When I have a sore throat/cold- I use sugar free cough drops. They help--I also drink hot lemonade minus the sugar and replace the sweet with some salt. You can also gargle with salt water--that helps too. Lastly--I rub my chest/ neck and under my nose with vick-vaporub when I go to bed at night and also take some tylenol/asprin/or motrin. Hope this helps--I know some gals take those zinc lozenges but I really don't know much about them. Alice