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Andrew Joiner
11-28-2017, 3:00 PM
I'm very skeptical about herbs and supplements. When someone recommends a treatment for something I always look to see if a placebo controlled study has been done.

Umcka cold care is an herbal remedy that looks like it's not a waste of money. If you search the main ingredient Pelargonium sidoides and placebo you find a study titled "This obscure herb works for the common cold"

I started my own test of Umcka on Sunday 11/26.

Yonak Hawkins
11-28-2017, 5:15 PM
..Can't wait to hear your assessment.

Wayne Lomman
11-28-2017, 7:44 PM
Exclude sugar from the diet and see how long you go without a cold. Watch your cholesterol drop as well. The latter is the reason I gave up sugar as I am allergic to every known form of cholesterol drug. The lack of colds is a bonus. Cheers

Lon Crosby
11-28-2017, 8:34 PM
I would have put my money on Carrageenan nasal spray. https://respiratory-research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1465-9921-14-124 Efficacy of acarrageenan nasal spray in patients with common cold.

Jim Becker
11-28-2017, 8:43 PM
Zicam. It works well for me.

Ed Labadie
11-28-2017, 8:45 PM
Jack Daniels.......

Ed

Lee Schierer
11-29-2017, 5:10 AM
Plain old orange juice. A small glass every day.

Rich Engelhardt
11-29-2017, 7:58 AM
Jack Daniels.......

Ed

:D
I like the way Ed thinks! :D.

Anyhow - Ever since I took a swig of vinegar to get rid of a case of bad indigestion (my late mother in law's meat loaf), I've been a believer is folk medicines.
For colds, my Croatian friend, Alex, told me they used to heat up a bottle of red wine in a big bowl until it steamed. Then they'd cover it with a towel and stick their head under the towel.
At some point during the cooling down process, you were supposed to drink the hot wine.

Edwin Santos
11-30-2017, 9:57 AM
Exclude sugar from the diet and see how long you go without a cold. Watch your cholesterol drop as well. The latter is the reason I gave up sugar as I am allergic to every known form of cholesterol drug. The lack of colds is a bonus. Cheers

There's some gold in Wayne's response. Prevention of illness is the name of the game.
Do some Google research on immunity boost through lifestyle and diet change. Especially restriction of sugar and simple carbohydrates. Do your body a favor and wave to the health care industry and pharmaceutical companies as you pass on by.

Andrew Joiner
11-30-2017, 6:02 PM
I'm into a healthy diet and exercise. I do it cause it makes me feel good.

The people in the placebo controlled studies of Pelargonium sidoides were people from all walks of life with colds. They could've had so called healthy lifestyles or been junk food eaters. The results were from the entire group of people.
The herbal drug significantly reduced the severity of symptoms and shortened the duration of the common cold compared with placebo.

John K Jordan
11-30-2017, 6:37 PM
Exclude sugar from the diet and see how long you go without a cold. Watch your cholesterol drop as well. The latter is the reason I gave up sugar as I am allergic to every known form of cholesterol drug. The lack of colds is a bonus. Cheers

I understand the role of sugar in increasing the chance of getting colds has been debated often and while may be true, still lacks significant confirmation by additional studies. I'm sure reducing sugar is a healthy thing to do. I have only a anecdotal observation: I consume too much sugar but rarely get a cold. At one time I got a number of colds every year but that slowly tapered off. In my case I wonder if it was because I caught so many colds from working with small children (every week for 26 years) that I developed immunities to the most common. Or maybe I've just been lucky for the last decade or so!

JKJ

Mel Fulks
11-30-2017, 6:37 PM
Things like double blind tests are good. But some herbs have long proven histories and are indeed proven medicines. One problem is they were often tried for other things, many herbs were used to stop diarrhea ....because something was needed. Therefore part of the history of many herbs is "was often used as a treatment for diarrhea".There are abortion inducing herbs that were long used ;but a doctor is not going to reccomend them. Doctors are against "self medication".

