Going on a trip tomorrow, but I just caught a cold yesterday. Drink water, rest, eat… Anything else that actually works?
The latest peer-reviewed research indicates zinc lozenges do seem to be efficacious in shortening severity and duration of a cold.
The kicker is you need to suck on the lozenges, at least 12.5 to 25 mg of actual zinc in each one, to slowly dissolve them in your mouth and bathe your retropharynx in zinc-rich saliva to do any good. You need to do it about every 2 hours while awake for a maximum of 5 to 7 days. And zinc tastes terrible.
Do not use the Zicam homeopathic preparation as it contains no actual zinc.
I believe zinc lozenges actually work. Of course, that is my opinion based on a few colds that seemed to be shorter when I used the lozenges. Not enough data points for me to really tell. The zinc taste, combined with the normal bad mouth feel and taste that accompany a cold, may not be worth it to some people.
If you subscribe the the idea that something that tastes bad must be effective then zinc is a wonderful medicine.
Studies have proven that taking Vitamin C reduces the length of a cold (it doesn’t stop you catching it, but it reduces its length by a day or two). Unfortunately I think the study showed you need to be taking Vit C before you get a cold for it to be effective, so I’m not sure if taking it once you’ve already got one will work, but it can’t hurt.
Modern life encapsulated in a single sentence.
I’ve tried the zinc, vitamin C and herbs. Different things work for different people with different colds. Being exposed to kids has allowed me to experiment. What finally worked consistently was the vitamin C. But just taking a little C will not do anything. It has to be an overwhelming dose of C.
The protocol is to take a gram of C early if directly exposed to a cold. If you miss this window and your first sign is a cold symptom, you have to start taking a gram every waking hour for two days before tapering off a little. I’ve taken as much as 15 grams of C per day at times. For me it’s like a miracle. The cold that does catch me is so mild that I can barely tell it’s there. Maybe there’s an odd sneeze here or there, almost no stuffiness and no sore throat.
Some people don’t have the tolerance for C that I do. I experience no side effects from this enormous dose. I’d be afraid to take more than I do. They say you have reached your limit when you experience loose stools. I’m only an experiment of one. Someone with a lesser tolerance presumably would not need to take as much C to get a good result, but they would need to approach their limit.
This is not medical advice. Any time you take such extraordinary measures, side effects can happen. So watch for negative signs if you try this. Google for this protocol and you will find more information about techniques used successfully by some.
Vicks First Defence can reduce the severity and duration of a cold, but it’s only really effective if you start taking it before or just after the symptoms develop. It’s quite a novel treatment, it works by inhibiting the spread of the cold virus in the sinuses. I believe it’s been clinically proven to work, but I can’t find a cite now.
The Zicam nasal spray I used didn’t have any zinc, but it worked great from all the non-homeopathic drugs in it.
If you don’t do anything a cold will be over in two weeks. If you take medication it will last a fortnight.
I opt for total supressive warfare …
I get a very distinct tickle in my throat a day or two before the cold really gets started. I immediately start with nasonex and mucinex and follow it religiously [timing exactly, no early or late dosing otherwise it doesn’t work for me]
As long as I stomp the symptoms fast and hard, I do not get the sore throat or drippy nose. Still lasts for the normal 7 to 10 days, but I am not miserable.
Of course I am not a doctor, or making any suggestions for anybody, just mentioning what works for me =)
No longer true, according to decent evidence.
And I was not easily converted from this axiom, either. But the evidence is now pretty good that zinc does make a difference.
Said evidence is lacking for other substances, especially vitamin C.
I remember seeing a well-respected study that concluded vitamin C, if taken in advance of contracting the virus, can reduce its duration. I can’t find the study now and looking around a bit it seems like there’s a heap of others studies which have concluded Vit C doesn’t have any effect on either contracting a cold or its duration for regular folks, but I remember seeing one.
Why are you bursting my bubble? I had a great placebo effect going with Vit C… 
Incidentally, is there anything backing up Echinacea as helping to prevent colds? Along with Vitamin C and Zinc that’s the only other one I’ve been told might be effective by relatively respectable sources.
Typo?
“Vitamin” D3
If zinc is so effective vs colds, is there any other way to take it besides orally? Since there are some people who can’t take the taste, it would be nice if it could work as a nasal flush, suppository, or injection. Or hell, even a pill that you can swallow would be better than a lingering lozenge.
It seems necessary to have very high concentrations of zinc in the retropharynx to achieve the effect of reducing severity/duration of the cold. Topical application (with lozenges) at present seems to be the only way to do this without ending up with excessive levels of zinc everywhere else in the body. I suspect zinc nasal spray or rinses might be effective, but this would probably taste at least as bad if not worse than the lozenges.
Any idea where I can get zinc tablets then? I went looking at lunch an they all had Zinc gluconate, which is what was in the Zicam. A lot of them also said they were homeopathic so I stayed away from them. There were no other zinc lozenges around so I didn’t get any.
I just got some 50 mg zinc tabs from the vitamins section, and cut 'em in half. Pretty cheap that way.
It was amazing. Walgreens had a huge row of the homeopathic ‘zinc’ cold preparation for sale, and three bottles of actual zinc (which really works) tucked away in the vitamins section. I pointed it out to the pharmacist, who just groaned. 
He did verify that was the only zinc product they had.
The problem with zinc is the evidence is hard to reproduce in double blind studies. This is because you have to suck the lozenge. This means you taste the zinc, which is fairly unique. It’s hard to get the taste of zinc in a placebo. So your volunteers on some level know if they are getting the zinc or the placebo because of the way it tastes.
So yes, while it appears zinc does help, the critics point out the studies have trouble with placebo versus zinc problem.