Cold & Flu Season

It’s that time of year again. so I thought it would be helpful to share some advice.

Of course, you’ve all probably heard about vitamin C, but here is some information you may not know:

Taking the recommended daily dose of 60mg is just about enough to prevent scurvy; it just won’t cut it for prevention or cure of colds and flu. Everyone has a different requirement. Smoking, for example, vastly depletes the body of vitamin C. To find out your optimal dose start with 1000mg per day and daily increase the dose until you experience bowel intolerance i.e. the runs. Vitamin C is one of the safest known substances and our bodies will literally just dump anything more than it needs (pardon the pun). Then revert to the previous days dose and that’s your optimum amount. I take 3000mg spread out through the day, as a preventative, but would up that to every 2-3 hours if I had a cold or flu.

Secondly, most vitamin C is made from genetically modified corn – nasty. The best form of vitamin C is liposomal, but wow, it’s expensive! I buy bog standard, powdered vitamin C, which is cheap (£16.99 per kg) and is guaranteed non GMO. It’s made by Classikool and available on Amazon. But, BIG, BIG warning – vitamin C is ascorbic acid and so acidic that just putting it in a glass of water will almost strip your tooth enamel! Mix it 50/50 with bicarbonate of soda, it will fizz and neutralise the acid.

Here’s another little trick that will really help if you are already have a cold or flu. Buy some 2-3% hydrogen peroxide from your local harmacy, sorry pharmacy for a couple of quid and mix it 50/50 with water. Put some in your ear and tilt your head for a few minutes. It will fizz. The chemical symbol for hydrogen peroxide is h2o2- it’s just water with an extra oxygen molecule. That extra molecule is very unstable and will break away quickly, hence the fizzing. Unhealthy germs and viruses hate oxygen and will be killed on contact by that extra molecule, whereas all your healthy bacteria (probiotics) thrive in oxygen so, unlike antibiotics the hydrogen peroxide won’t destroy all the good guys as well as the bad guys. The solution will travel down your eustachian tube from ear to throat and will greatly help. Sounds weird, I know, but it really works. Lastly, DO NOT take over-the-counter flu and cold powders or tablets or paracetamol. They WILL make you feel better in the short term by reducing your temperature, but to cut a long story short, your body is producing a temperature to make interferon, which will make antibodies against your cold/flu. When you take one of those temperature reducing meds, it’s estimated that you will prolong your symptoms by up to 60%.

I hope you find this helpful. Please feel free to like, ask any questions, message me or call me for a free, 15 minute phone consultation. Keep healthy out there people!