Jim Koepke
11-30-2017, 7:05 PM
(edit)
One problem is they were often tried for other things, many herbs were used to stop diarrhea ....because something was needed. Therefore part of the history of many herbs is "was often used as a treatment for diarrhea".
(edit)

Another problem is when alchemist gained a bit of power they worked to stop the herbalists. The pharmaceutical industry doesn't want to have people growing their own medications. Not too long ago more than 50% of the American Pharmacopeia was made up of medications derived from plants.

It would be interesting to know the herbal ingredients of the OP's "Herb that Works for the Common Cold." I do know thymol is used for soar throats and is a natural constituent in the common herb thyme.

One of my favorite herbs is lovage and grows in my garden. It dispels the discomfort of indigestion faster than TumsŪ or RollaidsŪ. The added benefit is it taste like celery on steroids. So if one likes celery, it is a great substitute in soups and salads.

jtk

Wade Lippman
11-30-2017, 9:35 PM
Exclude sugar from the diet and see how long you go without a cold. Watch your cholesterol drop as well. The latter is the reason I gave up sugar as I am allergic to every known form of cholesterol drug. The lack of colds is a bonus. Cheers

I gave up sugar (well, actually chocolate and I couldn't see any reason to eat sugar if there wasn't chocolate associated with it) for 6 months and didn't feel any better. I rarely get colds and don't have high cholesterol so I can't comment on that, but was really disappointed not to feel better. I was also disappointed not to lose any weight. Oh well.

About Zicam;
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2012/03/24/have-a-cold-want-some-zinc/#4f7cb74d7e46

Wayne Lomman
12-01-2017, 6:32 AM
Wade, chocolate is way better without sugar! Cheers

Alan Caro
12-01-2017, 8:12 AM
Andrew Joiner,

I haven't had a cold in 25+ years, but the common herbal recommendation for cold and flu in California is echinacea (https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/echinacea-common-cold#1) with regular cups of tea with honey and lemon. Whether it's a "cure" or not is question, but in my experience it at least eased the symptoms. Honey is supposed to be one of the very few natural anti-viral and anti-bacterial substances. Honey's been found in ancient Egyptian tombs still edible (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-science-behind-honeys-eternal-shelf-life-1218690/). I also remember advice to stay away from milk and dairy products during a cold and flu as those are said to be "mucus forming". Also, no sugar as others have said as that supposedly supports fever. I can't verify it, but some Californians say that marijuana (eaten not smoked) is good for colds (as well as having a number of other medicinal values), but that may only mean the person doesn't care about a mere cold in such an extremely interesting Universe.


Alan Caro

Andrew Joiner
12-01-2017, 12:43 PM
I did some more research and have to admit my original post was off. It was based on older placebo controlled studies.
What helped me was reading all the responses here. Many people have herbal remedies they trust. So I went back and searched my "pick" vs the others.

When I googled - Echinacea Zinc Pelargonium placebo- I found a recent update:
https://nccih.nih.gov/health/providers/digest/cold-science

It looks like the quality of evidence is low for any common cold treatment.

Jim Koepke
12-01-2017, 4:41 PM
It looks like the quality of evidence is low for any common cold treatment.

My understanding of the common cold is it will usually pass in about a week. With the most advanced medications it will usually only last about seven days.

jtk

Yonak Hawkins
12-01-2017, 5:08 PM
This is my understanding as well. ..However I do take Airborne just in case.

Wade Lippman
12-01-2017, 5:37 PM
My understanding of the common cold is it will usually pass in about a week. With the most advanced medications it will usually only last about seven days.

jtk

When Zicam first came out they claimed that they reduced a cold's duration from 2 weeks to 1 week. Pretty dramatic improvement, except as you point out, they only a week without medication. They no long say anything specific, just that it shortens duration. The paper their website links to says that most studies show no effect.

Peter Christensen
12-04-2017, 11:42 AM
The only natural that ever kept me from getting sick was Garlic. I didn't take it but a Polish machinist I worked with did. Whenever he came near and I smelled the garlic I ran him off and wouldn't go near him. I didn't get sick but everyone else he talked to did. :)