02-19-2006, 06:12 AM
I completely forgot to post a followup after my last experience -- that was the "I think I'm coming down with one..." post. The result was that I apparently avoided getting it!
All that I did:
1) Take a decent (not overdose) amount of vitamin C, preferably in lozenge form. I like Halls Vit C, citrus flavor (nice Amazon filler, BTW)... not sure how much this contributed, but I figured couldn't hurt.
2) Aspirin and sore throat lozenges for sore throat; decongestant to try to keep the nasal passages open. Curiously, the sore throat lozenges actually seemed to making things a bit worse at one point, so go easy on those.
3) Echinacea/goldenseal capsules: 3 capsules per day (approx 1 gm echinacea, 300 mg goldenseal total/day), preferably at mealtimes. Dunno if these made any difference, but I couldn't see much downside to them (I already had a bottle of it lying around, and it's a bit past the expiration date)... I did notice that this stuff gives you a bit of a bad taste in your mouth/sinuses, so that was actually good in my case because I was getting a bad taste in the mouth/sinuses from the oncoming infection (so one taste sort of competed with the other)
4) Saline nasal spray, but NOT nasal wash-- the nasal wash may have actually aggravated things in my case... seemed that it was around the time that the infection started to come on. I use "Simply Saline" which is ONLY saline (no preservatives, no CFC's). Expensive but worth it, IMHO. (I use this routinely, not just when I feel sinus infections coming on, and in general I've done pretty well for avoiding the infections until recently.)
All that I did:
1) Take a decent (not overdose) amount of vitamin C, preferably in lozenge form. I like Halls Vit C, citrus flavor (nice Amazon filler, BTW)... not sure how much this contributed, but I figured couldn't hurt.
2) Aspirin and sore throat lozenges for sore throat; decongestant to try to keep the nasal passages open. Curiously, the sore throat lozenges actually seemed to making things a bit worse at one point, so go easy on those.
3) Echinacea/goldenseal capsules: 3 capsules per day (approx 1 gm echinacea, 300 mg goldenseal total/day), preferably at mealtimes. Dunno if these made any difference, but I couldn't see much downside to them (I already had a bottle of it lying around, and it's a bit past the expiration date)... I did notice that this stuff gives you a bit of a bad taste in your mouth/sinuses, so that was actually good in my case because I was getting a bad taste in the mouth/sinuses from the oncoming infection (so one taste sort of competed with the other)
4) Saline nasal spray, but NOT nasal wash-- the nasal wash may have actually aggravated things in my case... seemed that it was around the time that the infection started to come on. I use "Simply Saline" which is ONLY saline (no preservatives, no CFC's). Expensive but worth it, IMHO. (I use this routinely, not just when I feel sinus infections coming on, and in general I've done pretty well for avoiding the infections until recently.)