Seven Things To Do If You Can't Get Tamiflu

1. Take vitamin C.

According to doctors writing in the medical journal Canadian Family Physician, taking up to 2,000 mg of vitamin C will reduce your risk of coming down to the flu, especially if you are also experiencing cold stress, that is, if you are exposed to the virus after spending time outdoors in the cold or your furnace is not working very well.

Taking more than 2,000 mg of vitamin C won't really do you any additional good.

It's best to take vitamin C on a regular basis or at least as soon as you suspect you have been exposed to flu. Ideally, you should take a lozenge form of vitamin C, which ensures that the vitamin coats your mucous membranes, as well as a vitamin C pill.

2. Take echinacea.

3. Skip the zinc.

4. Take elderberry (Sambucus nigra L.) extract from the very beginning of flu season.

Elderberry extract contains polysaccharides that have a unique molecular configuration that blocks the receptor sites the flu virus uses to get inside cells in the nose and throat. Taking Sambucol can both reduce your chances of getting the flu and help you get well faster if you do.

If you live in the European Union, you can get a product called Sinupret, which contains elder flower and other herbs. This product isn't quite as useful for preventing and treating influenza, but it helps protect you from a wide range of other common winter viruses.

5. Eat button mushrooms.

6. Eat chicken soup.

Eating chicken soup to treat colds and flu isn't just an old wife's tale. If the chicken stock is slowly simmered with herbs and vegetables on the stove for at least 8 hours, it forms unique, colloidal particles that activate a kind of white blood cell known as a neutrophil. These white blood cells help "clean out" the sinuses and bronchial passages after infection sets in. Unfortunately, eating chicken soup won't keep you from coming down with either a cold or the flu.

7. Don't feed a cold, and don't starve a fever - or vice versa.