Hi all, yesterday I felt I was getting a cold, today I am not so sure, thank goodness. These days I dread them.
I don’t take things like vitamin c or zink and such, but maybe I have got that wrong and it is worth doing? Obviously I do my best to avoid getting colds. What do the rest of you do? I welcome to hear about anything that seems to have worked for you. If there is some that have been ‘tested’ then even better. Please note I am NOT talking of something instead of asthma medication, not at all.
The only thing I do is take echinacea, and only one that has sufficient quantities to allegedly be able to work (supposed to give your immunity a boost) but I am not sure I believe in that either.
Written by
Wheezycat
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
I always used to think of myself as lucky in that I rarely (& still don't) get colds. Having thought about it more in recent years, I wonder if consciously or subconsciously, lots of us take steps to avoid getting them (I instinctively turn my head & sort of blow germs away if anyone ever sneezes near me). I also think that there might be some mechanism (I have no evidence for this, just my own musings) that some asthmatics might have that help prevent colds from taking hold.
This is just guesswork, & only based on me personally, but I've probably had no more than 3 or 4 colds in well over 10 years...my diet is the well-known pie, chips, beer & chocolate diet; so maybe I should start marketing that
The downside is, though, that every time I feel any sort of pre-cold snuffle, whilst it never becomes a cold it will often hit my chest quite hard, so it's obviously not that I'm avoiding the bugs altogether.
Yeah, well, that is kind of me. I take as many steps as I can to avoid, but it isn’t perfect. Last year I did fantastically, no colds at all in well over a year, but this year I have been hit a bit more, though not hard. My asthma complained though. We attempt to ensure we don’t visit people with colds, and are not visited by people with colds etc, but obviously it doesn’t always work. My last cold I am pretty sure I picked up on a flight. I think I eat reasonably healthily, though I am not perfect. And like you, these days I try to keep a physical distance when I encounter it, turning away my head and all that. And washing hands, though I don’t always remember that either. I even carry a hand wash now in my bag, but have yet to remember to bring it out.
I also try to stay philosophical about it all, but, really, I dread getting colds.
Hi. I do all suggestions above, but impossible to avoid all cold germs and contact with coldy people....especially my charming 18mth old granddaughter who seems to have a permanent cough n cold (asthma in the making?? Hope not!)
The last few months, alongside usual precautionary measures, I’ve been trying vitamin C plus zinc lozenges, Holland & Barrett, as required. I suck one every time I feel my throat sore or a cold coming on. I really think they’re working because, so far, no further developments. I’ll report back at the end of the winter!
Oh, do! I am sceptical of vit C plus Zink but happy to learn otherwise. Also, especially, I don’t want anything with sugar/honey/glucose or whatever in it, and I hate sweeteners. But such lozenges seem not to exist, sadly.
I've read that there's little evidence to show that Vit C helps but some to suggest that zinc might do.
I admit I don't do anything special to avoid colds but I probably should. I am lucky that I seem to have a good enough immune system to avoid getting too many, but if I do my lungs usually go nuts and I land up in hospital. (Then for some reason I get told that this is fine because 'It was just a cold doing this'. Errr...needing a day or.two at home with Lemsip is reasonable for a cold, or perhaps some ramping up of meds for asthmatics. Needing resus and a stay in hospital is less than reasonable IMO! I do wonder about some medics.) Frustrating and tiring with asthma even without hospital though.
There is Vicks First Defence - never used but can work for some. It aims to provide a physical barrier to stop the cold getting too far and contains zinc. It does also contain eucalyptus which my lungs dislike so a note of warning on that in case others are also sensitive.
Hi! I agree with the ‘needing only lemsip’ bit (I wish!), but for me though I am mostly lucky enough not to end up in hospital, to have to take antibiotics and prednisolone for just a cold, is still quite a step up. Would I didn’t need to.
I just read a piece of research that supported the vit c plus Zink, but it didn’t comment at all on Zink alone. I think I will have to take this a bit more seriously. I shall seek help from daughter, she is usually very good at finding findings for this sort of thing.
