No cure so you gotta rest. Nose is stuffed so you gotta mouth breathe. Throat is dry from mouth breathing. Dry throat makes it painful to swallow. Pain keeps you from sleeping and recovering. Lack of sleep leads to worse symptoms like piercing headaches. Need to rest to get rid of the headaches. Headache and swallowing is too painful to rest properly. Lack of rest perpetuates headaches, nose congestion, dry throat, painful swallowing.
What is this BS
You’re only seeing the colds that made it through the defenses, without having any means of measuring the ones your immune system successfully blocked or kicked out before they could take hold.
So your statistics are flawed.
And even then most of the ones that made it through/past the immune system are still eventually fought off again by the immune system. I.e. you don’t have to take an external antibiotic for every cold.
One thing i haven’t really seen brought up is that all of these symptoms are severe symptoms that the body has to resort to when less extreme measures aren’t enough.
I’ve noticed many times where i only got slightly sick, like a slight fever for not even an entire day, or i just suddenly feel lethargic and the next day i’m back to normal.
And when i do get severely sick, i make sure to take it extremely easy and keep myself hydrated and fed with something easily digestible along with just doing very very gentle exercise (like, stuff an old person would do at rehab). Since i started being this careful when i get sick it’s gotten WAY less miserable.
Like, instead of a week of just sleeping as much as possible because i have 0 energy and everything is pain; it’s 1-2 weeks that starts with the symptoms ramping up over a day or two, being uncomfortable but able to do things, then needing a few painkillers to be functional for 1-2 days, and then it goes in reverse until the sickness has petered back out.Take 2 advil during the day and try sleep with vicodin. Ya won’t even notice
All of them aren’t. Just the ones that did not attend to their general healththroughout their lives by abuses, or were born immunocompromised.
If it makes you feel any better, your microscopic attacker is not having a very good time with your body’s response either. You’re the undefeated champion in this arena so far, keep up the winning streak.
I don’t know about who is the champion. The virus eventually fails to multiply in the host, but it meanwhile spreads to others.
How about we consider everyone a champion?
Trophies all around!
This woke-ass participation trophy shit is ruining my flu season!
Dude, you are in a million years battle with other organisms trying to exploit and kill you, and you’re fucking winning. I would call that a blazing success. The other organisms are trying their literal best, their survival depends on it, and you just KEEP. ON. WINNING.
Some might even call this million years battle a cold war
deep sigh
Okay, here’s your upvote. Now leave.
Actually, please don’t. It’s Lemmy and we need all the users we can get
I’m not using Lemmy. Do I have to leave?
No, it’s actually the opposite. Piefed users are required to stay forever. It’s in your terms of service.
Russia and US typing in the chat…
15 proxy states typing
The funny thing is, thanks to fever, this “cold war” is both literally and figuratively a hot war.
God dammit.
These organisms are doing their best, okay? They’re just too smol.
bad at it? you literally rest for a week then recover, as opposed to dying. your pretty fucking good at it. you just don’t know how bad it could be
The real question should be:
Why is our society built around disposable labor and assuming we will be at 100% functionality all the time?
Capitalism
It isn’t? That’s why you get paid sick leave.
Lol good one.
Trying to figure out if you are joking, or you are from a nicer country that getting paid sick leave is something everyone gets. Good chunk of the american work force, has to negotiate with their boss, go to a doctor that’s going to charge them between $50-$200 so they can tell you “yep you have a cold, here’s a note so you can prove it to your boss”, so you can give that note to your boss and hopefully not get fired for taking some UNPAID days off. (of course as most states are “at will” if you do that too often you still run the risk of getting fired for “no reason” later).
It’s the nicer country.
That really depends on what country you live in. The US doesn’t require sick leave AFAIK and Canada only requires 5 days. So that’s like 300 days where you have to choose between getting better or paying rent. More socially progressive countries get paid sick leave, not everyone.
Look at this guy with his sick leave and ability to stay home and rest when he’s sick!
What about him?
He looks well rested.
Yeah I think the real thing is just not understanding how bad a cold without an immune system would be. IE only real way to put it in context is, read up on what an immune-comprimised individual goes through when they get a cold.
It’s a bit like saying
“why is my countries missile defense so crappy, whenever we’re attacked there’s chunks of metal all over the ground, so much smoke and noise it makes it hard to sleep, why are we so bad at defending from missiles”.
