i'm sick! clinic's next weekend!!

[andrsn]

guys,

my glands are the size of golfballs right now! and tanya's clinic is next weekend! i'm about 70%. any health tips on evasive cold maneuvering?

should i cut all physical activity? do the salt gargle thing? what? what?

freaking out,
anderson

 

[fjohnson]

Anderson,

Swollen glands and just feeling miserable I'd say rest, rest, and more rest. Aspirin maybe... Now the following is just doctoring according to me.... if it's a real bad cold take it to the basketball court and pass it off to someone else.. It always seemed when I came down with a bad bad cold if I really exerted myself it seemed to knock the cold out.

You've got a week... don't worry too much, that can't make it better. orange juice, orange juice, and more orange juice.

 

[Cliff Etzel]

Kirk's advice before I went to his clinic

Kirk strongly recommended no physical workouts the week or two before coming to the clinic - deep breathing and stretching exercises only. He said I needed to bring my metabolism down as much as possible. It seemed to work, although I got sick the evening of the last day of the clinic...

Take it easy, get as much sleep as you can, pump the Vitamin C and Zinc and drink lots of water...

Avoid the caffeine as much as possible. I am sure if you have sinus problems that you may have to cancel as you don't want to blow an ear drum.

You might want to ask Tanya what she thinks...

Hope you feel better...

 

[efattah]

Cold evasion

Gargle with mouthwash several times a day.
Take Vitamin E and grape seed extract, and if possible, Vitamin C and Selenium.
Eat 2 cloves of raw garlic, in the morning, and in the evening, with nut butter or something fatty. Sleep lots, maybe go for a walk to get the circulation going.

Concerning workouts before diving, it seems that newer divers need to avoid working out for a while, whereas more experienced divers seem to be able to workout and then dive the next day without the metabolism problem. One day off working out is usually fine once you've adapted. But, working out stresses your immune system as well, another consideration.


Eric Fattah
BC, Canada

 

[cjborgert]

Take a deep breath, and relax

If those swollen glands don't resolve fairly quickly, see a physician. Clinic or no clinic, you don't want to screw around with a nasty infection. It could be bacterial (strep, etc.) rather than viral.

The recommendations I've seen from others are fine - salt water, rest, lots of additional rest, vitamins, etc. I have one to add.

I'm well aware of the many unsubstantiated claims for herbal medicines, dietary supplements, and "nutraceuticals" but there are good clinical data for a few herbals. Echinacea shows clinical efficacy in slightly reducing the severity and length of "cold" symptoms. Beware of the type of product you use, however, as there are no quality standards in that industry. A product called Eserbitox by Phytopharmica is reliable. Take it only for a short period of time (3-4 days), as recommended on the label, preferably as soon as symptoms appear. If you try a different product, get one without Goldenseal - it is a useless addition and may even detract from the effect of echinacea.

And then remember, you're not going to the clinic to set records but to learn. It's how much better you dive after practicing what you learn, during the following year that counts. Do the best you can and good luck!

 

[Erik]

My condolences.
Get your buddy to go to the video store to pick you up 15 videos and some Neo-Citran. Meditate and pray...whatever works. Visualise your self being healthy and spending your weekend with Tanya......diving, that is. Stay under the covers, stay warm, and put on a humidifier. If you don't have one, put some water in a pot, run a cloth half way into the pot, and half way over a heat register, that will help.
Buena suerta amigo,
Erik Y.

 

[andrsn]

nutraceuticals

thanks fred, cliff, eric, cj, and erik. wish i had a family like this growing up.

fred: work's a little crazy right now to hit the courts, but i'm doing the vitamin C like it's going out of style.

cliff: my metabolism's like a freight train, it's almost impossible to slow down. my heart rate's always been under 50bpm, but i still plan on laying low till i get to austin.

eric: my friend brought me over some sea salt to gargle w/. is there something about mouthwash that does a better job? also, ..garlic.. hmm... i'll give it a shot. and, what about the grape seed extract? i've heard someone mention that before.

cj: well, doc, points taken. i'm throwing out the echinacea capsules my friend gave me cause they have goldenseal(smells like %$^&!, by the way) and i'm heading to the vitamin shop after work today. i concur w/ your remarks on the purpose of the clinic. my main reason for going is to hear what such a great freediver has to say about her spearfishing issues. the performance issue just has me rattled because i've never been past 20ft without a gun in my hand.

erik: videos and r&r sound great, but i work for the government and we're under deadline right now. if my satellite hits mars, you guys never knew me, ok?! and, is that neo-citran available in the states? is that a vitamin C solution?


many, many thanks gentleman,

anderson

 

[cjborgert]

Killed by the cure

I hope we haven't given you so many magic bullets to chase that you don't have time to sleep . . . . alot. In the end, that may be your best remedy.

