posted
Okay. There has to be a better way to get rid of a cold than just sitting around feeling miserable, popping vitamin C pills and blowing your nose.
What do you do to help colds go away faster?
Posts: 3420 | Registered: Jun 2002
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posted
Maybe you're not having enough vitamin C. I regularly take 1000 mg of vitamin C and hardly ever get colds. When I feel especially vulnerable, like if the girls are sick or I am not getting enough sleep, I take 2000 mg, spaced throughout the day. I have gotten maybe two colds in the last three years. When I get a cold, I up it to 3000 mg a day, and my cold is typically gone in just over a day.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
Vitamin C is good indeed. Just a word of caution though - more than 500mg a day can interfere with the effectiveness of the contraceptive pill. (Not that I'm worried about that with respect to Icarus )
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
There is, of course, no scientific evidence that vitamin C does anything as a cold preventative/cure. Aside from one book written in the 70s that used a hopelessly flawed system of analysis. One would have expected more from a Nobel Laureate. Generally the benefits are entirely because people ramp up their C intake by drinking more OJ and staying hydrated is of great import when you're sick.
So sit back, relax, sleep, drink plenty of water and milk it for all it's worth
And, Ic, the RDA for Vit C is around 60 mg. Your poor, poor kidneys. I hope you only nuke your body with it for a day or two at a time. That's not quite in the kidney stones and diarrhoea dosage, but it's edging up there.
Edit: Oops! I thought the first post was by Dags. It's so bed time.
[ September 30, 2004, 12:37 AM: Message edited by: Bob the Lawyer ]
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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And I'm not going to say you shouldn't be doing it. 3000 mg isn't nearly as much as some people ramp up to. And it's not like tablets are expensive.
It's just grating to see people spread misinformation on a subject in my field even if it isn't hurting anyone, y'know?
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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I haven't spread misinformation. Look again: I have shared specifically anecdotal data. Are you going to challenge me on the accuracy of my statements?
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Power slam a dark beer, take two aspirin and hit the rack.
Kidding.
Lots of fluid. Balanced diet. Extra rest. Everyone heals at their own rate - except super-Icarus who is perfect in practically every way . . . (
Icarus - you just have extra antibodies and regenerative powers because not only are you a parent, you are around snot-nosed kids all day long . . . you do realize that don't you?)
Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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You're suggesting she take vitamin C when there are volumes of scientific data that say, at best, it may mildly decrease symptomes of a cold but has no ability to prevent it.
I am not challenging that you don't get colds as often as others may. I'm not even challenging that you may feel like you fight them off more than you don't if you take vitamin C. I am challenging you on saying that vitamin C is actually doing anything.
Edit: I should point out that it has been demonstrated that increased vitamin C levels seem to stimulate the immune system. That much is generally accepted. And while it would seem to lend legitimacy to the claim that taking it before a cold would fend it off or reduce symptomes, no correlation has been found when doing experiments where people were actually innoculated with cold viruses.
[ September 30, 2004, 01:06 AM: Message edited by: Bob the Lawyer ]
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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But, from a scientific standpoint, there is no cure for the common cold, right? Knowing this, what can Dragon be asking for except anecdotal stuff, home remedies, and the like?
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I have had great success with a remedy called Zicam. You can get them at just about any drug store even though they are a homeopathic remedy. They are a nodrip nasal gel on a swab so applying them to the inside of the nasal cavity isn't fun but they work fairly well. The key however is to use them as soon as you have symptoms. They don't work as well when you are fully into your cold.
Posts: 1132 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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Hey, Dragon, I don't get colds very often and I always carry a piece of obsidion in my pocket. Maybe you just aren't carrying enough obsidion?
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote: What do you do to help colds go away faster?
The original question. It seems to ask for anecdotal replies.
I'm in a strange position here, because I am generally on your side, BTL. So what would you have me do? I take vitamin C and have come to believe that it is effective for me. Should I stop because of the lack of generally accepted scientific evidence for its effectiveness? When I look at lengthy periods of my life when I took vitamin C, they were healthy ones. When I look at lengthy periods when I did not, I got more colds. Of course this is not evidence for anything, but it feels wrong to me to fiddle with something that works.