The immune system is fucking incredible, you should read up on it and then you’ll never make a post like this again!
I was about to say this too. It does a pretty fucking incredible job at fighting colds.
Wait. Was this a troll post, and I just ate it up?
Blows my mind that the solution for so many things is just ‘try not to make it worse while your body does magic’ Broken bone? Stop moving it and wait. Cold? Drink water, sleep, and wait. Cut? Cover it up so it’s not actively bleeding, and wait. Even in modern medicine were still letting the body do the heavy lifting, just trying to help it out where we can. No wonder diet and exercise are such good preventative measures
There was a cartoon on it too, no?
Those symptoms you’ve described? It’s your immune system doing that to you. On purpose, not a mistake. Nose is stuffed because you’re producing extra mucous to flush infection out of your airways. Dry throat because the tissues are inflamed to directly kill viruses using the body’s transport system. Yeah, it’s bad for you - but it’s worse for the little invaders.
Yes, I know it’s the natural defences popping off but I’m saying I’m having a hard time keeping this plane in the sky when my copilot keeps slapping me with a hot seafood entrée. Y’know??
It’s rough but the other option is death. The cold would kill you if your immune system wasn’t doing this to you.
It’s a good argument against the intelligent design theory, isn’t it?
I was originally going to include “what part of this is intelligent design?!?!” In the post but I didn’t want it to devolve into a religious debate. But seriously, how intelligent is our design when our defense mechanism makes recovery even more difficult to achieve?
Like some asshole is out there designing a vehicle that runs on solar but you’re also only allowed to drive it when the sun is down.
The better comparison would be to say that solar power panels are a complete design mistake because they get hot when in the sun thus hampering their function. Yes, it is not perfect, but it still works way better than nothing.
You’ve survived every one you’ve caught so far haven’t you? That’s a testament to it’s awesomeness!
And you haven’t been mauled by any lions either, have you?
It’s incredibly good at responding to infections. That’s why you’re alive.
Taking medicine to reduce symptoms when you’re sick, actually increases the amount of time that you’re sick. You reducing the effectiveness of your body’s fight.
If you find yourself often getting sick, take a look at your overall health, especially your metabolic health. Make sure you’re getting enough sleep, zinc, sunlight, and avoiding sugar as much as you can.
Taking medicine to reduce symptoms when you’re sick, actually increases the amount of time that you’re sick. You reducing the effectiveness of your body’s fight.
Sorry I think this is unfounded quackery, and by making this assertion you risk increasing the suffering of others.
It makes sense in a logical kind of way… like if a fever helps fight an infection then taking paracetamol to avoid the fever must prevent you fighting the infection.
The thing is, there’s no evidence that infections work that way in practice. If taking paracetamol helps you get a good night sleep, maybe that is more effective than a fever.
A lot of your body’s natural defenses just aren’t really very effective at all. Like goose bumps, or shivering… obviously putting a jacket on is far more effective.
Sorry I think this is unfounded quackery, and by making this assertion you risk increasing the suffering of others.
https://doi.org/10.1592/phco.20.19.1417.34865
You might not like the advice, but it doesn’t make it quackry. You’re an adult, you can take any medicine you like. But the advice is sound, avoid treating symptoms as a first resort.
can you share an extract from the link that speaks to your point? im just not able to access the link
Multivariate analysis suggested that antipyretic therapy prolonged illness in subjects infected with influenza A, but its use was the result of prolonged illness in those infected with S. sonnei. The precise nature of these relationships requires a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.
On a human level it should just make sense, don’t treat things that don’t need to be treated. If your fever is getting dangerously high, or if it’s preventing you from sleep and you got to work in the morning, use your medicine. But it shouldn’t be the first thing people go for. I have a mild headache I’m going to take some medicine, I have a slight fever I’m going to take some medicine, I have a sniffly nose I’m going to take some medicine. That’s not indicated.
They’re very few panaceas in this world, all medicines have trade-offs.
The quote suggests the study was suggestive of the conclusion but inadequate to reasonably confirm it.
Sure, one thing you will find in all paper is that further studies are warranted. I was just illustrating to our dear friend above that their quackery statement wasn’t being civil.
I’m sorry if you’re offended by being called a quack.
It’s a term often applied to those making bold medical claims without sufficient evidence.
Sadly, if you want to make a claim contrary to settled medical science generally accepted the world over and applied in literally billions of cases each year, a study you found on google with 120 volunteers is… insufficient.
