I like your avoidance plan...garlic and OJ.

I guess you've heard about Airborne..... ;P

Oooo, garlic for a cold. I love garlic. It'd almost be worth getting sick to have an excuse to eat that much garlic.

I've heard of airborne but I think the stuff is vile. I prefer emergen-c, which seems to work just as good.

Ya know, I just had the flu two weeks ago and I had to give up, lie down and be basically miserable and near dead for three long awful days. At the time it was terrible and I couldn't believe it (well, I couldn't believe how sick I was when I woke up, which wasn't often) but in retrospect I think perhaps that my body and my mind and my soul, even, needed those three days of complete retreat from the world to sort of wake up and deal with spring and the change of seasons and my own head and stuff. This sounds nuts but sometimes a cold is not just a cold. Sometimes you really need to go ahead and be sick and just get it over with and you emerge stronger.

However, in other cases where you really can't be sick, try that Hansens Lemon/Ginger/Echinacea. I swear by that stuff and it's delicious and/or you can grate some ginger root, lots of raw ginger, into hot echinacea tea. Yarrow & ginger tea is also very good for this but tastes so disgusting that having the cold will seem like a far better alternative.

I do the garlic-VC-zinc thing too if I feel a cold coming, especially the zinc, lots and lots of it.

Also, lemon & ginger herbal tea. I use Twinings, not sure if you can buy it in the US but I have bought lemon/ginger tea in Krogers in the past made by another company.

I think perhaps that my body and my mind and my soul, even, needed those three days of complete retreat from the world

I know what you mean here, MGL... I've had colds/illnesses that hit me when it seemed like my body was trying to tell me, "Take a break, already!" (Usually due to work-related stresses.) It hasn't happened in several years, maybe because I try not to get caught up in work insanity like I used to.

Bah.

Wash your hands every time you touch something somebody else might've (carry some waterless hand cleanser), and remember not to touch your face. Everything else is happenstance. If you want to get all quasi-Japanese about it, wear a disposable face mask, too.

As horrible as I feel, raw garlic and cheese together just sound revolting. I'll stick with the chicken soup my grandma made me today and the diet sprite I'm sipping on.

Pax Digita-I have a 4 year old that sleeps justthisclose to me every night, all night. Somehow I manage to beat most of the germy things he breathes on me, but this one has me knocked out.

PaxDigita: That's all fine and good, but I live in a weirdo art/music co-op that's apparently internationally renknowned in the scene for its, well, uncleanliness. And I'm a smoker. Telling me to "not touch anything" and "don't touch your face" is about as plausible and possible as me licking my elbow, and washing my hands here - which I do ever much so more often here - is probably just as good a way to pick up something as anything else.

HollyGoheavy: The cheese is optional. I find it kills the burn nicely. The raw garlic isn't optional. Powdered, cooked or dry garlic doesn't do the same thing. :)

loquacious:

Stuff you eat or don't eat is, as far as I know, not going to help you beat a rhinovirus. Keeping it from touchin' your bod in the first place sounds like a better bet.

If you touch, say, a doorknob that's been recently touched by one of your infected housemates, then your fingers brush your mouth while you're dragging on that cig, it's possible to get some virus on you. At which point, all bets are off. Frequently cleaning your hands helps get any virus particles off them until you touch something else. You can be cleaner than the environment you're in if you're willing to work at it. Most people aren't, most of the time. I knew a guy who grew up in a family of MDs who rarely got colds due to the above regimen.

If you're hoping that you're going to prevent your immune system from having to deal with a rhinovirus because of stuff you're eating, I hope that works for you, because AIUI there are double-blind studies all the time that say that Airborne!, zinc, vitamin C, garlic, ginger etc. may be soothing, but there's no indication about how they interact with the body's immune system.

Speaking of which, are you a light enough smoker that you can cold-turkey it for a while until the fear of colds is past? I understand that smokers tend to get colds more often anyhow. (Weekend pipe smoker here.)

