Your Cold and Flu Survival Guide

[Texasmujer]

HOW YOU CATCH THEM
Its more accurate to say that the flu or a cold virus catches you. Both are spread in the same two ways. An infected person coughs or sneezes shooting virus particles into the air, which you breathe in. Or you touch an object---a doorknob, someone's telephone---contaminated with the virus and then carry it to your nose or tear ducts with your fingers

HOW TO MANAGE A COLD
* Make yourself comfortable. "That means listening to your body." says Eric Westerman, M.D., an infectious-disease specialist at the Methodist Hospital, in Houston. "If your body says you need to sleep, then that;'s what you should do. Ignore it and it could take you longer to recover."

* Drink three to four extra glasses of fluid a day to replace the moisture lost from coughing and sneezing and to thin the mucous secretions.

* Try echinacea. a 2007 study of 14 controlled trials found the herbal supplement can slightly reduce a cold's duration---and can cut people's risk of catching a cold by 35% when a rhinovirus, the most common cold culprit, is involved.

HOW TO MANAGE THE FLU
* Taking a prescription drug, such as Tamiflu or Relenza, can reduce the duration and severity of the flu, but these drugs must be started within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms. Most symptoms will disappear by themselves within a week, though a cough and fatigue could persist for a few weeks.

* Stay hydrated, get lots of est, and try appropriate over-the-counter or home remedies.

YOUR PREVENTION PLAN
* "Hand washing is number one, two, and three on any list of ways to prevent infection," says Susan Rehm, M.D., medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. Scrub for at least 20 seconds with soapy water. When you have no sink, an alcohol-based antibacterial hand gel (like Purell) can help. Enough sleep, a balanced diet, and regular exercise can also help make you less vulnerable.

* To avoid the flu, get vaccinated. The vaccines may thwart 70 to 90 percent of flu cases, and even if a strain slips, your illness should be
milder. Schedule a vaccine in September or October, well before the peak of the flu season.

[thedailyflash]

i refuse the damn vacines

get some organic apple cider vinegar

mix with water and honey etc when you feel bad

i havent had a cold in 3 years or more

[Texasmujer]

I thoroughly enjoy your feedback; if you know some home treatmentrs that help YOU...by all means, use them; the whole point is to find what works for you, and use it; to me, you are ahead of the 'game'

[thedailyflash]

i have the wosrt cold

sea salt water up the nose helps,whiskey raw garlic

[Celyn]

Good grief, if you have not all recovered from your cold and cases of "flu'" since three months ago, then I should be very sad for you indeed.

However, all seems to be well, I suppose.

I still think I would have to be in a very bad way to want sea salt up the nose. Whisky sounds a good plan, as does garlic, but that's because both are generally good things. Does this remedy involve putting the two together?

I was recently reading a very jolly cheerful book about the flu'. REAL flu'. I mean, not like one or two people I know who have a sniffly cold and then decide all by themselves with no medical knowledge, that what they have is flu'. (Disclaimer note: I do no suggest that anyone on this thead does such a thing)

"The Last Town on Earth"
by Thomas Mullen

(no point in providing publication details as they will differ depending which side of pond)

Flu!
Misery!
Illness!
More misery!
More Illness!
Death stalks the streets!
Town quarantining itself!

Involves war, also men with guns, also a bit more death. And a bit more misery. Oh, and a bit more death, quite a lot of it, really.

Just the thing to read if you are suddenly stuck in house with a sniffly sneezy bit of a bad cold.

(Actually, I jest, the book is really rather good, and looks at issues of personal familial "ethics" versus community social responsibility in terms of the possible effects of the 1918 flu' on a small isolated town that puts itself into quarantine in the hope of escaping the 1918 flu'.)


I hope you recover from your cold soon, Daily Flash, even if I *still* cannot understand the salt up the nose thing. Honestly, the whisky and garlic I could just about understand but not needing to put anything up my nose.

[thedailyflash]

thanks i guess its a cold and i didnt say i had it for 3 months

ive had it for 6 days-its mainly gone i suppose

[thedailyflash]

Pacific Health Center

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Though nasal cleansing is done in Hatha Yoga, this method is certainly not confined to any eastern religious practice. The practice is also found in France, Germany and even Jamaica. It's a historic remedy in Scandinavia for colds and infections. The old fishermen claim to have avoided colds throughout their lives by sniffing salt water from their hand or a small bowl and then spitting it out of the mouth again. A hundred years ago it was common to find nose cleansing glass pots sold in Scandinavian pharmacies.
A story is told of a military base in south Sweden where they had a large container of salt water with a small valve and rubber hose at the bottom. If soldiers felt a cold coming on, they would put the hose in one nostril and let the water run through. It was the most effective remedy they knew for preventing colds.
Chief physician of the Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic in Falun, Sweden, Dr. Claude Laurent, states:

We recommend nose cleansing against dry mucus membranes, to people with allergies and when working in dusty environments.

BENEFITS

Some of the greatest benefits of nasal cleansing have been noted by sinusitis sufferers. A 19-year old stud