I'm sick please help

[bivonic]

I got the typical post nasal drip, congestion, sneezing, occasional coughing. What should I pick up. Yesterday I took a few antibiotics I had lying around, amoxicillan & 1 benadryl. Then went out drinking, I have some phlegm coming up now which tells me it\'s almost out of the system. Also I went to the gym yesterday, it was a little more difficult then normal, I plan on going again today (will that expedite getting this bug out of my system).

I will watch the superbowl tonight & consume a decent amount of beer, even if it means I feel like crap for the next few days, so any preventative measures or advice will greatly be welcome!!!

Thanks!

[**DONOTDELETE**]

If you\'re gonna drink, you really should not take cold medicine. Antibiotics won\'t help a cold. They\'re for bacterial infections, not viruses. Benadryl is an antihistamine, which will only help if your symptoms are allergy related, and they\'re probably not. Until you get past the Superbowl and the beer fest, I\'d say don\'t take anything. Tylenol is not good for you if you\'re drinking; it stresses your liver too much. You could take aspirin if you have body aches and fever. And you could take zinc lozenges and vitamin C. Just don\'t double dip the nachos, dude. Oh - stop by your health food store and look at the homeopathic remedies. I was shopping yesterday and noticed they had a lot of stuff for sneezing, coughing, etc. etc.

[Wolfe]

man..never do that, damn good way to kill yourself..meds+booze=danger

[druid]

if your are weight lifiting when working out then you are probably holding up the healing process. I would suggest to stop exercising until you get over this -- exercise is a form of stress and it stresses your immune system -- and your immune system is already stressed by this cold/virus.

[Tim]

Indeed. You shouldn\'t do intensive exercise while sick. It temporarily taxes the immune system, even though it helps the immune system in the long run. (Read this in men\'s health). But, non-intensive exercise (walking or fast walking) probably could do some good, IMO.

[Wolfe]

cut the exercise till you feel better and add in more sex till then

[Watcher]

Yes increase the sex and reduce the exercise boost the vita C and protein powder is also helpful. And rest.

[bivonic]

Still sick, I guess I didn\'t get enough sex [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

Why increase the sex? Shouldn\'t I be worried of getting my partner sick? (Assuming I had one atm).

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Don\'t you know by now not to listen to Watcher?

[Wolfe]

it won\'t make ya better faster, just make ya forget your sick while doing it [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Watcher]

Listen to me at youre own peril, i meant to make u forget u are sick. You are more likley to give something to youre partner (with the flu) simply by touching them with youre hands a kiss etc. So if you have it by now is certain shes been exposed to it before sex comes along. Its just to make u forget about how sick u are.

[drchaos]

ditto on FTR\'s reply. It\'s all true.

But one thing that I have found that seems to work for colds is this \'Zicam\' zinc gel.

it sounds kind of gross---you stuff it up your nose and squirt some in. It seems sort of counterproductive as you probably already have a runny nose, so sticking some goo up there is the last thing you want to do, but it does seem to do something.

Apparently the zinc gets into the pores in the virus that it uses to get into your system. It is the similar idea as zinc lozenges but it gets much more in there and it lasts quite a bit longer.

It says \'homeopathic\' on the external label, but ignore it, it is on account of FDA legal regulations. It has enough active ingredient to be real (i.e. the particular form of zinc in its carrier).

And most importantly it showed some significant effects (reducing length of cold symptoms) in a real double-blind clinical study run by a medical professor at a university, and published in a real scientific journal.

The trick is that you have to use it as soon as you feel *anything*, that\'s when the virus is invading and replicating the most.

So it\'s not homeopathic bullshit. But probably to say \"effective\" in the FDA\'s mind the expense of the clinical studies is very very high.


By the way I don\'t believe the \'Zicam\' allergy relief is going to actually mechanistically work.

http://www.zicam.com/site/products/research_c.html

[xvs]

I\'ve had very good success with elderberry extract, specifically this one:

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/eas4less/033984041257.html

Which is available for less money here:
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/vitaglo/solg4125.html

I find that if I take 6 of these on first symptoms, I never get sick.

Note that this isn\'t to be taken constantly, but only when you are getting sick, since it appears to work at least partially by stimulating the immune system -- not something you want to be doing all the time.

-----------------

The effect of Sambucol, a black elderberry-based, natural product, on the production of human cytokines: I Inflammatory cytokines

Sambucus nigra L. products - Sambucol - are based on a standardized black elderberry extract. Sambucus species has reportedly been used for years by Native Americans, mostly against rheumatism and fever. These products are considered to have antiviral properties, in particular against specific strains of influenza virus. This study investigated the effect of Sambucol products on the healthy immune system - namely, its effect on cytokine production. Using blood-derived monocytes from 12 healthy human donors, several different Sambucol preparations were studied. Production of inflammatory cytokines (IL-1b, TNF-a, IL-6, IL-8) was significantly increased, mostly by the Sambucol Black Elderberry Extract variety (2-45 fold) as compared to lPS, a known monocyte activator (3.6-10.7 fold). The greatest increase was in TNF-a production (44.9 fold). The authors conclude that Sambucol might be beneficial to the immune system by increasing the inflammatory process in healthy individuals or in patients with specific diseases, possibly when administered to patients with cancer or AIDS in conjunction with chemotherapeutic or other treatments.

Authors: Barak V, Halperin T, Kalickman I
Source: European Cytokine Network. Apr-Jun 2001, 12(2):290-296
Posted: August 23, 2002