2025/02/26 [Wed]
Hey y’all, Jorge here again. Lately, while my body has been feeling great, my throat has been in terrible shape. I’m pretty sure I caught a cold from one of our guests and have been fighting it off. Fortunately, I haven’t had any fever or fatigue, but my voice almost left me! That would have been awful because I love talking to all the interesting guests who visit us.
Remedy Hunt
Desperate to combat this throat discomfort, I went out searching for remedies. The one that has been working best is a good ol’ throat spray. I spray it twice, aiming toward the back of my throat, gargle, spit it out, and I’m good to go for a few hours. It’s not too expensive and is an easy over-the-counter remedy.
However, this doesn’t work as much when you get a cough. I was experiencing a bit of coughing and phlegm as well, so I continued my quest to find something effective. I bought some cough drops, but I was told not to mix them with other medicines. The staff confirmed that I wasn’t taking other types of medication, so I feel safe trying them when the previous cough drops wear off.
Unexpected Discovery
One thing that caught my eye was a box that looked vaguely similar to cigarettes, nestled among the cough medicines. To my surprise, they were cigarettes with hardly any nicotine and tar, made mostly from tea and herbal extracts to help with cough and phlegm. I was shocked! Curiosity got the best of me, so I bought a pack to try.
After trying one, it’s hard to say if it was effective. I noticed a slight difference, and my throat wasn’t hurting as much. I did cough up a lot, which helped clear out some leftover phlegm. So maybe it worked? It might have been a placebo effect as well.
Finnish Cough Drop
A Finnish guest gave me a cough drop that made my entire throat and tongue go numb. It did stop the pain a bit, but it’s hard to say if it was effective since my throat hasn’t been hurting since trying the cough cigarette. Maybe it was a side effect of mixing different remedies? Who knows?
Conclusion and Advice
In a few hours, I’ll try the other cough drop, which I think might be the most effective one. I had a bunch of cautions and warnings before buying it, whereas the cigarettes had none. If you have a sore throat or cold, taking actual medicine is usually better than trying a bunch of strange remedies. Smoking, even with herbal cigarettes, is generally bad for you. Throat spray or a cough drop is probably the best way to go. If you have phlegm, there are plenty of over-the-counter medicines that, while more expensive, probably work a lot better than the random things I ended up buying.
I was just morbidly curious and thought it would make an interesting story. Did I expect it to work? Nope, but it was fun to try. Maybe the placebo effect helped since the regular cough drops didn’t feel as effective.
Your Turn
What is your remedy when you’re feeling sick? Have you tried any alternative medicine from your country? In South America, we used to put vapor rub on anything and everything, and sometimes it works wonders. Have you tried it?
