Yellowknife (Mar 21/03) - You won't get any weird looks if you're the type to stockpile echinacia or suck zinc lozenges these days. Herbal cold remedies have become common place.

In fact, I discovered during a quick visit to Shoppers Drug Mart that alternative and western medicine live peacefully side by side on the shelves. These days, you'll receive free ginseng lozenges with every bottle of Benylin. In other words, times aren't changing. They have changed.

Pharmacist Kerry Mitchell recommends drugs like Benylin to fight colds. But she's not opposed to the herbal stuff.

However, being a responsible pharmacist, she warns people on prescription drugs to check with pharmacists before using anything else -- herbal or not.

Mitchell also falls back on her mom's home remedy -- although she warns against using it on very young children.

"She put Vicks on my chest and wrapped a towel around my neck. I still do that. It makes me feel like I'm eight years old again."

"Whatever makes you feel better," she adds. "You don't necessarily need medicine to make you feel better."

Pauline Ho, owner of Ryan's restaurant, swears by her Chinese cold medication. It doesn't give her a dry nose and throat like western medicine, she says.

Ho shows me her Ganmao Qingre Ghongji, a powder she mixes with hot water.

"You drink it, you cover yourself in blankets, you sweat, and you recover the next morning," she says.

Ho takes another medication, in pill form, called Yin Chiao Chienupien. "It's more or less, the same stuff," she explains.

Pawan Chugh recommends three home cold remedies from Dali, India.

Drinking hot water with a little ginger extract or shredded ginger helps a swollen, sore throat. You can throw in a touch of honey, he says, because ginger "pricks" the throat.

Pawan also gargles with lukewarm, salted water three or four times a day when he has a cold.

"That really helps the throat," he says. "It makes a hell of a difference."

Eating a half-boiled egg helps the body's temperature by adding warmth to the body, he says.

Pawan only takes western medicine when his cold gets out of hand.

Even then, he doesn't stop gargling and drinking ginger tea.

"People normally do these things in India," he says.

"People don't rush to doctors. We try these things first."