Four Things That Are Claimed To Be A Treatment For An Everyday Cold - Do They Honestly Work?

By: Bill Achen

1. Zinc. The mineral zinc, available in lozenges, nasal sprays, and gels, are said to work by blocking the formation of proteins used an everyday cold virus to reproduce.
Although all the hype about zinc for treatment of a normal cold, scientific studies are minimal. It's said that only fourteen published studies that studied zinc the scientific way, with both placebo and treatment groups. They say zinc lozenges, have no effect. One well-designed research said there was a positive effect on treating a common cold with zinc nasal gel. But the study results have not yet been duplicated.
2. Vitamin C. For decades, believers in vitamin C have said taking this vitamin supplement can end a cold. The belief is partially triggered by research that find vitamin C affects resistance to virus in animal research.
But in people? Experts disagree on this slightly but lean toward the negative. Some say vitamin C has not been proven to decrease the duration of a common cold. One 2007 research showed that if vitamin C is taken after a cold begins, it doesn't shorten the cold or make it less severe. But when it is taken daily as a preventive treatment, not just after that first sniffle, it can very slightly decrease cold duration, by about 8% in adults and by about 14% in children.
Very athletic people, marathon runners, for instance, might cut their risk of a common cold in half by taking the vitamin, the study also showed.
But Dr. Gwaltney does not agree. The weight of scientific evidence and the well-done studies prove that vitamin C does not keep us from getting colds, says Gwaltney. It may have some mild effect on treating colds.
3. Echinacea. The herbal supplement echinacea, similar Vitamin C, sparks controversy among cold scientists. Supporters say it's an immune booster with antiviral characteristics and other benefits, so it's good at preventing colds. However, two recent studies on the natural remedy have yielded conflicting conclusions. In one 2007 study, University of Connecticut scientists concluded that echinacea reduces the odds of developing a normal cold by 58% and reduces its duration by 1.4 days. But a previous study, conducted by Gwaltney's colleagues at the University of Virginia and published in 2005 in The New England Journal of Medicine, showed no benefit from the herb in either reducing the severity of a cold infection or preventing a normal cold.
Echinacea drew a "no" vote from our three experts -- Gwaltney, Blandino, and Owen Hendley, MD, professor of pediatrics in the division of infectious diseases at the University of Virginia, Charlottesvile.
4. Chicken Soup. Advocates of hot chicken soup, long offered as a cold treatment, say it could possibly help soothe inflammation that can make the symptoms worse.
The problem with proving scientifically that chicken soup is effective, says Gwaltney, is discovering a legitimate placebo food to research against it in a scientific manner. We were contacted by a soup corporation to do a study on chicken soup, he explains. We thought we could use another hot beverage for placebo, he says. But it's got to look, smell, and taste [like chicken soup]. They didn't find anything that measured up. Gwaltney calls chicken soup "a waste of time."
That's despite the well-publicized report published in 2000 in which researchers reported that chicken soup, which they studied in the laboratory, may have an anti-inflammatory effect on easing symptoms of upper respiratory infections. But the report doesn't prove chicken soup does anything for cold symptoms, Gwaltney says, because it didn't include a test of people nor include a placebo for comparison.
Even though chicken soup may not really treat a cold, it can help stop dehydration that can be present when you have a cold or the the average flu.

Niche Article Directory: http://www.thatsmyniche.com

Are you in search of ways to get FREE backlinks to bring your blog or site up the page ranks to the first page so that you're able to get huge amounts of online website traffic? Use our tools and start now!

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated