Re: brandy
raises hand
My parents did it to me, and yes, it helped. Its more for symptomatic relief - great for when I had terrible chills. It helped me go to sleep.
Its an old remedy - to add a little to eggnog during the holidays when it gets really cold.
I understand its liquor, but to be quite honest, many of your medicines contain some level of alcohol in them. If its being used for medicinal purposes, shouldn't be a problem.
Now for congestions - they never helped my congestions clear up. But it brought warmth to my body, which allowed me to relax and go to sleep, so that my body could fight the infection better. There's other stuff you can do also - like vaporizing rubs, humidifiers, and basic over the counter meds - but don't be fooled, there is alcohol in some of that stuff also.
Its like morphine man - like of course you shouldn't take drugs as a muslim. Would we call the old dude doped up on illegal morphine a good muslim? No. But you think your imam is going to reject a dose of morphine when the cancer pain is killing him? I can bet you a fortune, at that point it becomes halaal.