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I rarely ever get sick, so on the rare occasion I do, it feels like the end of the world.
Instead of just staying low for a few days, I have decided that I will declare war on getting a cold and make some big lifestyle changes, basically... to never catch a cold ever again.
Im having a tremendously difficult time finding any information on how to strengthen the immune system. No one gives any numbers, any citacions, nothing. Its all very hand wavy. (I am aware steps need to be taken to prevent it from worsening from baseline as well, those steps are already being taken.)
If anyone here did something that worked, please let me know.
Alternatively, I also just want a strong immune system for QOL reasons.
I don't want to remember if I washed my hands 6 hours ago before rubbing my eyes, I want to pet cats and dogs (and maybe foxes and weasels, half joking) on the street, I want to stay out in cold weather for long periods of time, etc.
I too declared war on my colds. No citations, but I swear by zinc and vitamin D. I also shower differently.
Zinc:
Literally the moment I realize the inside back of my nose feels dry or achey and I’m not just thirsty, I take a zinc pill.
Zinc gluconate 50mg, Walgreens brand, has the best effect on me. I’ve found that if I take it soon enough, my body doesn’t even go into the cold immune cycle. Usually I’m not quite that quick, and I skip past the misery of the first day right into the recovery where it’s just a runny nose for half a week.
Last October, I had the worst cold I’ve had in a decade, and I’d switched to a multivitamin. I was aching and congested, coughing, in pain and wanting relief ASAP. I went to Walgreens, bought their zinc, and took two in the car on the way home. Within half an hour, I was already in the recovery phase with no aches or sinus pain. That was the day I vowed to always have zinc gluconate on hand.
I take zinc at least once a week to bolster my immune system (never on an empty stomach, it causes vomiting, a heaping spoonful of peanut butter is enough to eliminate nausea).
Vitamin D:
I found out last July I have a vitamin D deficiency, so I started taking five standard pills daily when I wake up. The main effect was the opposite of melatonin: I come awake fully and am not fatigued during the day, despite not being a morning person. I cannot gauge its effect on my colds.
COVID-19:
Since people deficient in Zinc and D have the worst COVID outcomes, I started taking both after a doctor told me I was deficient. I credit this regimen for my surviving COVID-19 last November without Long COVID. It was also the recommendation of my parents’ doctor, along with ivermectin and vitamin C. Despite my father being in his 70’s and being obese and pre-diabetic, he also survived without Long COVID.
I believe that to have been the Wuhan or Delta variants. This August, I caught Omicron, and my regimen was zinc and D at each meal, and a walk outside in sunlight at least 15 minutes each day, plus tonic water. I was over it in 2 days and didn’t start coughing.
Showering:
I used to get really bad chest colds, but then I realized I should stop breathing in through my nose during showers when I have a cold. Since then, it’s not progressed beyond a head cold except once. (See last Oct., above.)
I also only breathe out through my nose when showering or in humidity even when I don’t have a cold; I assume there are always viral particles caught in my nose hair.
(However, breathing through my mouth means I can swallow soap/shampoo surficants, which can cause physical diarrhea. I have to spit all my saliva and not swallow it while showering if I’m mouth-breathing. A minor inconvenience compared to not catching colds very often.)
NyQuil/DayQuil:
Even though the Zinc and D keep me relatively healthy during cold recoveries, good ol’ DayQuil and NyQuil keep me from congesting beyond a runny nose.
I take 20k IU pills once a week. And a 2k IU pill on days I rarely see the sun. I might still be deficient because of generally low sun exposure (and not much exogenous vit d from diet), but I don't think I am that deficient.
Seems cheap enough.
I'm gonna head to the pharmacy and pick up a bottle.
E - Got a 75mg/tablet zinc gluconate, popped the pill after a meal, actually feeling better (30 minutes in), don't care if its placebo, at least not feeling like shit.
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Thing I hate about most brand name cough medicines is that they are loaded with acetaminophen. That restricts the effective dose I can take. Dayquil and Nyquil have 650mg/30ml of acetaminophen. The max (recommended) dose of acetaminophen per day is 4,000mg. So I can take, max, 6 doses of Dayquil/nyquil per day. And since so many other products (my favourite being NeoCitran) are jammed full of acetaminophen, that makes juggling things even worse. The cold I just got over also came with an unpleasant bout of diarrhea, and adding Pepto Bismol (also loaded with acetaminophen) probably would have killed my liver, lol.
Primary ingredients for Dayquil are acetaminophen, dextromethorphan (cough suppressant) and phenylephrine (decongestant). You can find dextromethorphan (DM) in most store brand cough syrups, without the acetaminophen and other crap. This allows you to take more without having acetaminophen acting as a false limit on the dose.
There's debate over whether phenylephrine (decongestant) actually works; it's just so old that the FDA doesn't really give a shit, especially since cough medicines have used it to replace the 'evil' pseudoephedrine (which addicts use to make meth, because the shit works). So it's better to get just dextromethorphan and buy pseudoephedrine separately. Pseudoephedrine will keep you awake, and probably far better than phenylephrine does. It sucks that drug addicts existing means cough syrups are made to be worse (yet it's ok to load up cough syrups with so much acetaminophen that anybody who abuses it, or just takes too much during a really bad cold, can fuck their liver permanently, and maybe even die). I believe Sudafed (the most well known pseudoephedrine brand) contains a bunch of acetaminophen.
For Nyquil, the main ingredients are (again) acetaminophen, dextromethorphan for cough, and doxylamine as an antihistamine. Doxylamine helps with runny nose and also aids in putting you to sleep. Again, I'd suggest getting these ingredients separately. You can find doxylamine in many different products, from sleep aids to allergy medications. If you can get it without a bunch of other crap, then you can better dose depending on your symptoms.
Some cough syrups also have guaifenesin in with the DM. It's an expectorant that helps loosen up the mucus in your chest so you can clear a cough better. This is great if you have a wet cough, since a suppressant alone can be pretty unpleasant, as you need to cough to clear stuff from your chest.
Pepto shouldn’t have acetaminophen in it afaik
Could have sworn my bottle said it did. I'll have to look later, but I got a new batch and tossed the old bottle. So unless they used to, or it was some 'extra super duper strength' thing, you're probably right.
The most infuriating thing, looking at the smart label linked on their website, is the description when clicking on 'Bismuth Subsalicylate'.
Why would they do this? lol
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