Posted on 09/20/2006 6:54:52 PM PDT by djf
BOSTON (Reuters Health) - Use of echinacea, or extract of the purple coneflower, before the onset of full-blown symptoms of the common cold reduces the incidence by more than a half and the duration by almost two full days, researchers reported here at the annual meeting of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology.
There are approximately one billion colds reported annually, Dr. Sachin A. Shah told meeting attendees. He commented that 20 percent of patients report using nutraceuticals for symptom management. Of these, echinacea is the most commonly used.
Shah of the University of Connecticut, Storrs and colleagues conducted a search and ultimately a pooled analysis of randomized controlled trials on the subject.
The investigators found 14 studies that contained information on incidence in 1,356 patients and duration in 1,630 patients.
The team found that echinacea use cut incidence by 58 percent. Duration was shortened by 1.9 days compared with the colds of nonusers.
Be careful. I once saw a woman who was permanently deep silver for the rest of her life from it. I would not touch the stuff.
Oh gosh, can't remember the antibiotic, but it was a fun one: no sun, no milk or orange juice or the like two hours either side of taking a dose, some codeine based cough syrup... the usuals.
They started me on advair for the allergic bronchitis. It seems to have really helped, but I hope this ends soon, taking that twice a day is nuts.
I would not make a good patient if it require me to do something every day for the rest of my life.
My husband has asthma which only crops up every once in a while. Advair has been a life-saver for him. He was told to whiff it 2x a day but he will not. They swear to him that it's not an "as needed" remedy but he has proven them wrong. He can make one purple disc last for 6 months because he ONLY uses it as needed. It's worked well for him for a couple years now.
Hy that is great news. I was worried about tossing this disc because it expires in 30 days...
Prior to starting it he had mentioned his chest felt tight and like he was suffocating, within a couple of days of starting cell food the feeling was gone and this summer our monsoon season didn't affect him for one minute.
Not sure why they gave you antibiotics if it was from bleach and not a virus, most doctors would probably have thought prednisone (something I'm not a fan of, but would work).. I would use homeopathy, too.
OH, I started with an infection, bronchitis. About 2 weeks (6 weeks after coming down with the infection) after the meds, I had the exposure to bleach. So the antibiotics were the first treatment, then the advair for the bleach exposure.
I feel that herbal type remedies are going to be the next wave in health care....
I stumbled upon a penny stock (xkem) that makes a herbal supplement that reduces the symptoms for Sickle Cell sufferers drastically.
It is really getting the attention of the medical and big pharma community!
I used to get 5 colds a year.
I have been drinking 6 cups of coffee/day, and now not one sniffle, for maybe 6 years.
So is hemp, but there are problems with growing it.
'have started taking Saw Palmetto, 52, so I'm still early in my geezerdom. DHA, EPA and a good otc NSAID are also recommended.'
explain, please? saw palmetto, okay, but how do you thake the rest? what are they?
DHA and EPA are Omega3 fish oils. You can get it at a health food store, actually these days most supermarkets have them now in the vitamin section.
NSAIDS are Non-Steroidal Anti-inflammatories, like Ibuprofen and Alleve. There is growing evidence that many of the problems of aging are related to basically low-grade infection type inflammation.
Don't overdo it with the NSAIDS. I usually take 1-2 per day. I take about 3-4 grams of the fish oils. And lately have been taking about 2-4 thousand units of Vit D.
There is a constant stream of discoveries related to reversing aging (and what it actually means "to age").
A good resource is Pubmed. Just type Pubmed into the address bar of your browser.
:)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.