When I was a child I remember my mother giving me a teaspoon of CLO every day. Then when my hip started playing up I began taking glucosamine & chondroitin. I stopped after several months and felt no worse. Then when my immune system threw a tantrum a medic friend suggested echinacea. Again, I stopped after several months with no effects. However, on the rare occasions I get a cold it knocks me for six. Constant cough, ribs ache, liquid diet only as really bad sore throat. And I have to give up beer because my taste buds go on strike. Eucalyptus vapours in the sauna after a light gym session help. I think a lot of these vit supplements are psychosomatic, one can only guess at the correct doses anyway, although vit D during the winter months might be some help.
Strangely, when I visit my CA friends, who live in a warm dry climate with low humidity levels, my hip feels better after three flights & 20 hours travel than when I departed. That must be a combination of dry cabin air and a positive mental state. I wish I could buy that in a bottle!
So...any recommendations to ward off stinky colds and ease an achy hip, apart from a balanced diet, fresh air and exercise in moderation.
|
Well, vodka doesn't actually make you feel better, but you don't care about feeling bad so much.
Seriously though I swear by lemsip for colds. Only vodka helps with pains from bones I've broken.
|
|
Home made margeritas for me. Preferably without the broken bones, he says smugly after surviving another week sliding downhill on planks.
|
A pitcher of margarita with chilli nachos and refried beans in Tijuana.
(Sigh) the things from around the world I miss.
|
1000mg cod liver oil bullet every day for 40 years.. My joints are all perfect... maybe it's yoga as well
:-)
|
|
Lygo will be able to put this better but medical opinion is generally that supplements supply nothing you shouldn't already be getting from a decent, balanced diet. The benefit from taking supplements goes to the retailers and manufacturers.
|
>>Lygo will be able to put this better...
Pretty much spot-on WdB, but the biggest chuckle must be directed to high doses of Vitamin E supplements (you know, one of those 'wonderful superfood-derived cancer preventing antioxidants') increasing the risk of smokers getting lung cancer.
Lots of theoretical level reports out there suggesting how these antioxidant chemicals neutralise free-radicals and other DNA/tissue damaging chemicals flowing round our bodies but studies don't support the use of high dose to prevent illness.
My thought is that large doses of single potent antioxidants probably neutralise the less powerful ones that our bodies use already, removing the benefit of taking extra.
|
"medical opinion is generally that supplements supply nothing you shouldn't already be getting from a decent, balanced diet."
My wife, recently diagnosed with hypothyroidism, has also been found to be hugely deficient in vitamin D, and the doc has prescribed supplementary vit D in seemingly massive doses.
Note to Lygo: This is NOT because I confine her to the cellar.
|
|
No, that'll be the cause of the rickets instead.
|
(Sigh) the things from around the world I miss.
Enchiladas al carbon at Ninfa's in Austin. It's the tomatillos in the sauce; anyone know how to get them in the UK?
Last edited by: WillDeBeest on Wed 25 Mar 15 at 07:00
|
Funny you should mention yoga madf. I have recently started a weekly 90 minute evening yoga class. It has made me realise just how inflexible my body is, and serves the twin purpose of me avoiding a few early doors beers on the walk home.
And I agree somewhat with WDB....a balanced diet with ample fruit & veg should negate the need for supplements, although being born on the hottest day of the year I seem to thrive in warm low humidity sunny climates. Certainly helps my joints, but then again a week in a ski resort with dry mountain air helps as well.
|
I believe there's some evidence zinc relieves the symptoms of a cold. It seems to help me when I've got one.
SWMBO takes it on a daily basis during Winter, she thinks it's a preventative, I'm not convinced.
|
|
It certainly prevents rust. :-)
|
>> It certainly prevents rust. :-)
Dip me in a vat of molten zinc and I'll guarantee I'll never go rusty.
|
Tomatillos are a close relation of tomatoes and the good news is that they are even easier to grow. Buy some seeds now. Lots available from seed merchants on the net. Sow them now and keep inside on the windowsill. They will be ready for planting out in the first week of June when all risk of frost is gone. Plant out in a warm sunny spot and treat as tomatoes feeding regularly.
You will have loads of tomatillos by late summer
Enjoy the sauce!
|
|
I'm nobody's gardener, CGN, but I manage a few herbs in the sunny spot outside the front door, so I'll see if the tomatillos like it there. Thank you.
|
I think there are a lot of popular proprietary medicines and supplements around that do very little. I always take cough medicine and and my cough always gets better. Or is it that my coughs always get better, and I take cough medicine?
Homeopathy also gets a lot of credit for regression to the mean.
|
I've bashed ( and continue to bash ) my body to bits all my adult life with all manner of high impact or inadvertently high impact activities.
If I swim most days it untangles me. If I miss that for more than 72 consecutive hours, more or less everything starts to hurt, a week or more and I virtually seize up.
I do take a 500 mg Vit C every day. Can't remember the last time I had a cold. Might well be just luck of course.
I feel (rather than know ) that keeping yourself reasonably fit is about as useful as any diet supplement.
|
Might well be just luck of course.
It is. Not working in an office will help a bit, but travelling is a virus hazard. Fitness probably helps less than we might think - although I'd guess it shortens recovery time. Smoking can't have helped; was it different when you did?
|
Not really. I've never really been one for catching colds much.
Edit - but then I've always taken vitamins...
;-)
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Wed 25 Mar 15 at 19:07
|
|
Vitamin supplements = snake oil.
|
Snakes are usually pretty fit right?
;-)
|
|
Don't see many fat ones, it's true.
|
I can feel an "ergo" coming on. But I'm struggling to find a way of connecting vitamin c to snakes.
|
Vitamin supplements - No FM2R
