What to do if you have a runny nose due to a cold? These methods are the most effective

The most common symptom of a cold is a runny nose. You can adjust your diet, eat a light diet, exercise more to make your body sweat, or steam and fumigate your nose and massage the wings of your nose. Do not abuse medications. If necessary, follow your doctor's advice.

1. Causes of runny nose due to cold

There is a certain amount of mucus in the nasal cavity to help clear out inhaled impurities. Once you catch a cold, the nasal cavity will be stimulated by the cold virus, causing more mucus to be produced. At the same time, because the cold virus invades the nasal cells, the antibodies and antigens combine to release a substance called histamine, which causes the nasal blood vessels to dilate. The increased permeability leads to a further increase in the amount of mucus, and the excess mucus will flow out.

2. Eat a light diet

Many people experience coughing and runny nose when they have a cold, which may be caused by lung heat. The runny nose caused by lung heat is usually purulent, and the diet needs to be adjusted at this time. Spicy and irritating foods will aggravate the lung heat in the body, causing the runny nose to become more and more serious. Therefore, if you have a runny nose due to a cold, you should eat more light foods to help clear the lung heat and effectively treat cough and runny nose.

3. Sweating People with colds and runny noses can use various methods to make the body sweat to help treat the runny nose. But be careful not to sweat while sleeping. Common ways to induce sweating include:

1. Soak your feet in hot water before going to bed. You can add moxa leaves to the water and soak your feet until your body sweats slightly, then massage and rub the soles of your feet to make them warm;

2. Drinking ginger and sugar water or boiled water can not only help relieve runny nose, but also help relieve nasal congestion.

4. Steam fumigation treatment

For the runny nose caused by the initial cold, the consultation method can be used to treat it. For example, you can use chopped green onions to boil a soup, and inhale the hot steam through your nose, or you can boil vinegar and inhale the vinegar vapor through your nose, which can help treat a runny nose. Alternatively, using a facial steamer to directly ventilate your nose can help treat the early stages of a cold and runny nose.

5. Massage the wings of the nose

If you have a runny nose and nasal congestion due to a cold, you can use your warm palms to massage the Yingxiang points on both sides of the nose. This can help improve blood circulation around the nose, enhance the nasal cavity's resistance to cold germs, and help relieve runny nose and nasal congestion.

6. Medication

If it is a more serious runny nose caused by a cold, it is best to take medication under the guidance of a doctor. Because wind-heat colds and wind-cold colds have different pathogenesis mechanisms, their symptoms are also somewhat different. It is best to confirm the diagnosis before using medication for treatment. Do not abuse cold medicine on your own to avoid aggravating the condition.