[qsun]

It may be also correlated with the habit of drinking "hot" water.

[eitland]

Someone I used to work with and who was usually worth listening to said this:

when he was out traveling, felt something brewing and yet had to soldier on then he'd drink as much hot water as possible.

Not coffee, not tea, but just hot water. According to him this could keep it at bay (IIRC) for a couple of days.

Based on your post this seems to be common knowledge, but it would be the first time I heard about except for that.

Edit, had to ask the Internet. Got an answer worthy of a modern day oracle: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=does+hot+water+help+against+influe...

[hanniabu]

Yeah this is what I'd bank on.