Feeling slightly sick

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

So I felt the beginnings of sickness on Sunday morning. You know where your throat isn't 100% right and even though it doesn't hurt yet something just doesn't feel right. By evening I feel just a little tired and I can tell sickness will settle in soon.

Monday morning I feel a sore throat. Nothing too bad, just minor. Not much of a congestion, but something doesn't feel exactly right there either. I take my vitamins which I usually don't do and a huge glass of OJ (I do that daily). I make sure I hit up Jamba Juice for a Coldbuster also. More vitamins/crap at night.

Tuesday. My throat hurts. Breakfast, OJ, vitamins don't solve it. I get another Coldbuster from Jamba Juice in the afternoon. I come back and I gargle my throat with Listerine... I don't know if that's proven or anything, but it's something my parents have always taught me to do with sore throats. I make sure I drink water. I take 3 of those Halls Defense tablets which each have 100% DV Vitamin C + Zinc and Echinacea. I pop them like candy pretty much. I also found my Airborne and I just popped a tablet into a glass of water and I'm chugging it now. I've had vitamin water throughout the day.

I should be getting better soon right? The main concern is that this isn't really a congestion or a stuffed nose or a lot of coughs. My throat just doesn't feel well and my energy isn't all the way there. I figure that medicine won't really solve much so I'll just stick with natural stuff. Maybe a glass of OJ and some more fruit later tonight while I study.

 

[imported_LoKe]

Vitamins are generally used to prevent the cold from ever infecting, but if you've already got it, all you'll do is shorten its duration (if lucky). Better stock up on some tissues, tea, and some of that canned soup. I took some Reactine when I had a cold a few days ago. Even though it's an allergy med, it helped dry me up enough to get through a couple days of work.

 

[effowe]

I don't think that citrus will soothe a sore throat. Try some tea or some soup. Keep up on the Vitamin C and the Halls, but let it ride itself out.

 

[imported_LoKe]

Originally posted by: effowe
I don't think that citrus will soothe a sore throat. Try some tea or some soup. Keep up on the Vitamin C and the Halls, but let it ride itself out.

Acids and Listerine are likely to irritate it even more, unless common sense is failing me.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinacea

Go to a health food store and pick some up. The people who use it swear by its effectiveness.

 

[ppdes]

Wow, I'd feel bad if I ate all that crap too. Halls Defense are basically candy (main ingredients sugar and glucose syrup) with some vitamin C, for example. Throw in all that juice and other crap and you're probably bouncing from one sugar high to another.

 

[wetcat007]

Originally posted by: LoKe

Originally posted by: effowe
I don't think that citrus will soothe a sore throat. Try some tea or some soup. Keep up on the Vitamin C and the Halls, but let it ride itself out.

Acids and Listerine are likely to irritate it even more, unless common sense is failing me.

I don't know why i know it doesn't make sense but if I wake up with a sore throat often times Orange Juice helps a lot for me.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I was always under the impression that Vitamin C helps your body fight the disease more. Since you can't really do much with a cold and medicine only makes you feel better not actually cures the cold, you might as well increase your chances in fighting. Now if I feel like total sh!t I would pop in my Tylenol flu pills so I could concentrate in class. So far it seems I should be fine for tomorrow's midterm although I'll probably only feel like 90% there with a slight sickness.

As for sore throats, my parents told me that the purpose of Listerine was to kill bacteria and germs and a sore throat is in infection no? It makes sense to some degree, but I don't know if it actually helps. Just wondering. The purpose of hot liquids like tea is to soothe the sore throat right? Anyone got some actual medical knowledge behind this as I would love to find out how to kill a sore throat. Of course there was once I was given some antibiotics to deal with food poisoning in China and my parents gave that to me once when I was sick and that killed the sore throat fast, but that's not a realistic way to get rid of a sore throat when you're just sick.

 

[SSSnail]

When I feel slightly sick or have the feeling of an impending cold, I drink lots of water. Then start drinking ampicillin on intervals and rest well. For the sore throat, honey lemon tea, hot.

 

[HammerCurl]

Use a tongue scraper to get all that buildup in the hard to reach places. I think it helps

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinacea

Go to a health food store and pick some up. The people who use it swear by its effectiveness.

Yeah, I'd definitely recommend it - it got me through the process quite a bit more quickly than I would have without it.

Two tips:
1. Echinacea & Vitamin C pills, I'd take both once a day during the issue, maybe twice a day (once morning, once night) at/near the peak
2. Gargling warm water with a ton of salt so water is cloudy, 2-3 times per day

Also, keep the echinacea handy so that in the future when he feel something coming up, you can take it. I've heard from *tons* of people that they can avoid most issues by taking it like that so that it's somewhat preventative rather than fixing an issue.

 

[Kadarin]

You're probably going to make yourself feel worse by ODing on vitamins..

 

[Canai]

Listerine won't do shit. We just did a comparative throat and mouth culture with a host of commercial mouthwashes. Trust me, Listerine doesn't do anything.

Use salt water.

 

[meltdown75]

I tried a suggestion from some friends on another board the last time I had a sore throat, which was to gargle cayenne red pepper flakes and water.

It worked! It was spicy but it worked.

 

[queenrobot]

When it comes to a sore throat, whiskey always works for me. As far as getting a cold (which I am trying to fight right now), I swear that Zicam really works to shorten the length and severity of the common cold.