Person 1: “don’t treat fevers, doing so prolongs the illness itself”
Person 2: “there’s no evidence of that, it’s quackery”
Person 1: “here’s a study that says there’s no evidence that it’s false, either.”
Person 2 was probably being somewhat rude, but also wasn’t wrong in the substance of the actual comment.
I’m of the camp that treating a fever makes me feel better, and it isn’t shown to prolong or worsen illness.
I feel you’ve missed a minimum of two very important points here. Person 1 actually shared a link showing that treatment of 'flu-induced fever prolonged the infection (rather than attempted to prove quackery, or failed to affirm the negative). Then it was argued that feeling better is not a helpful way of measuring effectiveness of treatment.
Pov You contract gangrene in the tropics, far from a hospital.
Your best chance of survival is still to bite on this wood while I cut off your leg. It’s not going to make you feel better, but you might just live.
Would you still prefer the analgesics?
Interesting study, but the sample size of 54 is a bit too small, and usually strong medical research requires placebo controlled randomized trials. The ones that received medicine in this trial had to meet a specific criteria I.e. not randomized. Still interesting study to build off of nonetheless
Sorry, if you want to make a claim contrary to well established and generally accepted medical advice then you’ll need much better evidence.
The study you linked has a pathetically small scale of 120 individuals, is not randomised or placebo-controlled. Classic P-hacking. The result literally states that a better study is required.
This meta study, which includes the one you linked, concludes that there is no effect on the duration of an infection.
Out of the 1466 references found, 25 RCTs were included. There were two studies assessing mean fever clearance time, and five studies examining the duration of symptoms associated with the illness studied. No statistically significant differences were found when pooling the results of the different studies.
Your advice is anything but “sound”. The only sensible advice is to follow the advice of your health care professional, and we both know what that will be.
Quackery? Lmao. It’s proven that reducing fevers through anti-inflammatory medication lengthens the cold symptoms.
You’re the quack here.
It’s proven
It is?
Conclusions. Multivariate analysis suggested that antipyretic therapy prolonged illness in subjects infected with influenza A, but its use was the result of prolonged illness in those infected with S. sonnei. The precise nature of these relationships requires a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.
I’m looking forward to reading the “proof” you’ll undoubtedly provide any moment now.
https://doi.org/10.1592/phco.20.19.1417.34865
Nice alt account btw.
Oh please.
This is the same pathetic study the other guy posted which I responded to elsewhere:
Sorry, if you want to make a claim contrary to well established and generally accepted medical advice then you’ll need much better evidence.
The study you linked has a pathetically small scale of 120 individuals, is not randomised or placebo-controlled. Classic P-hacking. The result literally states that a better study is required.
This meta study, which includes the one you linked, concludes that there is no effect on the duration of an infection.
Out of the 1466 references found, 25 RCTs were included. There were two studies assessing mean fever clearance time, and five studies examining the duration of symptoms associated with the illness studied. No statistically significant differences were found when pooling the results of the different studies.
Your advice is anything but “sound”. The only sensible advice is to follow the advice of your health care professional, and we both know what that will be.
Also, the other user you’re talking to is not my alt account, I guess we just happen to have similar names. The only people who think people have “alt” accounts are idiots who think their profile is some kind of extention of their identity. You probably think your updoot count is somehow reassuring. Honestly.
Processed sugar or all sugar including in fruit?
Getting rid of processed sugar is a great start
There’s a lot of controversy about the other sugars, but I’m in the keto camp, so I would say anything that elevates your blood glucose should be avoided. So that would include sugar in fruit
All that IS the response, and without it, a virus would kill you.
You are better off toughing it out than taking drugs that block the responses.
thank you for your advice, doctor…?
Dr Trustmebro. It’s Romanian.
A lot of people in this thread saying that viruses are losing when we live through a cold. That’s just not true. Their goal is to live/reproduce, not to kill. They’re winning at a different game, it just hurts us as a byproduct.
You know symptoms is the tangible evidence of your body fighting the fucker? I’m no scientist but I remember hearing that apparently a raised body temp is one method of killing the cunt that’s trying to attack you.
Sure it is unpleasant. But you basically just have to rest for a day or two and your body will cure itself … I’d say that’s a pretty good response.
And thanks to our brains we also have medicine to combat most of these symptoms, making it really just a minor inconvenience.
