Colds N Flu

[GTR-N1]

Feel free to comment.

I know that this thread might be of better use in winter, but I decided to devote half of the format into prevention - not just cure.

The following is just commonsense

Prevention

* Wash hands after shaking hands (- only 30% of USA men wash their hands after going to the bathroom)

* Wash hands after holding public railings (- escalators too)

* Clean hands in public toilets by using toilet paper rather than using taps

* Use a clean towel to wipe eyes whilst at the gym (virus can enter through eyes). Assume gym equipment to be dirty > wash

* Press pedestrian buttons at the lights with a key (- girls use elbows)

* Exhale if someone around you in a confined space (like train or bus) is sneezing or coughing

Cure

(and speed is essential here)

* Shower with the water as hot as possible on the back of your neck for a few seconds before finishing

* See if you can run it off

* If your finger nails have white flecks or you have cracked lips, get a zinc supplement quick

* See an acupuncturist

* Vitamin C up to 5000mg per day in divided doses

* Echinacea and Garlic tablets

Remember, a Cold or Flu can bring the fittest man down within two days.

[blah_blah]

Good write up Terry

I just got over a cold last week, normally just take lots of vitamin C tablets.

I catch the train 2 hours everyday so guess I should exhale alot

[S T A R 3 3]

My allergies have been playing up the last few weeks and only in the last few days have got a chest infection. Fml.

Work offers a flu shot but hesitant to take it because I usually get sick after it anyway

[Birds]

Good advice Terry, I'm shocked about being able to clean hands with toilet paper?

I'll add my home remedies to this. I catch a LOT of colds. I have a seemingly weak immune system, probably not aided by my low body fat content or love for driving with the windows down. Regardless, when I do catch a cold I'm usually over the worst symptoms in 24-48 hours and then I get on with my life.

This is how:

- Sleep. The moment you think you have a cold coming on, take some vitamin C tablets, and go straight to bed with water by your bedside table.

- Drink LOTS of water, even if you don't feel thirsty...your hypothalamus does some funny things when you are sick, including loss of appetite and thirst. The body needs water to detox - my rule of thumb: if your urine is yellow then you need to drink more.

- Tiger Balm on the forehead and temples...the menthol and camphor will get up your nose (in a good way), whilst topically the pleasant burning sensation will take your mind off of headaches, nausea and sinus pain while you try to sleep/rest.

Following this, unless it's the flu, I always feel much better within 24-48 hours.

Don'ts:

- Take cold and flu tablets that mask the symptoms and allow you to "carry on with your life". I don't believe it healthy to just work through a cold, it can leave you worse off and take longer to go away. The symptoms are your body's way of saying you need to slow down and rest while it fights the disease. Symptoms are also your best telltale that you are still sick and your body is still working on it. Not sure if there's any anti-biotic / pharmaceutical benefit to cold and flu tablets (Terry can chime in here), but I don't touch them.

[GTR-N1]

Yeah there's no useful antibiotic. Good advice above too Birds.

They say that if you do get colds in autumn, it's best to get your immune system and fitness up to scratch before winter viruses hit, lest you get knocked down again.

I haven't had a flu since 1982, so I'm just spruiking a journal comment.

[sweefu]

I haven't had a flu since 1982, so I'm just spruiking a journal comment.

Very impressive!! I had to take anti-biotics for a wound on my arm earlier in the year, this was the first time I had ever taken anti-biotics, it completely ruined my immune system and I caught a flu that my house mates had. They had another flu recently, and I did not catch it. Not a fan of anti-biotics (same for flu tablets etc) unless really need, like a bad wound.

There are some great tips in here, I agree with them. Zinc is very important when you have a cold/flu, I would take it as soon as you feel it coming on, I take it every few days regardless. And lots of vitamin C! I will take 3 grams per day if I have a flu.

Glad to see some other people aren't keen on pharmaceutical drugs too.

Stay healthy

[vspecIInur]

I had the flu for 2 days last week, I went to the gym and did an intense session of weights and cardio. Felt so much better afterwards. Must prevent my immune system to be weak. I take lots of ascorbic acid when I feel run down. Just hope the antioxidants are doing their job cleaning up any free radicals to balance those redox reactions

[R31Nismoid]

Ensuring good amounts of sleep is probably the most important part.

As I'm a shift worker I found myself getting sick quite often, simply due to terrible sleep amounts during the week 4hrs average with a big 12-14hr sleep one night over a weekend. I'd be sick for 5-6 days at a time.

