There are 8 things you can do that have been shown to help you beat a cold or the flu

The flu season this year is not playing around.

In the past few months, as the virus has spread across the US, people have done strange things to avoid getting sick, like drinking orange juice, “starving” their fevers, and taking antibiotics. None of these things will help.

Orange juice has a lot of sugar, and there isn’t much proof that the vitamin C in it helps fight off viruses.

You could get sicker if you don’t get enough nutrients when you’re sick. A weak immune system needs nutrients to fight off illness. And antibiotics kill bacteria, not viruses. Both the flu and the common cold are caused by viruses.

Instead, there are a number of steps you can take that have been shown to help you stay healthy.

Also, keep in mind that the symptoms of the flu and the common cold can be very similar, but these tips should help most of the time.

1. Rinse your mouth out with water

If you feel like you’re getting a cold, gargle with plain water. In a study of almost 400 healthy volunteers that was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, those who gargled with plain water were much less likely to get upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs), which are often caused by colds and the flu.

The researchers came to the conclusion that healthy people could avoid URTIs by gargling with water.

2. Get a bowl of chicken soup

Strangely, a number of studies done in the past few years have shown that chicken soup may help ease the symptoms of a cold.

The jury is still out on why this old remedy seems to work, but what we know so far is that some part of the soup seems to help calm down the inflammation that causes many cold symptoms.

In a study published in the journal Chest, which is the official publication of the American College of Chest Physicians, researchers found that chicken soup seemed to slow the movement of neutrophils, which are the white blood cells that are most common in acute infections.

In order to figure out which part of the soup was good for you, they also tested some of the ingredients on their own. The vegetables and chicken both seemed to have “inhibitory activity.”

3. Get a lot of sleep

Getting enough sleep – between seven and nine hours a night – is important for a healthy immune system, which is a key part of both fighting off a cold and protecting yourself from getting one.

For a study that was published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2009, researchers watched how 153 healthy men and women slept for two weeks to find out how they slept.

Then, they gave them nasal drops with rhinovirus, which is also called the common cold, and watched them for another five days.

Volunteers who regularly got less than seven hours of sleep were almost three times more likely to get sick than those who slept eight hours or more each night.

4. Try a zinc supplement or lozenge

Studies have shown that vitamin C probably doesn’t help prevent or treat the common cold. However, zinc might be worth a try this season.

The mineral seems to stop rhinoviruses, the bugs that cause colds, from making more copies of themselves.

In 2011, researchers looked at studies of people who had recently gotten sick and compared those who started taking zinc to those who just took a fake medicine. Colds were shorter and less bad for those who took zinc.

Zinc is a trace element that our immune system cells need in order to work. T-cells and other immune cells can’t work as well if we don’t get enough zinc. Researchers at Harvard Medical School recommend getting 15–25 mg of zinc every day.

But it’s also important not to take too much. Taking too much of the supplement could actually hurt the immune system, which is the opposite of what was meant to happen.

5. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) or (Advil) may help with aches and pains

Painkillers like Advil and Tylenol that you can buy over-the-counter can help with the aches and pains that often come with colds and the flu. The research on which one is better for treating viruses isn’t clear, though.

A 2013 study in the British Medical Journal that looked at almost 1,000 people with upper-respiratory infections (not colds) found that Tylenol gave stronger relief. However, because Advil is an anti-inflammatory, it may be better for soothing swollen glands.

6. Honey can ease a cough

If you don’t like the way cough syrup tastes, you’re in luck: the WHO suggests honey as a cough medicine for kids.

A 2012 Pediatrics study of 300 children who had been sick for a week or less found that those who were given 10 grams of honey at bedtime had less coughing (compared with those who were given a placebo).

In a strange way, the kids who were given honey also slept better.

7. If your nose is stuffed up, try a decongestant instead of Vicks

Jay L. Hoecker, a former member of the Mayo Clinic’s department of pediatric and adolescent medicine, says that menthol rubs like Vicks VapoRub won’t help clear up a stuffy nose.

Instead, “the strong menthol smell of VapoRub tricks your brain into thinking that your nose is clear,” he wrote in a recent post for the Clinic.

For congestion, he recommends over-the-counter decongestant tablets like Sudafed and nasal sprays, which studies show may help narrow the blood vessels in the lining of your nose and reduce swelling.

8. Ginger can help calm your stomach if it’s also upset

When we have a cold, our whole body seems to go out of whack. Ginger might help if you’re also feeling sick, bloated, or have trouble digesting.

A study in the British Journal of Anesthesia that compared people who took a placebo to those who took ginger found that just one gram of the root helped with seasickness, morning sickness, and chemotherapy-related nausea.

Stephen Hanauer, a professor of gastroenterology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, told Prevention that ginger may also help with gas and indigestion in general.

Hanauer said that the root makes the stomach empty faster and helps get rid of gas.