Any of about 200 viruses can cause the common cold and bring on the all-too-familiar symptoms that can range from an annoying scratchy throat to a throbbing head cold that brings you to a halt. Cold viruses spread relatively easily from person to person and hit most people in the winter.
CONVENTIONAL APPROACH
Allopathic medicine hasn’t found a cure for the common cold, but research continues. In the meantime, when a cold hits, most people who follow conventional medicine take treatment into their own hands. They turn to over-the-counter cold remedies, which may offer temporary or partial relief from symptoms. These treatments often contain a combination of ingredients:
- Pain relievers, such as aspirin and acetaminophen, can be used for headaches and body aches and to reduce fever. Side effects range from stomach irritation to nausea. (Children under IR years old with fevers should not be given aspirin, which may lead to the potentially fatal disorder called Reye syndrome.)
- Caffeine is sometimes included to boost the pain reliever’s effectiveness, although caffeine’s ability to do this is doubtful.
- Antihistamines, such as chlorpheniramine and diphen-hydramine, may stop a runny nose and suppress cough-ing. Their mogootable side effect is drowsiness; others include dry mouth and blurred vision.
- Decongestants, such as pseudoephedrine and phenyl-ephrine, can relieve a stuffed-up nose. Tremors and heart palpitations may result. When taking the drug in the form of nose drops or sprays. the symptoms can return in a more severe form when the dose wears off.
Doctors sometimes prescribe antibiotics to patients with common colds, although this treatment is only good for bacterial infections and does nothing to kill a cold virus.
SYMPTOMS
- Stuffy, runny nose
- Sore throat
- Coughing
- Spewing
- Watery eyes
- Headache
- Body aches
- Mild (ever
- Chills
ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES
Many alternative therapists believe the symptoms of the common cold should not he suppressed. The symptoms are the body’s way of fighting a cold virus and, therefore, should be encouraged to do their work. Alternative treatments hold promise to shorten the duration of a cold and maybe even prevent one.
NUTRITIONAL THERAPY
According to nutritional therapy, eating certain foods and taking supplements can mean the difference between catching a lot of colds and few colds, as well as between colds that drag on and colds that disappear quickly.
A sound diet does go a long way toward fostering a strong immune system that can stand up to cold viruses. This sound diet means cutting down on sugars, fats, and alcohol and loading up on fresh vegetables. whole grains, easy to digest proteins, and essential fatty acids. Milk and dairy products should also be eliminated, either during a cold or year-round. They can trigger the body’s production of mucus, compounding the problems of a cold.
After a cold has started, large doses of vitamin C can ease the symptoms and may even shorten the sickness. Numerous studies have proved this effect, which is usually attributed to the vitamin’s antioxidant properties. Whether vita-min C can actually prevent colds is still being debated.
Zinc may also speed up the recovery from a cold, perhaps by blocking viruses from multiplying. Several studies have illustrated this effect: A group of Texas researchers, for example, compared the effectiveness of zinc gluconate lozenges to a placebo. After seven days of treatment, 86 percent of the patients who took the zinc got rid of their cold symptoms. Less than half of the patients who took the placebo were symptom free.
A possible prescription for vitamin C might be to take 4,000 to 5,000 mg per day until the cold symptoms go away. The doses should be spaced out during the day—in four or five doses—or the excess vitamin will simply be eliminated in the urine. Some practitioners recommend up to 1,000 mg per hour if your bowels can handle that much. Eating oranges is helpful, but stay away from juices that contain a lot of sugar.
HERBAL MEDICINE
In the effort to slave off a cold, herbs can be used to strengthen the body’s immune system. When a cold virus has already taken hold, herbs can ease not mask many symptoms: sore throat, stuffy nose, excess mucus, fever, and other symptoms.
Echinacea (or purple coneflower) may perform two valuable functions for people with colds: weakening cold virus-es and stimulating the body’s defenses to work better. Taking this herb—usually in the form of a tincture—can shorten the duration of a cold. Coldenseal is often combined with echinacea in herbal cold treatments. lEs also an immune-booster, and the herb may lessen mucus in the nose and throat as well.