I agree - apologies if it sounded like I was dismissing anything below hospital, really meant to say it's still frustrating etc and a step to eg need pred or.more than a routine slight increase in meds.
Good luck with finding things that help, please share if/when you do!
I agree....I am opposed to all the sugars/sweeteners, and in fact all upset my digestion.
There’s sucrose in these, but as long as I eat something non-sugar soon after, seems to work. Not taking them daily, usually no more than one a day, maybe in short succession, then long gaps.
Just giving them a try at this stage after an horrendous last winter. I babysit my granddaughter once a week and desperately want to continue, it helps my daughter a lot too.
I’ll summarise next spring, hopefully, but they seem to be helping so far. They seem to stave off cold symptoms which then tend to return, but another dose fixes it for a while. I’m not launching straight into full scale asthma exacerbations as happened several times last Winter, and many other Winters- but some months to go yet. Fingers crossed 🤞
I recently had an experiment with reducing my medication. It didn’t work, I am back on my original dose, but while experimenting it increased my coughing, a lot. My standard response is to take cough lozenges, and I have a (sugary) sort I like, but that time I sensibly decided that maybe my cough deserves me trying ventolin.......it worked a treat. I am a bit tending to underestimate where my lungs are at. So that is one way of reducing my sugary sweets, which is good. If a bit dramatic. And I feel stupid in a public space. I normally use ventolin/salbutamol with a spacer, as it works better, but with that I feel even more overly dramatic.
Yes, over the years I’ve tried to escape medication but it just doesn’t work. I’ve unsettled my well settled asthma a couple of times with my efforts, leading to quite long resettling times. I think now I just accept that it’s doing an invisible job when my asthma’s good, and leave it to carry on. A GP once told me that he’d never reduce my asthma meds unless I could clock up at least three months, and preferably six, without using my reliever inhaler as well. I never get anywhere near that. Another told me I’m risking more lung damage by ‘messing about’ with my meds.
I’ve capitulated now, with generally much better results. Who’d have asthma, hey?!
It was suggested to me by Asthma U.K. , no less, that if I was taking 4 puffs of Symbicort per day, it was sort of wrong (I am on smart regime). If I needed four I should probably be on two plus Montelukast instead. So after my cold and asthma deterioration was gone, I sought a review to discuss this. The nurse agreed with this, but we decided the first step would be to see if I could manage with two, half the dose. I got on with that, and for 9 days I was mostly fine (bearing in mind I am rubbish at noticing subtle deterioration, and once ended up in hospital as a result. I largely don’t trust myself, but I am working on it.) However, on three days I coughed a lot, and that was when I had my ‘salbutamol trial’ ( especially one day in a cinema as the lights were going down - it was that or accept lynching). Anyway after 9 days, when I was confused and anxious, I rang Asthma U.K. again (felt it reasonable to go back to where I started) and that day’s nurse sounded horrified. I did say I might have done a bit of misrepresentation - I was probably too simplistic - and she told me, sensibly, that many are on the same level as I had been and to go back to that straight away. I immediately felt calmer, but also followed through to see a GP to check if my regime should be changed. It was someone I had never met before, but she got it quickly, and sensibly checked the latest guidelines, and there is no recommendation at present. It may come, but I will worry about that then.
I am now back to normal, still struggling to know what is happening in my chest, but at least I have properly and finally learned to ‘follow my cough’ and act if it starts up, with salbutamol as first choice, not cough sweets. They can come after if my throat feels raw. I am fairly old, but even obvious learning never stops!
I found that although constant coughing might be a sign of an asthma exacerbation, coughing that starts due to, for example, a dry atmosphere.....maybe the cinema!.....often carries on once started and eventually provokes my asthma.
I’m not good on sugar, so don’t like sucking sweets to try to help, so now carry a bottle of water everywhere - reusable plastic or whatever, and cleaned with Milton solution regularly....which stops the cough instantly, it goes no further, and certainly deals with anxiety coughs, such as in a public quiet place.
There are of course other health benefits from drinking plenty of water.....while the bottles with me, I drink more water, cough or no cough.
