This past week has been a challenge for wellness—both Ms. D and I have been under the weather, she more so than I. That's meant relatively little exercise and, while we continue to try to eat healthily, the focus has turned to managing and recovering from our illnesses.

My first rule has always been that as soon as you start to feel sick, especially feverish, you need to climb in bed and stay there until you feel better. There are two reasons for that—first, rest will often stop a cold or similar bug in its tracks, if you get to it soon enough. Second, being sick is only fun when you're not really sick. A little feverishness and a sniffle is a great reason to take to your bed and read a detective novel. Once you've got the raging aches, coughs and other stuff, being sick in bed isn't nearly as—well—relaxing.

Rule two is plenty of fluids—in fact, the more I've been on this wellness kick the more I've realized how important water really is. I've watched people's hydrating habits here in the office and around town. Few of us get enough water. It seems like it shouldn't be such a big issue, but it is. Being hydrated gives you more energy, fights cramps and muscle soreness and might even help you be less cranky.

So, drink plenty of water. Also, cranberry juice (cocktail) can be helpful in calming a stomach in turmoil while it offers Vitamin C in a low-acid juice (as opposed to orange juice). It can also be much smoother on a sore or raw throat, and some say it seems to fight off flu and cold symptoms while helping hydrate.

Something else I try to do when I start to feel sick is drink a few glasses of "celery juice"—that's what Echinacea tastes like to me when you add a few drops to a glass of water. Echinacea is supposed to be good at fighting both bacterial and viral attacks, making it handy against both colds and flus.

Sometimes it helps to just do something when you're feeling congested and miserable; one solution is putting a few drops of eucalyptus and rosemary essential oils in some boiling water; remove the water from heat, wait until the steam has abated somewhat and then breathe the steam (don't burn yourself). This tends to clear things up and give you a nice shiny complexion at the same time.

My goal whenever I get sick is to use as little over-the-counter medicine as possible. I think a cold medicine that makes you feel like you can get back to work is only useful when you absolutely must go back to work; otherwise, you should stick to herbs, teas, juices, comfort foods and rest. (I'm talking about relatively simple colds—you should make your own decisions regarding the severity of your illness and whether you should see a doctor.)

Health-food stores generally have an all-natural pseudoephedrine that works to clear up your nose and sinus pressure—in low doses, it hopefully won't mess with your ability to sleep. I'll usually opt for aspirin for fever reduction and headaches. But, for the most part, I like to avoid much more medicine than that.

Occasionally, though, something more drastic is called for—in that case, my personal approach is to take half the recommended dose of NyQuil or DayQuil. That seems to be enough for me if only because I don't take that sort of thing often; two NyQuil and I tend to end up having crazy dreams about medieval jousting and talking parrots that know about something embarrassing that happened to me in eighth grade.

How about avoiding the flu in the first place? Dr. Weil has some tips at http://www.drweil.com Cranberry juice can help with flu avoidance; my favorite, though, is the raw garlic recommendation. Chop it up and toss it on a sandwich, in a salad or soup. I'm not sure if it keeps away the flu or just people who might give you the flu, but it's worth a try.

In the meantime, I'm going to knock this thing out of my system and get back to the Road to Wellness for one final weekly column. Then I'll report my progress and look to the future.

Previous Comments

ID

141098

Comment

I second the Echinacea recommendation, esp Echinacea with Goldenseal. It helped knock out my latest cold.

Author

Lucy

Date

2004-11-02T12:09:43-06:00

ID

141099

Comment

Nearly all studies show Echinacea has no effect on a cold or prevention of one. Everyone I've seen resulted in sugar pills being as effective as echinacea. So, it'd be wise to save your money or buy some vitamin C and take a few sugar pills for extra energy! ;-) Cranberry juice is good stuff... So, is garlic. Carbs are also a good way to keep energized while fighting a cold. Most people recommend soups but I've always had better results with carb-laden pastas drenched in garlic. Oh, and WATER! WATER! WATER!

Author

kaust

Date

2004-11-02T12:54:34-06:00

ID

141100

Comment

I disagree. Echinacea works for me, too. And a lot of those studies are funded by the traditional health industry and seek to discredit preventive/alternative remedies, for the record.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2004-11-02T12:56:17-06:00

ID

141101

Comment

I had absolutely no luck with echinacea. I used before, during, and after trips involving airports and extensive travel for well over a year. Also, I used it quite a bit when feeling a cold approach. I can't say it ever prevented or sped up the recovery period. That's my experience and has nothing to do with studies. Other than remedies mentioned above, I've found the surest ways to solve most illnesses are R&R and warm soaks with essential oils. I will say that some studies have shown certain strains of echinacea or brands of echinacea may have some shortening results on colds but not all were shown to have effects on the immune system. Nearly all found that echinacea did not prevent colds, flus, or similar illnesses. Also, I had once read about studies that found echinacea could reduce or prevent yeast infections in women. It also has many other uses including ointments to reduce redness of bites and similar wounds. I'm not knocking its capabilities. It just hasn't worked for me or the few people I know that have used it for prevention or remedy of colds/flus. Many stayed sick for lengthy periods of time with only a mild reduction in symptoms after taking echinacea tablets. By the time they began consuming it, their symptoms were already being reduced naturally by the body. That's not scientific but I know I used it religiously for at least one year as recommended by many herbal sites and/or as indicated on the bottle and had no vivid proof it worked in my own recovery. So, I guess if you are to use it, you should do research on the type of echinacea you are consuming as there are many different strains of the flower (and root). Nearly all herbal sites I reviewed in the past while taking echinacea suggested growing it yourself (if possible) since most store-bought variants are not guaranteed pure and contain other ingredients - not to mention the dried flower could be very old or a weak specimen. As another remedy, I'd suggest a hot bath filled with fresh lavender or lavender essential oil. It reduces stress, calms the mind, and reduces fatigue associated with the flu - AND it smells wonderful! Basil, rose, lemon and eucalyptus are also great baths or oils to burn when ill. I love a basil and lavendar bath when down or ill. It's also great for topical infections since lavendar is anti-viral and -bacterial. A little bergamot and the concoction will soothe headaches and chest colds while you and your house smell great!

Author

kaust

Date

2004-11-02T14:00:50-06:00