Fighting Colds

I woke up Tuesday morning with a dry and slightly sore throat. I immediately gargled with warm saline water. When I start to get a cold, this is one thing that I do a couple times a day. One of my wife's Filipino friends who is a doctor told me about this. It does seem to help with upper respiratory viruses. As the day wen on Tuesday, I could sense that something was coming on. So I started taking more vitamin C. I mean like 2 to 4 grams an hour. I might take a gram or two every 20 minutes. I noticed Tuesday afternoon as I started taking more that I was tolerating well. That is to say, I was not passing gas or feeling any rumbling in my stomach. This means something is going on. The vit C is fighting free radicals caused by a virus.

When I got home, I took some niacin. 300 mg in a no-flush time release capsule. Gargle again with warm saline before bed and try to go to sleep early. I woke up around 4 am feeling a bit sick. Don't let up at this point. Since I was up, I hit it with more vit C and warm saline water. I was able to get back to sleep after a while and when I woke up, I felt a little better. The cold was mostly in my head. I had a little congestion but the vit C has an antihistamine effect and I could still breath through my nose through all this time.

I went to work but made sure I had enough vit C to take throughout the day. I also took another niacin tablet to take in the afternoon. I was feeling a bit tired but I still had enough energy to work through the day. In fact, I first thought I might go home early but there was plenty of work to do and I felt well enough to make through to 5.

It was now Wednesday evening and I felt things were on the up. I suspected the cold would begin to migrate to my chest as these things typically do. But I was optimistic that I had it under control and would be well by the weekend. I still kept up the same routine. Letting up slightly on the amount of vit C as Thursday afternoon came around.

It's now Friday morning and I am almost recovered. There is slight congestion in my nasal cavity and very slight coughing left over but I should be in near perfect shape by tomorrow.

Yes, this approach takes a bit of work. Compared to taking a 24 hour cold pill, you have to take vitamin C frequently throughout the day. But the energy level is quite different. There is no antihistamine haze. That dull, loss of energy, sleepy feel that you get from cold medication is completely absent. In fact, I have lots of energy with just some congestion to contend with. Also notice that this particular virus is shortened quite a bit (maybe a subjective observation but I've seen this frequently enough to say it's true for me).

How about you? If you would like to try this method, the first thing to do is start taking more vit C, even when you are well. I would start with a gram with breakfast and dinner. Start adding more if you wish. At the first appearance of cold symptoms, try a gram an hour and see how it goes from there.

One more thing is to take vitamin D in the winter. I ran out of my vitamin D supplements last week. Normally I take 2000 IU per day. I had not ordered more to arrive in time so this could have contributed to my catching a virus. I would also take more vit D if I catch something.

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