Despite waking up with a sore throat, a brain-banging headache, runny nose, and phlemy throat, I dragged myself to do a light work out this morning on the trainer. And I mean light. I didn’t even push it. Something has to keep me from gaining weight from all these cough drops, eh? Just kidding, I got the sugar free kind.
I’m dying here. This is the second cold that’s hit me in a month and there’s no excuse for it. I have no kids. I haven’t run naked in the snow… lately… I keep up my health. I just don’t understand. Okay, so, I don’t take vitamins–that all seems like voodoo to me. I’m just skeptical of the whole natural cure thing. I used to take zinc when I had a cold because everyone was so convinced that it would dilute the effects of your cold, but it never worked for me. I really think it’s a placebo effect on everyone who takes them. If you believe you’re going to get better by taking a supplement, then you will.
So what do I do for a cold? I take Day-Quil every four hours until night at which time I suck down the NyQuil. I take Tylenol and use nasal spray and suck on cough drops. I think with a cold it’s all about making yourself as comfortable as you can while you’re miserable. Last night, I blew off my walk outside and just sat on the couch watching TV and writing a letter to Sarah all night (and I’m still working on it, Sarah, I swear!). I ate some tomato soup and drank warm tea. I spent the evening in PJs. I don’t know what else I can do but live out the course of this damn illness.
I’m not one to sit around. I hate doing nothing. So it killed me to not get my extra exercise in last night (the walk). Obviously because I got up this morning to ride the trainer. I’ve got stuff to do and this damn cold is getting in the way. The hacking cough is the worst! I panicked last night that I had bronchitis but I don’t think I do. Nor pneumonia. When I looked up both illnesses online, they talked about green “sputum” which I don’t think I’m having. Gross.
I’m hoping this goes away quickly. I was planning on doing a ride with the bike club on Sunday. Nothing hard, we’re just donning our bikes in Christmas decorations and riding around Silver Lake to look at light displays on people’s houses. But it sounded fun and I was willing to sport warm clothes to brave the cold, or whatever the weather will be like Sunday. The reports have been all over the board for the week–rain, snow, sleet, 20 degrees, 30 degrees, 49 degrees. I can’t keep track of it all. Sounds like Ohio is having a cold or perhaps suffering from the manic-depression all of its inhabitants endure in the winter.
Of course, I haven’t seen the sun in days… Saw it briefly on Saturday and was almost tempted to ride the Beast, but when I stepped outside it was barely 20 degrees so I came to my senses. Plus, it turned out to be kind of windy. Ick. I guess that might have sped my cold up and made it worse, in retrospect.
Right now, I just wish I could go home and sleep on my couch for a few hours. Good news is, I don’t have a fever. So I don’t have the flu, which is good since I bragged again liberally that I never take the flu shot and I never get the flu. That would have surely left me with egg on my face!
Mars Girl on Two Wheels 
Well, we won’t be having any green sputum, but there will be a special prize for the nicest decorated bike on Sunday, as soon as I find something in my basement to re-gift. Hope you’re well enough to make it.
I’m trying to find Xmas lights that run on a battery… but I have some extra garland and stuff I was going to use… So, you know, I was getting into the spirit and planning to attend the ride. I’m sure all this headache and coughing crap will at least be better by Sunday. Gack.
Hmmmm. So you’d rather take dayquil that is full of synthetic stuff made in a lab rather than natural, organic stuff that comes from the earth?You should at the very least take a calcium supplement that contains vitamin D. Most people don’t get enough calcium, and you can’t absorb the calcium you do get unless you have substantial vitamin D.
Oh, yeah, I have been taking Calcium +D for years because my grandma H had osteoparosis and I absolutely hate milk. But I’ve also added yogurt to my daily diet to try to help with the calcium intake. My mom said that she read recently that there’s really no conclusive evidence that taking Calcium +D really does help to thwart osteoparosis afterall because our bodies dont absorb these pill-added supplements as we once originally believed, so she’s lost faith in the idea now too (whereas she used to be more faithful to doing it). I guess we mostly end up digesting out of our bodies these supplements, ie, they turn up in our out-going waste more than they stick around in the body. I know I read that and heard that from some news items recently.Also, I just never found that the Zinc really did what they said it would do. I took it FAITHFULLY and on a roll back in the day when it was the big thing to do (in the 1990s). And it never really did anything to stop my cold from getting worse or averting its effects. I still felt the cold as much as I do right now sitting here at my keyboard. So since it never worked for me, I dropped it. DayQuil and NiQuil actually do seem to stop the symptoms that are driving me nuts (ie, they slow down the runny nose and stop the cough) so I will continue to take them. These home remedies dont really seem to produce results.I used to use St. John’s Wort as well for depression. I have to say that I honestly think that Celexa, when I was on it, worked much better.So, I dont know. I’m on the fence about these “natural” cures. The only thing that occasionally makes me try them is the fact that one of our most famous medical finds is antibiotics which, incidentally, is made of mold (pennicillian and all the ‘cillians’). So that makes me at least try the home remedies. But, mostly, I just think they are like alchemy… you know, let’s fix my cold by blood-letting me with leeches… I understand the theory of things coming from the earth should help you, but not a lot of them produce results. Some of them do, but only in minor ways.If it makes you feel any better, most of the time, I really just suffer through my colds untreated. I wouldnt take the DayQuil at all if I didnt have to go to work. And I never see a doctor about colds because I know there’s not much they can do. So I figure I just need to let my body battle it out itself…
There is certainly a time and place for antibiotics and such. I reluctantly got antibiotics on Friday for an ear and sinus infection I’d been suffering through for over a week. I’m using some hippie chinese herbs and probiotics in conjunction with these, so that my gut and intestines aren’t entirely stripped of good bacteria. Zinc only helps me ward off sore throats, it doesn’t do anything for cold prevention.