Now i aim for a min 7hrs sleep. Coupled with a good diet that includes a lot of vegetables/salads: broccoli, cauliflour, tomato, carrot, lettuce, green beans... Has pretty much kept me above board well for 12 months with minor colds if anything that last 36hrs at best.

I also eat a lot of chilli & garlic.

Vitamin C is only of use when you are run down. Remember a few studies (NFI from where), but having excess when you are healthy really offered no major effects.

For those that get sore throats, which is usually how mine always start off... Hit it with Betadine Throat Gargle every 4hrs and you'll be amazed that literally overnight, you can cure even the worst sore throat

[warps]

1)Feel symptoms - power on

2) Gets worse - pump body full of codral

3) Power on for couple of days, symptoms gone

4) ?

5) Profit

[ctjet]

* Clean hands in public toilets by using toilet paper rather than using taps

To take that a step further, I also use that piece of toilet paper like a glove (sort of) to open the door to get out of the toilet too, both the cubical and the airlock door

Touching door handles my biggest personal phobia that makes me get all germaphobic

[Yo-Yo]

I get the flu shot every year & when the weather gets colder around May I start drinking a glass of juice in the morning & one in the afternoon when I get home from work.

It works for me & haven't had a cold or flu in over 7 years since I started this ritual, even when I'm surrounded by work colleagues who get colds.

I remember getting a lot of colds & runny noses as a kid so maybe that helped build up my immune system down the track?

[NickR33]

people who get sick but insist on still going out into the world can get fkd... if your sick stay home, that's what sick days are for... if people would just stay in bed the spread of colds/flu wouldn't be half as bad

my wife always carries handwash in her handbag when traveling interstate/OS... nothing worse than getting to your destination and coming down with a cold... recycled air in airplanes doesn't help

as soon as I feel it coming on I smash Vitamin C and Echinacea and do pretty much everything else in Birds post

big difference between a cold and flu too... nothing much you can do when a proper flu hits!

[TTT]

I had the flu for 2 days last week, I went to the gym and did an intense session of weights and cardio. Felt so much better afterwards. Must prevent my immune system to be weak. I take lots of ascorbic acid when I feel run down. Just hope the antioxidants are doing their job cleaning up any free radicals to balance those redox reactions

No you didn't.

FLU = influenza

Because the words "cold" and "flu" are mentioned together so often, people think they are same same.

google influenza and 1918 and then see if you "had the flu for 2 days"

[R31Nismoid]

Yeah no real chance the "Flu" was 2 days, proper "Flu" will knock you down for 5 days easily.

Common cold will last 2-5 days in most instances.

Although interestingly, I don't worry about door handles etc. Also if i've got grease on my hands I'll still eat food with them and so on. I think you do build up a natural tolerance and "protecting" ones self by being "super hygienic" just means that when you forget routine of it or whatever, you suffer more greatly.

Kinda like super bugs due to use of antibiotics

[TTT]

grease.. the new mustard

[Hanaldo]

Jesus... Some of you guys might as well live in a bubble. Wash your hands after shaking hands, seriously? How is that practical? And some of these things cancel each other out, I mean are you supposed to drive to work in the morning, shake your bosses hand, then drive home to wash your hands? Or is it ok to wash your hands after shaking someones hand, but not ok to wash your hands after going to the toilet? If cleaning your hands with toilet paper is good post-ablutions, why not suggest cleaning hands with toilet paper post-handshake?

I pride myself on being healthy, and I can boast the record of never once having had the flu in my 21 years, and very rarely do I catch a cold. When I do, I'm over it very quickly. The most sick I have ever been was when I got glandular fever, and I was over that in under 2 weeks. I don't do any of the prevention methods above, they are ridiculous. The 'cure' methods are good, I agree with those. Sleep, a good diet and exercise, ie. being healthy, is the best way to avoid getting sick. Birds' post was pretty much spot on. Alcohol is also a big factor, often because it goes hand in hand with a lack of sleep and because it inhibits your livers ability to detox properly.

Although interestingly, I don't worry about door handles etc. Also if i've got grease on my hands I'll still eat food with them and so on. I think you do build up a natural tolerance and "protecting" ones self by being "super hygienic" just means that when you forget routine of it or whatever, you suffer more greatly.

Kinda like super bugs due to use of antibiotics

Agree with this 100% as well. The immune system works by being exposed to germs.

Not trying to be rude or overly critical either, I'm just genuinely shocked that anyone practices the mentioned prevention methods?

