Winter is known as cold season - and it's not just because the temperatures are dropping. Your chances of catching a cold this season are high -- but according to Everyday Health, you can reduce your chances of picking up one if you follow these steps:

• Avoid touching your face with your hands. Cold viruses can easily enter your body through the eyes and nose.
  
• Speaking of hands, wash them. Frequently.
  
• Avoid people who are sick, is possible.
  
• Keep your surroundings clean. Cold viruses can live for up to three hours on the phone reciever or stair railing, so make sure you are wiping those down with disinfectant if a sick person has used them.
• Take your echinacea at the first sign of sickness.
  
• Get your vitamin C too -- try drinking orange juice every day, for instance.
  

And if you're the one with the cold? Be polite -- cover your mouth when you sneeze and wash your hands often to prevent spreading the virus.

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I think the temperature dipped into the teens last night. I was out late and, when I left the comfort of the warm sound stage in which I was working, my car looked as if it was frozen solid. As I stood next to it, my fingers already trembling as I fumbled to unlock the door, I could see each of my frustrated breaths as they escaped my mouth in the form of such words as ... well, suffice it to say that they weren't words you'd say in church. I was also amazed by how quickly my nose began to run, reminding me that I am not yet out of the woods with the cold I have been nursing for a week.

When I finally arrived home, I jumped on the computer before heading off to bed. I was determined to find out what actually helps stave off and reduce the effects of a cold. What I found were hundreds upon hundreds of home remedies, many of which seemed a little crazy to me. However, the three methods I came across that seemed to have merit were as follows:

Garlic. A recent British study showed that a daily garlic supplement reduced the number of colds test subjects developed (as compared against a placebo group) and also cleared up colds faster. The study pointed out the importance of making sure the garlic supplement contains allicin, a purified version of the garlic's most biologically active agent.

Zinc. There is mounting evidence to suggest that popping some zinc lozenges at the onset of a cold may help reduce its severity. Doctors suggest sucking on one zinc lozenge every two hours or so for the first day you feel cold symptoms (scratchy or sore throat, runny nose). It seems that the zinc does little to effect the cold after the initial symptom stage, however.

Echinacea. Research has gone back and forth on this one, with some reports showing no benefit to echinacea and others, such as a recent University of Connecticut meta analysis of 14 major studies, suggest that it can reduce the average person's chance of developing a cold by 58 percent.

Whether or not these cold prevention/severity reducing methods actually work still remains to be seen, but they at least seem to be well-researched. Have any of you tried any or all of these remedies? And if so, did they work?

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With the stress of the holiday season getting close to full swing it's as important as every to take care of yourself and stock up your arsenal of weapons against the cold and flu. And that arsenal, besides a healthy lifestyle and perhaps a flu shot, should probably include the following:

• Vitamin C
• Zinc
• Echinacea
• Elderberry
• Licorice Root

The first three were things I already had on the top of my mind, but the last two I may not have considered before now. You can get more info on each of these here, but as always be just as careful with home remedies as you are with prescription ones.

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Nothing's more stressful during the holiday season than getting sick amid all the hoopla.

So, as you're cruising the aisles of the grocery store stocking up on canned pumpkin, flour, sugar and other "necessities", consider grabbing those infamous immunity buildings, zinc and echinacea. Stocking up on vitamin C might also be a good idea, although it is a more controversial remedy for the common cold and one must be careful about dosing with a supplement. As you're picking through the produce, throw in a few bulbs of garlic, which is believed to have antibiotic properties. If nothing else, it sure spruces up sauteed veggies and pasta sauces and can be added to olive oil for a divine bread dip.

Then, after your home perusing the net for holiday gift ideas, visit here and order some fabulous teas that reportedly aid digestion, reduce cholesterol and boost antioxidants . I also like this place, which has some nice herbal and decaf options. Even if you're skeptical of the health benefits, you can't argue that a nice hot cup of liquid does wonders for relaxation. And that can't be bad for warding off illness. As a matter of fact, might be a good gift idea too.

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Whenever I show even the slightest sign of a cold, my mother starts fussing and insists I swallow about a pound of echinacea. Since I rarely ever seem to actually get full-on sick, it seems to work though I often wonder whether that's just a result of the placebo effect.

According to this article from Everyday Health, there's no actual data to prove that echinacea helps kill or prevent a cold. Moreover, it can sometimes lead to allergic reactions, which could cause rashes and gastrointestinal problems. However, I've never heard of anyone having an adverse effect to it. Have you?

Still, unless you're allergic to it, I don't think it could hurt to take echinacea when you feel the first signs of cold or flu. It's never done me wrong anyway.

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Here's some good news in the wake of the frustrating stuff we just heard about Vitamin C: Echinacea does help prevent and limit colds. Over the years it seems the data has gone both ways, with people saying first it was great for colds and then later saying it was worthless. But now, as the result of researchers reviewing over 700 separate studies from years past they've determined that yes, echinacea does indeed have a substantial effect on preventing colds and limiting their duration (once they've already been caught).

Of course there are still those out there who argue against this current research's methods and flaws, but since echinacea is a fairly safe supplement to take anyway I'm going to be positive and assume the best!

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Echinacea has long been touted as a natural way to ward off a cold, but research on the herbal supplement has been mixed. Recently, though, a professor at the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy reviewed 14 different studies of echinacea to see if he could come up with a definitive word on it's effectiveness. What he found was that, when people took echinacea regularly, they had a 60% reduced chance of coming down with a cold and when they did get sick, the cold was shorter and less severe. It's thought that the phenols in echinacea "rev up" the immune system to fight off cold viruses.

No one is recommending, however, that you start taking echinacea on a regular basis (as study participants were). Long term effects are unknown and colds are not usually serious enough to warrant daily preventative medicine. In fact, some people, including those with immune system disorders -- like multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis -- should probably stay away from echinacea all the time. A more useful study, in my opinion, would be to find out whether echinacea is effective when taken only at the first sign of a cold, instead of every day.

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