For those of you who are getting colds: Keep an old water or Gatorade squeezy bottle around, full of water, and be sipping constantly. Hydrate yourself to the point where you need to pee every half hour; your immune system will be able to work more efficiently in beating that rhinovirus.

(In fact, even if you're not sick, your system will thank you if you become a "water buffalo" -- it runs on water anyhow.)

The chicken-soup idea is good: Besides the H2O, there's lotsa nutrients, soothing chicken fat and salt, and a little pepper in there helps stimulate some mucus production so you'll blow the junk out of your system a little more efficiently. I really like instant chicken ramen with some red pepper flakes and powdered garlic when I'm sniffly. Raw garlic's good anytime, but hopefully your sweetie will join you in a piece or two so you're not grossing each other out!

It's probably a little late for loquacious, who at this point has an immunological "KICK ME" sign taped to his/her back, but if you make sure you're eating right, sleeping right, not smoking (or not much, anyhow) and especially getting enough exercise, your immune system will thank you -- you'll be able to fight off colds more easily and quickly if you're healthier to start with. Trying to compensate for the lack of aforementioned...not so much, I think.

Wash your hands, like you have an ocd.

HollyGH -- good chakra, or something, your way: I'm imagining you waking up feeling good and not feverish, achy, stuffy or sniffy. Hugs to 4-year-old.

I am attributing my recent quick recovery from a cold to the chicken soup that ikkyu made me, and his eventual recovery from the cold I gave him to the white bean and kale soup (with chicken broth and lots of garlic!) that I made for him.

I am developing a theory that kale cures all ills. Except if you're one of those people with the freaky blood thing that requires you to avoid Vitamin K.

Your immune systems already knows what to do to rhinovirii, but while you're suffering, soup'll sure make you feel a whole lot better about it.

Cock-a-leeky soup is good too. Haven't tried using kale, but I'm thinking this weekend it's time to get out the stock pot & simmer a chicken.

I think perhaps that my body and my mind and my soul, even, needed those three days of complete retreat from the world

Echoing BP on the agreement here. It's why I always got deathly ill right after finals in college. Your body will only take so much before it rebels.

I feel the same way about snow days. They're Mother Nature's way of telling everyone to slow the hell down, grab a cup of hot chocolate and do nothing.

I swear I get a cold whenever I grade student papers. Can a rhinovirus live on paper?

I had the flu two years in a row, spiking a temperature of 102.7. I felt like death. I now get the flu shot every year. Everyone should get the flu shot. (I thought I knew what sick was before the flu; I was wrong.)

Hand washing and lots of sleep help me sometimes if I feel a cold coming on. Feel better, loq...

My cold-avoidance technique:

Cut out all refined sugars and grains.
Sleep an extra hour every night.
Emergen-C


If things are looking dire, my mom's ex's grandma's cure: boil a quartered grapefruit, skin and all, in water. Mash it up after it's getting soft. Strain it. Add as much honey as you need to make it palatable (usually a cup or more!) and then drink it hot (or warm, or cold, even- I like it best cold). I don't go crazy on it, because that much honey whacks out my blood-sugar.

My cold-avoidance technique:

Cut out all refined sugars and grains.
Sleep an extra hour every night.
Emergen-C


If things are looking dire, my mom's ex's grandma's cure: boil a quartered grapefruit, skin and all, in water. Mash it up after it's getting soft. Strain it. Add as much honey as you need to make it palatable (usually a cup or more!) and then drink it hot (or warm, or cold, even- I like it best cold). I don't go crazy on it, because that much honey whacks out my blood-sugar.

oops! sorry!

I know a thing or two about taking it easy, fear not. :)

I'm doing just fine. I'm telling you, the micronutrients in the garlic plus whatever the hell it does to the circulatory system are just fantastic.

PaxDigita:

Stuff you eat or don't eat is, as far as I know, not going to help you beat a rhinovirus.


This is the problem with traditional science perspectives in that they inherently break down wholistic systems - in this case the entire human body - into dysfunctional, unconnected segments for the purposes of experimentation.

