Topic: Sick

[Alec Furtado]

So this thing attacked me faster than anything else I've ever had and now I sit here, not at school. I figure this is a good time to ask about things regarding diet that can help get rid of symptoms and/or get me over it faster.

Are there any vitamins that should be taken more? Can they come from normal food or do they need to come from a pill to get the right amounts? What are yall's opinion on Airborne and Echinacea?

I know one thing is to keep drinking a ton of water.

What's the deal with chicken soup? Is it a legitimate way to make you get better or just something that developed over the years?

Avoid milk to lower mucus production, right?

I'd guess I have a bad cold but there's not a lot of mucus problems yet... it feels like my throat has been attacked with a cheese grader. Deep down too. I can tell there is some mucus down there but not exactly how much... kinda don't want to try and find out.

[tombb]

Honestly if you are really concerned about this you should first try to figure out what it is exactly.
Is it viral? Bacterial? Allergy/Parasitic? It makes a big difference.
You can take a blood test to figure that out, basically it measures which types of immune cells your body is overproducing in response to the different things that could be making you sick.

Also, unless you really can't stand to be uncomfortable, reducing symptoms is also not so important to your recovery and health unless they actually become so severe that they turn into a problem themselves (for example fever too high). Some of those symptoms are actually designed to help you fight an infection and they give you a clearer picture of how much better or worse you are getting which can be useful to keep track of.

Your body goes through a predetermined sequence of steps in your immune response, first an innate response, things like increasing core temperature to slow down the growth of whatever you caught, interferons to further slow virus infections, complementation reactions, increased mucous production to help eliminate them, macrophages swallowing and digesting them etc.
After a while your adaptive immunity can kick in, where other immune cells will try to construct specific antibodies against the digested pieces of whatever is causing the infection. These steps are all necessary and not really anything that can be sped up.
If you are depleted of minerals, vitamins and other nutrients that could slow them down of course but aside from that it generally takes just as long as it takes, and you really can't do too much to speed it up.

The most important factor in getting better after you get sick, more than any vitamin or soup, is time and careful observation to make sure you figure out what it is and whether you have any other complication developing or if there is anything else that you could be doing to improve things.

For example if your throat starts to develop white dots, it could be something more serious like bacterial strep-throat, which means you should go to a doctor to get some antibiotics to remove it quickly starting as soon as you suspect it (they can do a swab culture to verify if that's the case).
That's because some of the toxins produced by that type of bacteria can cause long term permanent damage to your heart and other systems. No amount of soup or vitamins will do anything about that while antibiotics obviously will start fixing it immediately.

[Alec Furtado]

If I was really concerned, I would have gone to my doctor

This whole thing has just made me wonder about all those things that are supposed to help like Airborne and chicken soup. While they may or may not help me specifically, what would they help?

Aside from actually taking medication, is there anything that can help or are they usually more of a placebo type of thing?


p.s. no white dots and don't worry, I won't treat this as a doctors advice... just as another person's experience.

[TraceuseDS]

It sounds like most of the stuff you've listed is at least partly right. Drink lots of water. Get lots of sleep.

Things like vitamin C and zinc will help keep your immune system functioning properly if you consume them in sufficient quantities on a regular basis, but they won't really cause you to "get better" right away if you're already sick. I seem to remember hearing that someone was bringing a lawsuit against Airborne for false advertising, but I don't remember the details of the case...

It IS a good idea to stay away from milk if you're having issues with mucus, but milk doesn't actually cause your body to increase its mucus production - it's just that some of the stickiness from the milk itself stays in your throat when you drink it, which, if you're already dealing with sticky nastiness there in your throat, just exacerbates the existing problem.

I'm not sure what the deal is with chicken soup. If I had to make a guess, I'd say that it's a good way to consume good things like protein and veggies in a form that won't irritate your throat quite as much when you swallow it. Plus, heat and salty liquids are a VERY good way to soothe a sore/scratchy throat.

For example if your throat starts to develop white dots, it could be something more serious like bacterial strep-throat, which means you should go to a doctor to get some antibiotics to remove it quickly starting as soon as you suspect it (they can do a swab culture to verify if that's the case).

Tombb is right, especially about this part. If you shine a flashlight into your mouth while looking in a mirror, and you see white dots on your tonsils, it's usually a good idea go get a strep test. Strep isn't the only thing that causes white dots (which are really pus) on your tonsils, but most of the other things that cause that aren't good either, and strep can cause other, more serious, illnesses if it goes untreated.



EDIT - Whoops, wrote that while you were posting, Alec.

[Steven Low]

Vitamin D.

http://www.performancemenu.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3470


Bombing yourself with C isn't that great... all of the vitamin studies have pretty much proven that megadosing yourself does pretty much nothing except waste your money. In fact, slight increase in cancer risk with a lot of the vitamins. If you can, get all your vitamins from WHOLE foods.

[Jeff Whalley]

I was under the impression that airborne was essentially just a multivitamin and had a sort of cult following as to its effects, placebo or not.

[Kevin Davies]

Also, unless you really can't stand to be uncomfortable, reducing symptoms is also not so important to your recovery and health unless they actually become so severe that they turn into a problem themselves (for example fever too high). Some of those symptoms are actually designed to help you fight an infection and they give you a clearer picture of how much better or worse you are getting which can be useful to keep track of.

