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There is a party going on right up your respiratory tract. Millions of common cold viruses are having the time of their lives while you are down on your bed, teary-eyed, feverish and coughing. You also have runny nose and you wonder if you can make a fortune out of the empty boxes of Kleenex strewn on the floor. Having colds is just not one of your favorite days!

What you can not understand, though, is how could you catch the common cold. You wash your hands vigorously each time you held on to a door knob or stairway railing; you sanitize your hands every time a guy shakes your hand; and you even make it a point to run as far as you can from people who sneeze. But still, there you are, suffering from a common cold.

Your doctor quickly recommends over-the-counter cold medicines. But surfing through the Net, you found out that the best way to fight common colds is by drinking plenty of water and other healthy fluids. Utterly confused, you can not decide which way to follow so that you can effectively get out of your bout with common colds.

Well, when it comes to defeating common colds, the fight starts with the strength of your immune system. That's right; to effectively avoid or cut short the symptoms of common colds, you have to make sure that your body's defenses are prepped up to clobber intrusive viruses like the ones that cause common colds. Here are the three most effective elements that you must have in abundance so that you can beef up your system in crushing common colds.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C simply makes your immune system function at its maximum level. It's like putting your defense system on red alert against viral infections all the time. If you want a more graphic description of what Vitamin C can do for your body, think about wearing a knight's armor, complete from head to toe; only in your case, the armor shields you from cold viruses and not blades and arrows.

Doctors suggest about 3,000 milligrams of Vitamin C everyday can do a lot to keep common cold viruses away from you. If you are already besieged by a common cold, you can increase your take to around 6,000 to 12,000 milligrams of Vitamin C and, within a few days, expect your cold to be out of your system.

Vitamin A

A common cold is basically an infection whose main job is to ravage your respiratory system and ruin your day. But your respiratory tract is actually equipped with cells that form a mucosal or slimy lining that helps in ambushing common cold viruses before they even do heavy damage. Apart from being too sticky for viruses, this lining, called epithelium, is also laden with proteins that can effectively neutralize viruses.

Therefore, at first sign of a common cold, you need to increase the strength and efficacy of your epithelium. You can do this with the help of Vitamin A. Indeed, what's good for the eyes, can also be good for your fight against cold viruses.

Vitamin E

When your body is at war with invading viruses, your system is bound to generate toxic after-effects in the form of free radicals that can damage your cells. Ironically, your fight for wellness can make things more difficult or complicated because of these baneful by-products in your system. But you have nothing to worry about; with ample Vitamin E, your cells will be protected from damages caused by free radicals.