Nutrition has everything to do with immune system response. I'm not sure exactly how you can see it otherwise.

I eat garlic because it works. I don't entirely know why. I know that part of it is that garlic is a source of iron, zinc and micronutrients like rare earth minerals. Getting my vitamin C in the form of OJ makes it more absorbable.

This all fuels the immune system to do its job.

I'm incredibly aware of my body and have a pretty firm grasp of bioscience. I don't take antibiotics at the drop of a hat - especially not for cold or flu. They are, obviously, not only worthless but harmful when used as such.

I avoid antibiotics in general, and somewhat paradoxically garlic is also a known antibiotic and antinflammatory. I've used megadoses of garlic to cure critically abcessed infections and injuries just like you would with modern antibiotics.

Last night I could feel a sore throat and fever coming on and as I said I felt mucky all day yesterday. I knew I was in for a doozy of a cold unless I acted fast. So. I pounded the garlic and OJ. I drank water. I slept. Today I'm fine, no chills or aches, no sore throat. I woke up with a slight cough/congestion but it's gone.

While it's not empirical proof, I've done this hundreds of times over the years. I spent many years trading water bottles and sweat in dingy, dark warehouses with raver scum. Every time I'd get exposed to a cold I'd hammer it with the garlic and it'd just go whimpering away when it encountered my amped up immune system.

Another benefit to a garlic-rich diet? Mosquitos, ticks and fleas hate me. :) (as a huge fan of the great outdoors, I really appreciate that part.)

Kale!

I pretty much just came back to say that, but I will add the kale has extremely high quantities of Vitamin C. Which is actually why I meant to recommend it to sickies before I got on the Vitamin K tangent.

Also, it tastes good.

And it tastes even better with lemon. And in soup.

At the first sign of sniffles: Saline nose spray. Not the medicated type, just saline. You will flush all the bacteria and viral material out of there into a kleenex.

I'm with you occhiblu. I loves me some kale, oh yes I do.

Wow, I'm all rhymey today.

Loq, I too loves the garlic. Are you the one who questioned my in-loveness with broccoli arrabiata and its effect on my libido? Hot peppers and garlic are magical in many ways.

danf, thanks for reminding me to go look at neti pots!

danf, thanks for reminding me to go look at neti pots!

Hey ico, go look at neti pots. And then come back and explain all this to me, OK?

Oh and try garlic broth. Just chop up tons of garlic and put it in water with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. You can use chicken broth in lieu of water if you like. Bring it to a boil and then lower and simmer until the garlic is really soft. Such a great, nourishing drink. It'll just kick whatever ails you to the curb.

Dan, you know those little pots that look like mini aladdin's lamps - they're fantastic for cleaning out your sinuses and doing just what you said - making all the bad stuff end up in your kleenex. I can buy them at the local CVS now. I'll find you a good photo of one.

Netis! I just love watching someone use a neti pot ;)

Boing Boing Neti

How to Neti

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ico, what mixture do yo use in your neti pots?

I love my neti pot so much! It's the only thing making my allergies bearable.

eth, I just put about 1 tsp sea salt in a large coffee mug of warm filtered water - no special stuff. It's organic coarse sea salt from the supermarket. I stir it up and put it in the pot. (that I lost!)

i need one, as i was trying to use a funny shaped bottle. i don't know how much it helped but i did help rinse things out during the winter time of continuous nosebleeds.

Make sure you use non-idodized salt, eth. Sometimes I put a goldenseal tincture in mine.

i've only ever used sea salt and baking soda.
i don't know what else people use.

Airborne works because of the vitamin A. Uncle Bill says so (buried in the 2nd answer). Emergen-C has no vitamin A.

But kale has vitamin A!

It's a wonder food!

You're right -- This website says 1 cup of kale has 192% of the daily recommended allowance of vitamin A. Wow! Gonna get me some kale, I am.

I love the World's Healthiest Foods website almost as much as I love kale.