Sure, generally. However, on this occasion I think it was about being less medicated as it happened in other situations, too, and my peakflow was very slightly depressed. Once I went back to normal it gradually improved. I do cough periodically a bit all over the place, and normally just ignore it, except for sucking on something which works for me quite often. I would find carrying water around with me all the time quite hard - yet one more thing to add to my bag, adding weight. Different on a hot summer’s day.
I take echinacea which I believe helps prevent colds and bugs or at least minimises them, and I’ve recently started taking Vitamin D3. I’ve heard several times that Vitamin C combined with zinc is way more effective than taking just one or the other. But I don’t take either personally. From time to time I take multivitamins or vitamins + minerals, but not all the time.
I take vitamin d with k2 mk7 with magnesium and zinc, since taking these I’ve one chest infection since January where I used to be in hospital every few months
I already take vitamin D- I was found to be deficient, probably causing the leg ache I would get when walking - but I haven’t thought of anything beyond just vit D. I must look into a combo version.
What dose vitamin d do u take , also if your taking vit d u need to take k2 mk7 with it so it goes to your bones, if your having leg or cramping of a night then u might be deficient in magnesium , this helps with that and also helps for your airways
In the summer I had a prescription for extra strong vit D, and since then I have taken 2000. What is K2 and the other one? Vitamin K? And something else? Once I understand I will certainly look it up. But my leg ache seems to have gone, and my hair seems in better form.
Echinacea is a general immune booster...in all honesty I find elderberry flower (capsules) better take them at the first sign of something viral and the viral thing doesn't usually last long (if it develops at all)... couple that with something like royal jelly capsules (high strength) that have every vitamin mineral and amino acid known to man (a lot of which we can't produce so are naturally very deficient in)... and don't forget a good diet rich in protein and fruits and vegetables etc
should leave you in a pretty good place with a strong immune system
I can only comment on the above because they have worked for me I spent 7-10 years catching colds and taking elderberry flower... I very rarely had a cold last longer than a few days and be anything more than a pain in the ass (the Mrs joked quite frequently how she would be ill with a cold for ages and I would blow my nose and sleep it off)
Royal jelly I took every day all the time and noticed crazy things like If I cut myself it would heal in half the time than previously... so it had to be doing some good inside too was my thoughts
I've also had glandular fever while doing the above (and really boosting things up with energise)... that kept the virus in my head (literally) I had the mother of all cold sores and mouth sores but it didn't spread anywhere else (apparently it normally starts in the head and then travels through all the glands down to the back of the legs)... it made me feel pretty grotty and blood tests showed my white blood count was really high, the doctor said "your immune system has really taken a disliking to this virus, that's probably why it's not spread"
Ban everyone who has a slight cough or sniffle. Unfortunately a cough and cold to us could be a pneumonia and hospital. I don't think you need to take any supplements personally but my friend swear by Echinacea which you are taking. Stay well.😊
Hi! Yes, we are doing what we can to ban, but sometimes it doesn’t work. I had a friend to stay a few days ago, and she arrived with a cough, claiming to no longer be infectious, but as she still had symptoms of course she wasn’t. However I couldn’t send her away as she had travelled some distance, just keep my own physical distance. And so on. I am sure you know. Re supplements, me, too, not something I do much of, except now vit D, since a blood test showed I was deficient and I was given a prescription fast. But I do wonder if I have the supplement bit a bit wrong. I can’t see myself taking things all the time, but if I feel that tickle or whatever, maybe something is worth it. So I am looking into it. A few once in a while won’t do harm. Luckily I generally stay well, but I have my moments. Hope you, too, stay well.
I definitely believe in the power of echinacea and have been taking it for a while to keep me strong and healthy. It is truly a remarkable natural way to boost your immune system
But if your main dread is catching a cold, there is a more effective way. GARLIC. I hope you do not have allergies or something. If you eat garlic or place a piece of it in your room (don't mind the stench), it has a capability of attracting and trapping viruses and bacteria in its surroundings. Helping you to get better faster from a cold and to prevent it
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
Loaded with a heavy COLD
PLEASE HELP - constant coughing and dry preventers not helping at all
Cold lasting three weeks
How long can preventer take to be fully effective?
