With the arrival of the cold and flu season, many of us will pick up a nasty virus that will leave us feeling dreadful for up to a week (or maybe longer). This happened to me two weeks ago. I went to bed one fine Sunday evening and woke up at 2 a.m. with a sore throat and stuffy nose. In my groggy state, I reasoned it might just be due to the windows being open while I slept. But I slept fitfully the rest of the night and woke up to discover … it was NO DREAM! I was sick and it was a doozy.
So, you can guess who I called for advice … yup, Dr. Passero <smile>. Along with the typical cold treatments, he offered up a treatment I’ve never heard of … a warming sock treatment. “What the heck is that?” I thought to myself. Have you ever noticed that when you feel awful, you’ll try just about anything? So, I gave it a try and, by George, I think it helped! By day four, I was feeling a WHOLE lot better.
A warming sock treatment is used to reflexively increase circulation and decrease congestion in the upper respiratory passages (head and throat). It has a sedating action and many patients report that they sleep much better during the treatment. This treatment is also effective for pain relief and increases the healing response during acute infections.[1]
It’s easy enough to be done right in the privacy of your bedroom and my favorite part about this treatment is it can be FREE (if you already own the socks). For any of you who know me, I love free … free is good 
Here’s the list of materials you’ll need
- Cotton socks
- Wool socks (not a wool blend)
- Water (hot and cold)
- Warm pajamas
- Warm bed
This treatment should be performed at bedtime for three nights consecutively. The first step is to take the cotton socks and rinse them under cold water, wring out all the water and place nearby for step 3. If the socks are not ankle socks, then just wet down the foot portion, leaving the leg portion dry.
The second step is to place your feet in as hot of a bath as you can comfortably tolerate for about 10-15 minutes. If you want to go an extra step, you can submerge your whole body in a very hot bath and place a knit hat on your head (to hold the heat in your body). I know this sounds attractive but retaining the heat in your feet is critical to this treatment working its best. By heating your whole body, your feet will not cool down as quickly.
The third step is to place the cold wet cotton socks on your feet and immediately place the wool socks over the cotton socks. The wool socks will allow your feet to breathe during the night — proven by that fact that the wet cotton socks will be dry in the morning.
The final steps are to put on warm jammies and crawl into a warm bed with plenty of blankets, making sure to stay warm while you sleep. And if you happen to have a loving family member who’ll bring you juice and dinner in bed and camp out on your bedroom floor all night (like my son did for me), then you have it made!
I hope you sail through this cold and flu season without being taken down by the nasty viruses that love to take up residence in our bodies but, if you aren’t that lucky, I hope you’ll try this treatment. Let me know how this treatment works for you by adding your comments to my post.
[1] Per instructions by Dr. Kevin Passero, Health Tides Naturopathic Center, www.healthtides.com
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