http://www.raysahelian.com/zinclozenge.html

http://www.snopes.com/medical/homecure/peroxide.asp
http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Cancer/oxygen.html
http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthnews/78/hydrogen-peroxide-a-warning-and-a-dangerous-scam/
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/h/hydrogen-peroxide.htm

The placebo effect lives on…

Thanks for the links.

This issue of the LPI Newsletter mentions a Japanese study which lasted 5 years and found a 60 percent reduction in the incidence of colds. I don’t think the verdict has been conclusively decided on vitamin C and the common cold.

I agree that it hasn’t been conclusively decided. But it also hasn’t been conclusively shown to be preventative either. So, unlike with Umcka, the claim that vitamin C prevents the cold can’t be claimed.

Nope, I don’t know of him. But I do agree with him. Sort of. I think cooked meat might be a little better food than raw meat, but they’re close contenders.

It’s amazing how effective some of those herbal remedies at the health food store can be. Speaking of curative supplements, have you ever blogged about 5-htp? Nothing has ever helped my initial ketosis headache/sleeplessness like it. No Excedrin required!

I don’t think I’ve blogged about 5-HTP, but it’s good stuff. I’ve never used it for headaches, though. I’ve mainly used it for sleep and to help some patients with carb cravings late in the day.

I have yet to see a double-blind vitamin C test which uses the protocol suggested by Linus Pauling. This protocol is: at the first detection of cold symptoms, take 1000 mg of vitamin C. Take 1000 mg every hour until symptoms begin to decrease. If they increase, take more. This protocol was suggested by Pauling back in the ’70’s.

How can vitamin C be discounted by the tests which you reference if they do not follow the protocol?

A couple of Cochrane reviews have found no evidence that vitamin C works to prevent or alleviate symptoms of the common cold. I don’t know if the specific regimen Pauling suggested was tested or not but Cochrane reviews evaluate most of the literature out there and select the most rigorously done for inclusion. If Pauling’s protocol was tested and found wanting, it wouldn’t be long before someone came along and suggested that the dosages were too low, that it should have been 2000 mg at the start of symptoms, then 2000 mg every hour until symptoms lessen. Then someone would say ‘How can you say vitamin C doesn’t work when this regimen hasn’t been tested?’ This could go on ad infinitum.

Click here for another review by the same authors.

However, one question; I was under the impression a significant amount of the “cold and flu-like” symptoms are actually just the symptoms of immune system activation in the first place. This is why cold and flu symptoms are ubiquitous to all illnesses and conditions. It is widely responsible for the myth that inactivated flu vaccines can make you sick (because brief cold and flu-like symptoms are triggered by the vaccine working).

Given that the immune system is what causes many of the signs and symptoms of a virus infection, I have to wonder if this substance trades duration for severity. If the substance increases the immune response, it makes sense to conclude that one might feel slightly MORE run down, albeit for a slightly shorter amount of time. The immune factors are making you feel sick, this plant just makes you make more of them in a shorter amount of time to knock it out quicker.

Reading the abstract it seems as if only the presence or absence of symptoms were measured, i.e. the duration of time of illness. Do you know if the study also measured extent of symptoms (e.g. a 1 to 5 scale of “not tired at all” vs “very tired”)?

If severity of symptoms were not measured, this is something one might want to consider before using the product. Personally I’m not sure if it is better to feel a little less functional (but for a shorter amount of time) than it is to feel less sick but have the sickness last a day less.

No, the severity of symptoms was measured. That’s what the Cold Intensity Score (CIS) is, a measure of the intensity (or severity) of ten different symptoms of the common cold. Umcka definitely reduced the severity and the duration.

As long as there are bubbles in the ear after application, it means it’s working on the pathogens. If there are no bubbles at the next application, it means the pathogens are dead.

But I also agree that a healthy diet (not much sugar and not much carbs in general, plus eating whole foods as opposed to man made foods, plus eating raw most of the stuff that can be eaten raw) prevents colds and flus by itself. I haven’t had a cold in 3 years, and I’ve only known about the peroxide thing for 6 months.