Ugh, by the time I get a sore throat, it’s too late: a cold is on its merry way. I had a sore throat on Friday night so I knew I was in for the long haul, even though I had hoped it would pass me by, but it never does.Well, something can definitely be said for those herbal teas, though… I’ve been drinking this Yogi tea, ginger flavored, and it really makes me feel better. I think they have some other kinds for when you’re sick. I was thinking of trying some. Although, just drinking tea seems to make things feel better. For some reason, I dont like to drink coffee when I’m sick like this.
I’ve been experimenting with vitamins lately. Some of that is because my doctors have recommened them–certain supplements for my eyes and calcium + D for another condition I have that is related to my thyroid cancer. I used to be against taking these, but I am changing my mind.There is a mixed report about these supplements. They do seem to help in certain cases, but other people will tell you that they aren’t a real good substitute for a balanced diet. It just depends. Lycopene is worthless in pill form, but some minerals and other items do okay as a supplement.As for absorbtion, I don’t know. They are actually taking blood tests to figure out how much calcium I am absorbing from these pills, and apparantly it is enough to offset the effects of this condition (or so they tell me). There could be other reasons why osteoporosis isn’t helped by the supplements, if that is indeed true.
Well, with the calcium, I figure it couldnt hurt. I think Michael’s doctor told him to take fish oil or something to keep his blood pressure down… (or something, now I cant remember what he’s taking them for). I think he probably takes vitamins too. I’d rather eat broccoli, personally. ;) Well, you know, I’d rather try to get the proteins from my food… it’s more fun that way! If you’re eating right, you shouldnt have to supplement as much unless, as you said, you have some sort of condition.Has anyone found that anything helps or thwarts a cold, though? That’s what I want to know!!
A lot of times supplements don’t work because the vitamins or minerals need all the structures and trace nutrients that you get from eating actual whole foods.That’s why lycopene probably doens’t work as a pill. Lycopene seems to work great when you eat tomatoes, because something in the way it is structured or the accompanying nutrients of a tomato make it work when it doesn’t work in isolation as a pill. But the story is different for each nutrient. Some work better than others. Some help certain conditions but not others, and the real deal is that no one really knows for sure.Nothing really does much for the cold. I think taking just regular Advil or Tylonal helps… just reduce pain and swelling and that seems to help the body deal with it better. Or antihistamines like Claritin. For natural cures, there are lots of teas. I think eating for a cold realy helps… fruits and veggies, soups.Nothing can really beat hommade chicken soup. Boil the bones and get your calcium that way, like your ancestors did!
Oh, you know what… exercise often helps because it gets the blood moving and gets fluids draining properly. Warm showers work, unless you have a fever and in that case you would probably want to avoid a hot shower.Good posture often prevents and cures colds, because it enables fluids in your lungs and sinuses to drain properly on a consistent basis. Yoga helps or the Egoscus exercises (you can google them or read one of Egoscue’s books).
Now, as much as I exercise, doesnt it make you wonder why I got sick twice in the last month? I guess it doesnt matter, eventually something will get you. But I usually only get one cold a year! I dont get sick very often anymore (probably due to the exercise?).As painful as it was, I did get on my trainer this morning. So, you know, maybe that helped a little. I didnt push it, though, just kept it at a steady pace. I usually make myself sweat more, but I knew doing that this morning would have made me feel like crap. Instead, I just felt uncomfortable (due to my sore throat).Maybe I should just do Total Gym work-outs for the next few days.
As far as soup goes, all my body gets is Progresso… and my white chilli… :(
Watching people's Facebook status updates and the like, my theory is that Cold & Flu season is and will continue to be much more intense this year because of the weather's mood swings: there isn't a prolonged hard freeze this winter to kill things off, and the humidity and moldy/mildewy conditions promoted by warm, rainy winter weather is the perfect viral and bacteriological petri dish. I'm on Cold #2 as well, and as you know, I just DON"T get sick. So that's how huge this cold and flu season potentially might be.
Well, I’m walloped today. I feel really light-headed and just not on the same astral plane as everyone else (which, probably is an accurate reflection of truth, but I usually dont feel it). Ugh. I’m just kind of floating through work today. I know I dont have a flu, though, cuz I’m hungry… dont feel pukey or anything… just not all together well.At least it’s not sunny and nice out, making me feel bad for feeling like crap. There’s nothing outside to be doing.
<>That would have surely left me with egg on my face! <>Better than puke on your face!
Yeah, I apologize – I have to be a know-it-all about what The Flu is. Partially because I, too, grew up in a household that used the word “flu” to mean nausea, vomiting, etc., when in fact “The Flu” is a respiratory illness involving fever, muscle aches, sore throat, dry cough, headache, and exhaustion. While there may be nausea present, it is the least common symptom – the thing we were raised to call “flu” is actually any variety of “stomach flus”, not “The Flu.” Here’s the link to my fave website on it, the CDC!! http://www.cdc.gov/flu/keyfacts.htm