stress and immune function is complex.

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These lifestyle components form the foundation for maintaining and enhancing the function of the innate immune system, which is your first line of defense against colds and flu. Keep in mind that these are general strategies to support immune function and not specific "cures" for the common cold, which is usually self-limiting and resolves with supportive care.