Your body goes through a predetermined sequence of steps in your immune response, first an innate response, things like increasing core temperature to slow down the growth of whatever you caught, interferons to further slow virus infections, complementation reactions, increased mucous production to help eliminate them, macrophages swallowing and digesting them etc.
After a while your adaptive immunity can kick in, where other immune cells will try to construct specific antibodies against the digested pieces of whatever is causing the infection. These steps are all necessary and not really anything that can be sped up.
If you are depleted of minerals, vitamins and other nutrients that could slow them down of course but aside from that it generally takes just as long as it takes, and you really can't do too much to speed it up.

What do you think of taking symptom reducing medicine at night so you can sleep better?  Sometimes when I have a bad cough or sore throat I cough so much or am so uncomfortable I have a hard time sleeping.  At these times I will take something like NyQuil to help me fall asleep because I figure I can't necessarily speed of the healing process, but I can slow it down if I don't get enough sleep.

[tombb]

Also, unless you really can't stand to be uncomfortable, reducing symptoms is also not so important to your recovery and health unless they actually become so severe that they turn into a problem themselves (for example fever too high). Some of those symptoms are actually designed to help you fight an infection and they give you a clearer picture of how much better or worse you are getting which can be useful to keep track of.

Your body goes through a predetermined sequence of steps in your immune response, first an innate response, things like increasing core temperature to slow down the growth of whatever you caught, interferons to further slow virus infections, complementation reactions, increased mucous production to help eliminate them, macrophages swallowing and digesting them etc.
After a while your adaptive immunity can kick in, where other immune cells will try to construct specific antibodies against the digested pieces of whatever is causing the infection. These steps are all necessary and not really anything that can be sped up.
If you are depleted of minerals, vitamins and other nutrients that could slow them down of course but aside from that it generally takes just as long as it takes, and you really can't do too much to speed it up.

What do you think of taking symptom reducing medicine at night so you can sleep better?  Sometimes when I have a bad cough or sore throat I cough so much or am so uncomfortable I have a hard time sleeping.  At these times I will take something like NyQuil to help me fall asleep because I figure I can't necessarily speed of the healing process, but I can slow it down if I don't get enough sleep.

Yes, that's perfectly fine.
I was just making the point that covering the symptoms up is not the same as curing and it's not always the best thing to do until you know exactly what you have and how it's progressing because it can make it harder to figure those questions out. But once you know you are already dealing with the cause and on your path to recovery you can definitely work on the symptoms, especially ones that might be particularly annoying or could cause complications.

[Alec Furtado]

K so the chicken soup (chicken broth) thing is more just about being soothing/easy on the throat/stomach.

I had some tea last night and it seemed to make it worse...

[Chris Salvato]

K so the chicken soup (chicken broth) thing is more just about being soothing/easy on the throat/stomach.

I had some tea last night and it seemed to make it worse...

Yeh plus a nice bowl of soup is relaxing as hell

[Mind Reflections]

green tea + oranges = better in no time.

[Patrick Yang]

green tea + oranges = better in no time.

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc?

[Mind Reflections]

green tea + oranges = better in no time.

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc?

what 

[TraceuseDS]

Wikipedia, ftw: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_hoc_ergo_propter_hoc

 

[Mind Reflections]

i still don't understand
was he trying to tell me that green tea and oranges was/would be the problem?

[Chris Salvato]

No -- he is saying that just because you got better after eating oranges and drinking green tea does not make it the reason that you got better.

[Mind Reflections]

ohhhhh hahahaha.

[Liset Reep]

I was under the impression that airborne was essentially just a multivitamin and had a sort of cult following as to its effects, placebo or not.

A multivitamin that gives you all the vitamin A you need in one sitting. Which is bad, because Vitamin A is stored in your fat and you CAN overdose on it. Last I heard it was losing it's cult following after the FDA bitch slapped it for vitamin over dose.

As far as chicken soup...that has more to do with soothing the throat/stomach as some people have said, but it also replenishes your liquids (warm = better) and restores any electrolytes that you might have lost from vomiting or such.

It really isn't going to make you better faster unless you're really sick, but it feels good. I'd just take it easy, only do some light exercise depending on what you have, and keep the fluids up

[Chris Salvato]

A multivitamin that gives you all the vitamin A you need in one sitting. Which is bad, because Vitamin A is stored in your fat and you CAN overdose on it. Last I heard it was losing it's cult following after the FDA bitch slapped it for vitamin over dose.

I am fairly certain there are very few reported cases of Vit A overdosing....aside from eating polar bear liver nightly...

[Liset Reep]

A multivitamin that gives you all the vitamin A you need in one sitting. Which is bad, because Vitamin A is stored in your fat and you CAN overdose on it. Last I heard it was losing it's cult following after the FDA bitch slapped it for vitamin over dose.

I am fairly certain there are very few reported cases of Vit A overdosing....aside from eating polar bear liver nightly...

Haha, well yeah, you'd have to take 9000mg to get most of the bad side affects, but what I mean is it has more than 100% in one sitting, and when people get a bunch of their Vitamin A from other food sources, it gives you too much. And since it's stored, that can build up. So, taking that multivitamin as a daily isn't a healthy thing to do.