A CURE FOR COLDS & FLU??

Philosophy Forums Science, Technology, and Math
1

I have no clinical evdience for any of the following, just sixty years of suffering with both at least once a year.

I have theory, based on observation.

Many years ago as young man propsecting for diamonds in East Africa, I occassionally forgot to take may daily dose of quinine and consequently went down with malaria.

Malaria feels like flu - double up the aching joints a few times.

The first two times I got it I happened to be in base camp. With plenty of tablets availaible, I got over it in three or four days.

The third time was a kicker. I got it while alone in a fly camp, fifty miles from base and had no extra quinine. None of my prospecting crew of Africans knew how to drive the Landrover, so I was stuck with the fever.

I remained in a semi-coma for about ten days. My cookboy saved my bacon. I have vague memories of him coming in and out of my tent every few hours to change my sweat-saturated sheets. Then alternately piling blankets on me when I got the shivvers. He forced me to drink some fruit concentrate to keep me from getting entirely dehydrated. I lost 40lbs but finally made a full recovery under my own steam.

That experience taught me something about how the body reacts to a harmful parasite attack when left to fight without outside help. I think harmful parasites survive in the human body within a very narrow temperature range, maybe one or two degrees above or below 98.6 F.

The body reacts to an attack by raising its temperature high enough and long enough to kill the attacker. The shivvers in malaria is the body switching into reverse and going hyper thermic to further confound and combat the alien attack (This might of all be common knowledge of course.)

My personal cure for colds and flu follows down the same path.
Get in a sauna and raise your body temperature as high as you can stand it for as long as you can 101,F. ( Three or four hours]
Alternatively lower your body temperature two or three degrees in an ice bath for as long as you can stand it. 96, F.

Alternate the two extremes every two hours if you can.

2

I’m not saying this to attack you, first off.

There probably is some truth to some bacteria and viruses prefering a certain temperature, but they’re notoriously more tenacious than we are so I wouldn’t count on it all the time.

When you have a naturally occuring fever, pathways in the body are activated that help you fight the disease. Just raising your body temperature won’t activate them.

As far as the ice bath…that just seems like a bad idea. I mean, you can definitely stand cold without getting sick as long as you warm yourself properly afterwards, but when you’re already sick that could make things worse.

I dunno, though. Never tried it. Maybe it does have some benefits. I can definitely see that sauna helping if not for the increased temperature, for the humidity.

3

I don’t think your body temperature actually drops during the shivers. I think the reason you shiver is the same reason you usually shiver: to raise your body temperature. Muscle firing produces heat. So, while there’s probably merit to the sauna, I think the ice tub probably does more harm than good, because cold decreases your immune response.

4

The Swedes invented tha sauna, followed by an ice bath. Maybe as a cure for winter ailments or as a prevetative that keeps the body ahead of the curve :-k

5

My folks would have to stick me in ice baths to bring my fever down quickly, this was done under a Doctor’s prescription. As a child fevers would happen to me at any time. 103 to 104 there would be no time for an ambulance or a drive to the Doctor, they had to drop my body temp rapidly. Then when the shivers and the pain would come they would soak me in a warm to hot tub. A good source of quinine for the flu is seltzer water/ soda water. Drink this during bad bouts of flu, Tylenol and other pain relievers like that can cause severe problems if you have the flu. Plain old aspirin and this water helps you. Plain cold tap water out of the faucet will help with fevers of the lower kind but, it still hurts like hell. Keep that in mind, in a high fever, ice water baths or cold baths hurt very much. The higher the fever, the more agonizing it is, you probably should have someone there to help you. Cold baths work in desperate situations.

6

It was the Finns who invented the sauna! As far as health benefits go, there’s quite a list:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauna#Benefits