Other immune-fortifying herbs include garlic, ginger, and astragalus. The list of herbs that can make cold symptoms bearable is quite long. Most of the following can be made into teas that can soothe symptoms: chamomile, elder flowers, hyssop, peppermint, rose hips, and yarrow.
At the first sign of a cold, an herbalist may prescribe 15 to 20 drops of echinacea tincture four times a day. The drops can be diluted in a cup of warm water. Stop the treatment as soon as the cold symptoms disappear.
VITAMIN C TO THE RESCUE
Since Nobel Winning chemist Linus Panting wrote the land-mark book Vitamin and the Common Cold in 1970, the benefits of this nutritional treatment have been examined in about 20 experiments. Most have confirmed the Vitamin’s ability to shorten colds or ease their symptoms.
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE
Traditional Chinese medicine attributes the common cold to causes that originate outside of the body—the so-called external factors such as wind and cold. Poor diet and too much stress are just two of the things that can knock out the body’s resistance and make it vulnerable to these external factors. The factors involved then determine the specific cold symptoms a person will have. The therapies of traditional Chinese medicine work to restore the flow of the body’s energy, or qi, and return yin and yang to harmony.
Herbal therapy in the traditional Chinese treatment of colds involves a mix of herbs such as ma huang (Chinese ephedra), lian qiao (forsythia), and jin in (honeysuckle). These are usually given in the form of a decoction—a concentrated extract. The herbs that are prescribed depend on the factors causing the illness in the particular individual. For example, warming herbs are prescribed if the illness is caused by cold.
Traditional Chinese medicine sometimes employs acupuncture to replenish or disperse energy. Colds due to both wind and cold, for example, may respond to acupuncture at the points Dazhui (Du 14), Fengchi (GB13), and Quchi (L111). Acupressure—similar to acupuncture, except finger and hand pressure is used instead of needles—may also be useful.
THE REAL THING
For thousands of years. the Chinese have used the herb ma huang (Chinese ephedra) to treat colds. Taking a cue from Ibis, modem allopathic medicine synthesizes one of the herb’s components, ephedrine, to make drugs for coughs, hay fever, and asthma.
Here’s a sample acupressure treatment for colds that have symptoms of fever and headaches:
- Wear loose clothing and sit in a comfortable position.
- To find pressure point LIM bend the right elbow. With your left thumb, apply firm pressure to the top of the elbow crease. (Use your other fingers on your left hand to cradle the elbow.)
- Hold for one to two minutes.
- Repeat on the left elbow.
- Next, to find pressure point GB20, put both hands behind the head. Place your thumbs at the base of the skull on either side of the spine.
- Tilt your heed Mack slightly.
- Apply pressure with the thumbs for about one minute.
AROMATHERAPY
Aromatherapy holds that the essential oils of certain plants can gently relieve cold symptoms and may even help fight viruses. Commonly used oils include
- eucalyptus to clear breathing and ease a cough and fever
- lavender to alleviate congestion, enhance sleep, and stimulate the immune system
- hyssop to aid free breathing and induce sweating
- peppermint to ease congestion, correa any digestive dis-turbances, and cleanse and cool the body
- yarrow to reduce fever, promote sweating, and clear breathing passageways
Depending on the essential oil, it can be used alone or in combination with others. They are often mixed with steaming water and inhaled or combined with a massage oil and worked into the chest.
The following aromatherapy treatment can help bring up phlegm from the airways, making breathing easier:
- Boil about eight cups of water.
- Remove the pan from the stove top, and add three to four drops of essential eucalyptus oil.
- Hold your head over the pan, and then create a tent over your head with a towel, trapping in the steam. (Let the water cool off if it’s too hot)
- Inhale the vapors for no more than ten minutes.
OTHER THERAPIES
Ayurredic Medicine—Treatment usually involves a special diet (including lots of whole grains but no dairy products, for example) and herbs (such as cinnamon, ginger, or licorice).
Detoxification, Fasting, and Colon Therapy—Water and herbal tea fasts and juice diets, lasting only a couple of days. can be helpful.
Homeopathy—Specific remedies must he tailored to the individual, but common prescriptions include aconitum napellus. belladonna, euphrasia, and natrum muriaticum.
Hydrotherapy—Treatment may involve nasal flushing, steaming hot baths, and alternating hot and cold compresses applied to the neck.