How to Fight a Cold Before Your Next Audition or Booking

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HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED

My husband came home one day and said, "I've got to tell you about Super Tonic." One of his coworkers, Sally, was coughing like crazy. Since they work in an office environment, the windows don't open and the ventilation is minimal.

Sally eventually said, "I need to make tonic again."

"Tonic?" my husband asked.

"This tonic was amazing," she said. "I worked in an office like this one for years, and if one of us got sick, we all dropped like flies."

(That sounds like a theatre troupe, eh?)

"Someone found a tonic recipe called Super Tonic. You just take a shot glass-sized swig every night. We made a pact to all do it, and we stopped getting sick."

"So," my husband said to me, "we're gonna try it. The ingredients sound too crazy not to try."

We've been taking it for a few years now, and we have not gotten a fever once while taking it, except the one time I stopped taking it and got a low-grade fever.

I felt achy once after skipping it for a few days, took four small shots in a day, and felt back to normal the next morning. I've still gotten the sniffles and even viral pharyngitis once, but so far I haven't had a fever while taking this tonic. Everyone's body chemistry is different, though.

I'm not a doctor, and I'm not making any guarantees that this will work for you, nor am I giving you medical advice. I'm simply sharing my personal experience so far. You should always talk to your doctor about trying new things, especially if you have a pre-existing condition.  

This tonic is made from everyday groceries you may already have in your pantry, so there's nothing extreme or uncommon in this recipe. It was also created by a doctor.

​If you're sick before an audition or gig and looking for celebrity-grade cold remedy, then I'll give you the exact tonic recipe I use in this post. 

​I will warn you that taking a shot is NOT for the faint of heart! It is spicy, but a daily shot is totally WORTH IT for me during cold and flu season. Here's a video of me taking a shot. This is the face I make every single time. I've never gotten used to the taste.

TONIC RECIPE

Super Tonic is a recipe by Dr. Richard Schulze (fun photos here IMO), but my hubby and I affectionately call it Dragon’s Breath because that's what you'll get. ​Here is the recipe we were given:

• Handful of garlic bulbs (you can use more if you wish)
• 1 horse radish root
• 1 ginger root
• 3-4 qts of apple cider vinegar (raw, unfiltered)
• 1-2 white onions
• 1-2 yellow onions
• 1 handful of the hottest cayenne peppers you can find. (The more you use the better. Use peppers of at least 80,000 Scoville heat units or higher.)

RECIPE INSTRUCTIONS

Things are about to get messy and stinky! My husband literally wore swim googles and nose plugs once to keep his eyes from burning while making this. The first whiff of this stuff is going to make your eyes water.

At this point, you're probably thinking, "What's the point if this is so involved?" So far, though, it's been worth it to me to be an actor that stays healthy during cold and flu season. Plus, my hubs is the one who always makes it, so the process is not so bad for me. Hehe.

We blend all of the ingredients together in a food processor, bottle it, let sit in the fridge for a week, then strain the pulp. You can shoot it with the pulp for that first week, but it's easier to swallow without it. Even after you strain it, you'll have some pulp that looks like "the mother" in apple cider vinegar left at the bottom. 

Be sure to shake up your bottle before you fix your shot! If you don't, the bottom of that bottle is going to be soooooo hard to handle. The kick is too much if you let everything settle for too long.

We bottle our tonic in glass Ikea Korken bottles similar to these bottles. A batch typically fills up four of those and makes about one gallon. You'll only want to use those bottles for tonic because the smell will linger. It's not too bad if I run them through the dishwasher, but you definitely can't hand wash them and get rid of the smell.

WHEN TO TAKE IT

My husband told his coworker that we started taking tonic, and she told him not to take it in the morning before work. Someone in her former office learned this the hard way. Apparently, one of the women on her team would take tonic in the morning before work and then smelled bad all day.

It seeps through your pores and makes your breath stink. They finally all banded together to tell her that she had to stop taking it before work, which became part of their team pact so they didn't run each other out of the building.

We typically only take it at night so we don’t stink all day. It will give you stinky breath! We measure out the equivalent of an alcohol shot.

If you'd rather just spend the money, you can also buy it from Dr. Schulze's online store here. I am not an affiliate for this. Do your own research. I've never purchased it from him directly. The latest formula also says habanero peppers instead of cayenne.

I do want to warn you that it says his patients use it for "unlimited reasons" and the sales page calls it an "all purpose miracle tonic," but I am not promoting this as a cure-all recipe. I just see it as a way to boost my immune system. You can learn more about why your gut is so crucial to your body's immune function here.

Lastly, we purchased a stainless steel soap bar to get the smell off our hands. Yes, that is a thing. It doesn't suds or lather, but you rub it in your hands under running water just like a regular soap bar. It really works on stinky smells, like raw garlic.

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TAKE ACTION

So get your booty to the store to buy your tonic ingredients. We typically spend about $18 for all of the ingredients, but we buy everything organic. It lasts the two of us for 30-45 days, at least.

That's much cheaper than a visit to the doctor, or missing out on a potential booking, so find it in your budget by using my favorite free budgeting tool. 

Also, we substitute powder if we can't find a whole item (i.e. horseradish powder vs root). It still has a kick! Whole forms of food are better, though, for maximum nutritional benefit.

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