Colds, ZiCam

[merlinofchaos]

Saturday evening I started feeling stuffed up. I don't find this at all unusual, I'm very susceptible to sinus junk at this point, and I don't tend to think much of it. But by partway through Saturday night, I was in bed, shivering, feeling bleh and realizing I had the early symptoms of...the common cold.

omphaloskesis suggested ZiCam, as my previous post suggested. I went out and tried it. After less than 24 hours, here are my results:


Throughout yesterday, using it every 2-3 hours (it says every 2-4 hours in the directions but I'm fidgety) I got no worse or better from the time I started using it to the time I went to bed.

I slept very badly--but I usually do while sick. I either sleep like a baby or like Ben Franklin must be in his grave right now.

This morning, however--and I've only been up for about half an hour--I do feel a little bit better. My motor skills are down and things are a bit cloudy, but I don't feel feverish. My sinuses feel like they're willing to consider the concept of drying up a bit, and my nose isn't running as much as it was yesterday.

I emailed Dr. Heather about ZiCam, and here's what she wrote me back:


THere has been one good study done on ZIcam

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11055098&dopt=Abstract

and another one that was done with the zinc lozenges. Both studies showed
significant reduction of duration of cold symptoms when compared to
placebo. The data looks good. The theory is certainly plausable-
blocking the ICAM receptors to prevent virus re-entry into more cells.
It's only a theory, though, and no one has been able to prove if it is
correct or not yet.

In practice, there is a lot of anecdotal discussion about zicam that says
the results in use are not nearly as good as the studies suggest. A lot
of people have tried, without good results. On the other hand, since you
never know how long your cold would have lasted without trying the zicam,
it's tough to say how well it works....

Clearly, it works best if taking as early as possible, and the studies
were done within 24 hours of onset of symptoms. Also, it clearly doesn't
work for allergy symtoms.

So far, I"m reserving judgement and watching for more data, but it
certainly doens't have any harmful side effects, and isn't all that
expensive- about $10 I think. SO I'd say, give it a try and let me know
what your experience is!


So far, I'd have to say that the product is working.

One thing I'll add to Heather's comments is that a little bit of research I did shows that ZiCam only works specifically on rhinoviruses (colds contracted through the nasal passages) and specifically, absolutely will not work on flu viruses -- and sometimes it's hard to tell a cold from a flu. That might explain some of the people who find it doesn't work.

Comments

Colds vs. Flu

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Dr. Heather might be better to confirm this, but when I visited the doctor's last year with the Death Flu from Hell, I was told that flu symptoms tend to include fever & body aches, while colds tend to be the sinuses, congestion, and cough.