Cold & Flu Season
November 30th, 2007 by Arleigh JenkinsIt’s that time of year again. Somehow I’ve skirted around co-workers and family members getting sick in the past month. Not now. I’m now trying to fight off a sore throat and the feelings of the flu with drugs. Every time I get sick thoughts of taking daily vitamins to help my immune system, to make it that much stronger for the next time I come across a sickness.
What do you do? Do you take daily vitamins? Get the flu shot? `
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I use Cold MD in addition to my regular all in one daily vitamin and its doing a pretty good job.
Usually, I just suffer and wait it out. Living in Europe it’s not easy to just get cold medicine. You have to buy all that sort of stuff from a Pharmacy or through your doctor. Therefore, people here take a lot few medicines and seemingly are healthier overall.
I almost made it to Thanksgiving without getting sick… didn’t catch anything bad yet though - nothing some extra sleep and green tea can’t handle
I just got hit with the flu 2 days ago and I have not been able to bike commute. My main challenge is staying off my bike long enough to recover fully. There’s nothing like that morning when you think you are feeling better then blowing it all out on a ride and taking yourself out of commission for 3 more days. For the flu, patients works best along with some ginger ale. As for the cold my remedy is Kiwis and Pomegranates for me.
Yeah Jim, I’m with ya. I usually convince myself that going for a ride will actually make me feel better… almost always wrong.
I haven’t gotten anything yet, but when I do I usually drown it in orange juice and extra strength tylenol.
I used to swear by Alka-Seltzer plus until I got on the Multi-vitamin kick. I don’t take one a day like a lot of others do and as instructed on the bottle. I take 1/2 every other day. I use Centrum plus. I’ve found that I might get a little sick but that only last for about a day while others around me are out for 4, 5 days or maybe a week at a time. Absolutely no flu shots for me, I read the fine print and you are releasing them free of obligation in case you become totally parallelized a one in something like 500,000 chance. I know for myself if it wasn’t for bad luck I wouldn’t have any at all. I’d never hit the lottery but I’d most likely have the worse happen. I’d rather get the flu. I have also read that it isn’t good to “work-out” (including bicycling) while sick. Your body needs to heal first before beating it up, which in essence what working out is - your body builds up resistance/muscle to the “beating”. I guess that’s why they call it a “work” out.
During cold/flu season I try to wash my hands often, especially after touching surfaces that other people touch. I also try to avoid touching my eyes nose and mouth after I’ve touched surfaces that other people (people with colds) have touched.
Once I feel a cold coming on (the itchy throat is a dead giveaway) I try to get as much rest/sleep as possible, stay very hydrated, and take zinc supplements. I’ve found that stressing my body before I feel 100% tends to extend the duration of my cold.
OK, so I’m a little conflicted. On one hand if we all eat correctly, and rest properly our immune systems are theoretically going to be able to ward off most viruses. On the other hand, who does these things?
Multi-vitamins (all vitamins actually) are so concentrated that the vast majority of their contents get flushed out before they can be absorbed.
My best advice? Eat more green, yellow, red, leafy, beany things than you think you can stomach. Especially the bell peppers and beans (green, yellow, wax, et.c). They are all chocker-block full of the stuff we all need to boost our immunities…and we won’t urinate most of those goodies away.
Besides, who doesn’t like the way asparagus makes our pee smell?
Having done a little personal research, and knowing some people in the medical field I have found some somewhat helpful information. Most of the common cold and flu bugs that go around are viral. Ask any healtcare professional and they will tell you that antibiotics are useless against Viruses. Most doctors prescribe them anyway because most people don’t want to spend $80 on a doctors visit to be told to go home and drink plenty of fluids and get lots of rest. I’m probably the least healthy person in the MTB world, I smoke slightly less than a half a pack of smokes a day and drink probably one or two beers several nights a week and I still rarely get sick. I drink a lot of orange juice lemonade and gatorade on a daily basis, and rarely ever drink sodas. When I feel like I’m coming down with a bug, I will hit the vitamin C, Zinc, and Vitamin B6 / 12 pretty hard until it passes. Vitamin C and Zinc both boost the immune system and the Vitamin B6 and B12 will help keep your energy levels up.
When you feel like you’re coming down with something, stay away from sugar becuase it represses your immune system, and no alchohol becuase it cancels the vitamin C in your system. Obviously if you are a moron and smoke like I do you should grow a brain and quit or at least back it off while you are sick. And yes, I am working on the smoking but addictions can be tough to kick when you are weak minded.
Man, I wish I could eat more veg’s raw or only lightly cooked, the unfortunate thing for me is if it is a reproductive part of a plant, I’m alergic to it anywhere from lightly to severely until it has been cooked to the point of low nutritional value. Some salads bother me. As for asparagus. That stuff is just plain nasty.
any canadians out there? don cherry tells me to take ColdFX. seems to works really well at the on-set of a cold. as soon as you feel one coming on you start popping pills
lots of juice and fruit and just rest it out
cheers
anyone ever try Buckley’s cough medicince? blahhhhhhh - horrible stuff!!