Edited March 28, 2012 by Hanaldo

[Birds]

people who get sick but insist on still going out into the world can get fkd... if your sick stay home, that's what sick days are for... if people would just stay in bed the spread of colds/flu wouldn't be half as bad

Agree with this so much! It's such a selfish **** thing to do. I was eating in at Nandos the other day with some friends and one of them was coughing as he normally does (or so I thought), because he's a smoker...I asked him where he'd been lately, as I hadn't seen him at the gym of recent...he says he's had a cold / still does, so hasn't been going to the gym -_-

I absolutely hate catching colds, it's just a waste of time/life and I can't enjoy anything while sick. So because of their selfish bullshit and short sightedness, I have to use up my work sick days and take a few days off my life! And people get offended when they cough in my car and I open the windows...or when I keep my distance from someone who is known to have a cold...or when someone asks for a sip of my drink and I ask them if they have a cold? I've had people confess to having a cold after I ask that question! Fuck off mate, just because you got infected doesn't mean you should suddenly become apathetic about spreading disease.

People who suck water out of the bottle filler instead of the mouth spout at the gym water fountain...WTF

/rant

[GTR-N1]

No need to be glib Hanaldo. I too have only had 1 flu.

Taps in Public toilets have more viruses/bacteria than in most workplaces > thus use toilet paper. But lots of Public toilets are being designed in such a way as to walk around partitions rather than have to use door handles.

After shaking hands, especially in Flu season, it's common sense to at least wipe that hand on your dacks in a covert way. Uncleanliness Cases in point = teachers getting colds off kids during term; flu pandemic after WWI killed millions; confined areas like aircraft cabins; and lastly, Florence Nightingale had to be a super hardass to get the hospital staff to clean from top to bottom.

It's always laborious if one isn't used to minimising proximity exposure. If its habitual to practise hygiene, not getting a cold or flu is quite easy (unless of course you're in hospital and run the risk of Staph. Aureus or Clostridium Difficile).

Oh yes, one more thing about contagions; Canterbury Rugby League players bombed out the year following a Premiership due to the mildly contagious Glandular fever. They went down like flies.

One doesn't have to be obsessive - just aware.

I've seen loved ones kissing their sick friend/relative in an isolation ward after washing their hands + bringing in indoor pot plants with fertiliser. My immunologist squash friend guessed right > Herpes in the 1st instance and possible Legionnaire's in the 2nd. Well at least they washed their hands lol

[75coupe]

go the Bio C daily during flu season, if you do get a cold take Bio C three times a day...

It works for me...

[Hanaldo]

Sorry if I come across as insensitive, I've never been good at arguing my point without causing offense. Wiping your hands on things such as toilet paper or your trousers is rubbish, it does nothing to remove germs. Did you never do the 'glitter' test in primary school where you put glitter on your hands and then try to get it off with a paper towel or any other means? 99% of it stays on your hands. Germs are the same, so the notion that you could clean your hands with toilet paper or on your clothes is quite frankly ridiculous.

Then consider how fast bacteria reproduces. Bacteria population can double in size in under 10 minutes. That's why these adverts for hand cleansers that kill "99%" of the germ population on your hands annoy me, because 99% is not enough. When you are talking millions and millions of bacteria that can double population size in under 10 minutes, 99% does nothing. Hence, you are always crawling with bacteria. Always always always, there is absolutely nothing you can do about that. Right now, you are supporting between 2 and 10 million bacteria just between your fingers and your elbow.

Expand that thought into every other aspect in your life. When you wash dishes, do you use a brand new cloth to do so? Do you use a brand new tea towel to dry with? If you don't, the damp environment in those cloths is absolute heaven to bacteria. You then put that tea towel down on the kitchen counter, those bacteria are now crawling all over your counter top. Put a plate of food down on that counter top and the bacteria transfer to there. You can see where I'm going with this. It's the same when it comes to wiping your hands on things.

It's an impossible task, even the most obsessive of clean-freaks can do nothing about it. In the end, the only thing stopping you from getting sick is your own immune system. 99.9999% of the time your body will crush those bacteria easily. It's when your immune system is not up to the task that you get sick, so the best preventative method is to keep your body fit and healthy. Whatever is going on outside your body will ultimately not make much difference, because these germs are absolutely everywhere anyway.

So yes, wash your hands after you have been to the toilet, etc. etc. Do all that is practical to stay healthy, but going to the extent of pushing the pedestrian crossing button with your elbow is ridiculous because in 20 minutes the bacteria that were on that button have spread exponentially from your elbow to your hands anyway, it's pointless.