Yesterday afternoon our internet went down, and Vlad was kind enough to post a notice here explaining that we would be MIA for a while.
Not long after that, my flu made a return visit after a hiatus of about 18 hours. This bout was even worse than the first one — a fever of up to 101.8°F (38.8°C), which is very high for me, and intense pain in my joints and head. Ibuprofen lowers the fever, but doesn’t eliminate it, so I can’t be fully functional.
I dragged myself up here to the Eyrie in Schloss Bodissey to cope with the email and approve comments that Dymphna didn’t get to earlier. But that may be all I do tonight, unless a real recovery sets in.
I come by from time to time to read your blog. I am in sympathy with your interests and beliefs, but I wanted to share my Rx on how to deal with the ‘flu.
I have been dedicated to using supplements for years. Usually, especially when I was younger, boosting my Vitamin C intake dealt with any ‘flu in under 24 hours. As I got older, not so much.
Now I use 10,000 to 20,000 IUs of Vitamin D a day with the C and I haven’t missed a day of work in years. It actually is about what you produce from an hour or so in the sun.
There you are in Europe, though, with their restrictive laws on supplements.
Anyway, good luck getting well.
Not that I’m a doctor or slept at a holiday-inn express, but we used to alternate between Ibuprofen and Tylenol when the kids had a fever. Because you don’t want to exceed the recommended dosage and time for next dosage of one, so you went with the other. Stagger so to speak. It seemed to work because they’re still walking this earth. Not sure what it does to the liver of course but sure gets a fever down. 😉
Thanks for the recommendations.
We aren’t in Europe, though the US sure is starting to resemble East Germany if one is unfortunate enough to live – or believe – at the margins. Here in Virginia, we can feel the boot of increased regulations and taxes. Next it will be our ‘marginal’ political views.
The Chilling Effect Will Be Only at the Margins
Diana West is quoting a NYT columnist, who lives & believes safely in the Middle. His quotes are in italics, Diana’s are bolded:
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We do follow more or less the regimen scottst suggests. And yes, with plenty of water to avoid challenging the liver too much. Since this is the first serious viral infection the Baron has had since the early 80s, I double-checked to see that the protocol hadn’t changed. Even in 2009, when our son came home very ill with the Swine Flu, neither of us caught it, though we did get colds subsequently when his gf came to visit him – carrying her cold with her. Yes, now ex-gf.
As for vitamins and minerals, the Baron has an extensive supply. No A, but a safe precursor and then all the rest, down to and including Vitamin K. BTW, Vitamin D is fat soluble and should be taken with some kind of fatty food – cheese, if one can tolerate diary. Even better is fatty fish like wild caught salmon (the canned variety is cheap). There is also a fat soluble Vitamin C which we use limitedly.
Europe is way ahead of us in the understanding and use of vitamins and supplements for general health and for particular disorders. For example, read up on the UK’s original work with fever few for migraines, or Finland’s development of xylitol. Not only is it a sweetner but it kills the plaque bacteria that cause cavities and replaces them with a benign version that doesn’t attach to or attack tooth enamel.
Xylitol as a nasal rinse (with saline) has prevented any further sinus infections here and it kills off the upper respiratory bacteria that worsen asthma. I’ve quit needing any asthma medicines as a result. However, I only buy the Finnish xylitol since it’s made from birch bark. The kinds one buys in grocery stores here are derived from corn.
Germany has done a lot of work with alternative treatments for cancer. Their research is creative, innovative, and way ahead of the curve. They also have created a helpful listing of herbal remedies for all sorts of conditions. Yes, they do monitor the herbal companies – a good thing if one wants to know that the label is accurate. There is a difference between monitoring and restriction. In the US, you have to know which companies are trustworthy. Northstar Pharmaceuticals is one.
America’s Big Pharma is so criminally entwined with the FDA as to make the latter virtually useless. Look at Cephalon’s squeeze on the market:
Modafinil Patent Protection and Anti-Trust Litigation
Cephalon was reprimanded in 2002 by the FDA because its promotional materials were found to be “false, lacking in fair balance, or otherwise misleading”.[136] Cephalon pled guilty to a criminal violation and paid several fines, including $50 million and $425 million fines to the U.S. government in 2008.
Immediately after those fines, applied because of their arm-twisting of generic companies to prevent generic versions of modafinil (Provigil) from appearing on the market, Cephalon’s CEO was given a $10 million ‘bonus’ because those fines were small potatoes compared to their profits as the sole US maker of Provigil. They have licensed manufacture in other countries, though. And the FDA has let Cephalon get away with this for more than a decade.
/rant
Someday I’d like to do a post on the research Denmark has done on fibromyalgia. Again, they lead…