You’ve been taking your vitamins, avoiding your sniffly friends, and obsessively washing your hands. But despite your best efforts, you can tell you’re coming down with a cold. Luckily, you can take a few simple steps to nip it in the bud—or at least speed up your recovery so it doesn’t ruin your whole week.

1. Hydrate
Your mom was right: You need your fluids. Hydration helps your body fire on all cylinders anyway, but it’s especially important when you’re battling a cold. A cup of warm water or hot tea can soothe a scratchy throat, and the fluids will also thin out your mucus, so you won’t feel as stuffy. Water, juice, or broth will do the trick, and you don’t need to overthink the number of ounces. “It’s really just a matter of satisfying your thirst—maybe have an extra glass of fluid every couple of hours,” says Scott Helmers, MD, an urgent care physician for the Mayo Clinic Health System.

2. Eat for Wellness
There’s no question that vitamins and minerals are beneficial to your overall health, but it’s debatable whether any particular one will ward off a cold or reduce its duration. Your best bet is to simply focus on eating healthy foods and eliminating anything that might make you feel even more sluggish, like alcohol or greasy foods. “It’s not that those would impair your ability to fight it off; it would just be compounding the symptoms,” Dr. Helmers says. In other words, if your head’s already pounding from sinus pressure, a night of fireball shots probably won’t improve things.

3. Adjust Your Workout Accordingly
If you feel like you have enough energy to go for a jog or do some light lifting, go for it. Just listen to your body and don’t work out to the point of exhaustion. (And for the love of Typhoid Mary, wipe down your equipment after you use it.) “Pay attention to what your body is telling you,” Dr. Helmers says. “Moderate activity may help with muscle soreness that might accompany an upper respiratory infection. On the other hand, if you’re a runner or biker, pay attention to the ambient conditions—if it’s really cold, it may end up making you feel worse. There’s no great advantage in tiring yourself out.” And if you have a fever, discomfort in your chest, or difficulty breathing, skip it.

4. Sleep It Off
A good night of shut-eye can help shut down a cold before it really ruins your plans. “Rest according to what your body is saying it needs, and be sure to hydrate when you wake up,” Dr. Helmers says.

5. Reach for the Right Remedies
Stocking up on cold meds could leave you with a case of sticker shock to go along with your stuffy nose—and it probably won’t make you feel better any sooner. “Scientifically, we probably can’t prove that antihistamines, decongestants, and OTC cough medicine shorten the illness,” Dr. Helmers says. Still, there are a few simple ways to soothe your symptoms (and you probably already have what you need at home).

• Salt water: Dissolve ½ teaspoon of salt in a cup of warm water, then gargle and rinse to ease irritation in your throat.
• Honey: If you can’t stop coughing, try two teaspoons of honey. A pediatric study in 2012 found honey to be an effective cough suppressant.
• Pain relievers: Plain old ibuprofen can combat inflammation and achy muscles.

If you stay healthy, manage your symptoms, and rest when you need it, you may be able to reduce the amount of time you’re under the weather. But how do you know when it’s time to give up and go to the doctor? “Most colds run their course in three to five days,” Dr. Helmers says. “If it’s going much beyond that—if you have a fever, chest congestion, intensely sore throat, or facial pain—then it’s appropriate to be examined.”

What Do I Think?

This is all excellent advice by Kara Walgren, but I would like to add a few very important steps to help prevent getting sick this season.  It was mentioned above, but good hand hygiene is key.  Not just when you feel a cold coming on, but all the time.  Good old fashioned hand washing goes a long way and trimming long nails that are hard to clean and can hide all kinds of bacteria really can make a big difference.  Be conscious of coming into contact with public surfaces that are known to be dirty like doors, railings, elevator buttons and shopping carts to name a few. Use your sleeve or a paper towel to open doors or push buttons and for sure when you sneeze or cough! We are almost through the flu season, but get a flu shot if not this year, put it on your list for next year. It really does work and the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. Hope you stay healthy this season.