There's a cure for the common cold.

Humid air helps prevent colds

The main reason there are more colds and flues in the "winter" is because of the low humidity caused by the heating of the inside air; not because of the exposure to the cold of the outside. To understand this, one must first look into how we catch colds.

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The first line of defense to airborne invaders is the mucus, the lining in the upper respiratory tract, which traps the invaders as they are inhaled. The normal upper respiratory tract makes new mucus all the time. This is why we swallow every few minutes. Our swallowing sweeps the invaders down into the stomach, where they have a chance to get through the lining into our blood, or pretty easily gets destroyed by the powerful acids in our stomachs.

This defence system uses very little energy and is tremendously effective. It is only when this system fails that the invaders have to be dealt with by the immune system which takes a great deal more energy. The immune system is the second and last line of defence.

The average indoor humidity in the winter season (with heating turned on) is around 10%. The average humidity of the Sahara Desert is approximately 25%. Inhaled air must be 100% humidified by the time it reaches the lungs, and all of this moisture is provided by the mucus as mentioned earlier. When the air is this dry, the mucus dries out so that it is a good deal thicker and flows much more slowly into the stomach. All of this additional time is used to good advantage by the invaders, to get through the lining into our blood before getting swept into the stomach. Then, there is only our immune system to protect us. If your immune system succeeds, the invaders fail and you don't catch a cold.

Therefore, humidifying our air makes us less prone to catching colds. Although humidifying might be positive, make sure not to overdo it. There are several ways to do this, lets take two examples:

Air Humidifier – These are devices designed to humidify the air. By pouring water into these, it will turn it to vapour which will spread throughout the room, humidifying it.
Manual water evaporation – For those who do not need humidifiers, manual water evaporation is an option. Simply put out water to evaporate when preparing to sleep. Remember that the greater the surface area, the faster it will evaporate and also that warm water evaporates more readily than cold.

Humidifying air is not only a defensive measure towards catching colds, but also can be used as an active measure to hinder the disease from spreading in the family, school, office and the like. 30-50% humidity is perfect for humans. Above 50% will promote growth of dust mites, mold, fungi and bacteria.