Hang in there 'pardner'. . . you'll do well even without a gun in hand!

 

[icarus pacific]

Vitamins A, C, E and zinc in doses so that the urinal wonders what's up, and go for as much mental activity without too much physical exertion as possible. Go for herb teas, the quintessential soups and don't grip... worse comes to worse, see if they'll call another applicant for the clinic and give him/her your spot and refund you down the road. I can sympathize with your predicament; it seems that anytime anything big comes along i pick up a bug just before... I guess that's just my stree thing. same problems occur when I'm freediving alone- I'm having converstaions with the "committee" in my noggin. Makes it hard with all the dwelling about issues. Go for calm and serenity.

sven

 

[freediver48]

Hi,

Just what you need, more advice, but here goes, but it is limited to minor qualifications on already given suggestions. The video idea is a good one in particular ones that are funny, humour tends to help the immune system considerably. The use of zinc is particularly food if you have a virus rather than bacterial infection.
If you are running a temp. and or are coughing up stuff I would avoid chi kung exercises, in my experiences they might even make it worse, but this is just my experience. Large does of vitamin C seem to help, try to get a natural source like Ester C, or the like our bodies seem to tolerate it better than the synthetic versions. While the echinacea is perhaps used best at the earliest onset of symptoms the golden seal is a very strong anti bacterial, I have snorted it for sinus problems. The main thing that is wrong with advice is that in most cases our bodies will tell us what we need, if we listen. A lot of advice may make us pooer listeners to our own bodies, so listen well. You might find vidualizations of alternate dive postures interesting, I love hands back like super man, sinking, you can make a smoother flight without a gun along side your body, also some hands forward might work as well.

Best wishes,

Doug

 

[cjborgert]

Herbs, etc.

Just a side-note for those who use dietary supplements, herbal medicines, nutraceuticals - whatever you choose to call natural products.

Be very skeptical of what you hear in health food stores and read in popular publications. Two extremely reliable resources that are written for the practitioner (as opposed to research scientists) are listed below. I would recommend both for your shelf if you are inclined to use such products.

Both books are available in paperback and are authored by the late Varro E. Tyler, PhD, ScD, Dean Emeritus of the Purdue University School of Pharmacy and Pharmacal Sciences. He was regarded worldwide as the foremost authority in the field; over 300 publications in peer-reviewed journals; countless awards from professional scientific societies and many honorary degrees from top universities in U.S. and Europe, etc., and a genuinely nice man.

"Tyler's Herbs of Choice; The Therapeutic Use of Phytomedicinals" by James E. Robbers, PhD and Varro E. Tyler, PhD, ScD. Haworth Press, New York. 1999.

"Tyler's Honest Herbal; A Sensible Guide to the Use of Herbs and Related Remedies" by Stephen Foster and Varro E. Tyler, PhD, ScD. Haworth Press, New York. 2000.

 

[Angus]

Humor and heat and chicken soup

Oh, totally rotten luck.

I am absolutely serious about this; probably the best thing you can do is rest, fluids, and find a way to laugh a lot. There is no longer any question that laughter boosts the immune system and that the effects are immediate. If you have a basic cold it will pretty much run its course over the next 7 days. Or you could pound the vitamins, zinc, etc. and be rid of it in about a week. Rest, fluids, and laughter will help keep it to 168 hours (again a week) but will help reduce the risk of getting opportunistic infections which are the real worry here.

These are infections that take advantage of both systemic and localized changes to gain a foothold. Whenever you hear people taking about "relapsing" with a cold it is actually a brand new illness that took advantage of a vulnerability that the cold produced. So if you symptoms are improving before you leave you should be okay as long as your ears are clear. But you may get something else along the way if you don't find a way to take it easy for the next week. There is no way around this one.

Hot chicken soup has been found to be effective in double blind studies. Lots of it.

I am mostly concerned about the swollen glands which often indicate a bacterial invader. But I am not in favor of indiscriminant use of antibiotics. Go to your MD immediately and get a culture.

Finally, avoid taking antifebrile medications such as aspirin or ibuprofen. Fevers are an important defense and are essentially making your body an incompatible host to the virus/bacteria so stay hot. Hot baths help in this area as well.

Good luck and our thoughts are with you.