The cold is the most common ailment during the winter and more than one billion colds occur in the U.S. each year. The only truly effective way to prevent colds is washing your hands. But recent evidence supports the act of gargling with tap water as another route for preventing colds. I think of it like vigorously cleaning your throat. The throat is a nice dark place where germs and viruses like to hang out and gargling just kind of tells them to "move along, please."
Gargling can reduce the risk of a cold by as much as 36%. Using plain old tap water, you need to gargle and spit three times and repeat the entire action three times throughout the day. You may feel silly gargling but your tonsils will be squeaky clean.
I'm going to give this a go as I've had a really bad throat for a while and my doctor hasn't been very helpful.