Should I just not mention it to Dragon? Isn't this just the sort of answer that was being asked for?
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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You have NOT been slammed, Icarus! I'm just jealous of your recuperative powers and overall health!
I well remember how sick I was my first year working in a preschool environment - and I've been out of one for years now and am scared to even volunteer in Nathan's classroom lest I get sick! Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Who knows . . . maybe the C isn't doing anything for me. But I'm afraid to take the chance on stopping it!
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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I've had 3 colds in the last 5 months. So evil!
Anyway I recommend Zinc, gargle with mouth wash, lots of sleep, lots of garlic pills, and the miraculous "Cold-eeze" drops!! They can get rid of your cold before it starts.
Best luck to you on getting rid of your cold, Dragon.
posted
This is seriously how I cure myself of just about everything:
Lots of garlic.
And not just garlicky foods. Take individual cloves, mash them slightly and swallow them whole (one a day is usually good). Tastes a bit nasty and isn't too fun to burp for awhile, but it kills just about any microorganism in your body.
Plus, it keeps everyone else with their pathogenic breath away for a few days too. Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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And some true scientific stuff to back that up: They've found that freshly mashed (uncooked, unpreserved) garlic does contain a compound called allicillin - a close relative of penicillin and an antibiotic.
I find, though, that garlic works on viral infections (like colds) for me just as well as bacterial ones, and maybe it's the placebo effect, but I trust it and so faithfully use it.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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Icky, as always you're free to make your own decisions about your health. What would I suggest? For myself I would suggest not taking such high doses of vit. C and continue getting a healthy amount in my daily diet. I'm very much pro making an educated decision about one's health. It's not that I'm telling Dragon not to take it, but I want her to know what the scientific community has to say about it so she can factor that in to what she does. She's free to make up her own mind from there, as are you.
Any snarkiness was a factor of me indulging a small pet peeve. Sorry 'bout that.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
The Dan Raven, Seriously I Can't Cook-Chicken Soup To Get Bettter Recipe.
Bascially, I combine every folk rememdy that I hear of hoping that something works.
Take one can of canned chicken meat, because, face it, you are too tired from the cold to go about cutting and deboning a chicken.
Grill it in a sauce of lemon juice and lots of garlic. just poor both in there until it feels right. Don't worry about taste, your nose is so stuffed you won't be able to taste anything.
Open one can of Cambells Chicken Noodle Soup. Heat it up in a pan on the stove, none of this Nukeing the food here.
Stir in the chicken, with as much of the sauce that's still with it.
Add a few noodles to give it some bulk and boil. When noodles are tender you are ready to serve.
Grab a large glass of water, take the whole pot of soup, put both on a TV Tray in front of the TV Channel. Wrap yourself up in a blanket. Eat, Sleep, Drink, Sleep.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
I talked to my doctor today and she recommended vitamin C to help my sinus infection. I asked her about the effect of vitamin C on contraceptives, and she said that a large dose might, but there is no proof that it would.
Posts: 1015 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Plunge your head alternatively into large buckets of water - one ice cold, and the other as warm as you can stand it. Then, dressed in two sweat suits, do jumping jakcs for five minutes, and then strip and stand in the freezing cold shower. Swallow two cloves of garlic. Wear comfortable shoes and uncomfortable mittens. Have a bacon and smashed banana sandwich - deep fried. Eat celery sticks for one day, and then shave your head.
I promise. You won't even notice being sick.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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My sister-in-law has bronchitis caused by a virus, and they sent her home with two weeks of amoxicillin. I balked right away because, you know, the whole antibiotics-won't-help-a-virus thing.
But my mom-in-law said the doctor told her that the antibiotics won't directly help against the virus, but may amp up her immune system? Does that sound strange to anyone else? I'm wondering if I should bother to keep fighting about this. I hate it when kids start getting antibiotics so early and way too often. It's not good.
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Antibiotics can help with a virus, they allow your body to concentrate on the virus rather than dealing with all the random bacteria its always swatting down. They also help prevent a secondary infection while the immune system is weakened by the virus, which can be very important (many of the most harmful bacteria that are all over the place are easily swatted by a normal immune system, but not a weak one).
However, antibiotics are sometimes overprescribed. The best advice is to go to a doctor you trust and then trust your doctor.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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