Antibiotics for cold symptoms became the industry standard. Learn your options

Each year Americans catch more than one billion colds, making the colds virus the most common infectious disease in the United States.

It accounts for more school absences and missed work than any other illness, and it's the number one reason people visit their physicians - even though most physicians have little to offer in the form of treatment.

It's a widespread misconception that cold symptoms are caused by bacteria. Cold symptoms are actually triggered by a virus, which means if your physician prescribes you an antibiotic, it will be absolutely useless.

Sinus, ear and lung infections (bronchitis and pneumonia) are examples of bacterial infections that do respond to antibiotics, but they are not common cold symptoms.

If we develop any of the following symptoms, these are signs we may be suffering from a bacterial infection rather than cold symptoms or virus, and we should call our physician's office:

* Fever over 102 degrees Fahrenheit (38.9    degrees Celsius)
* Ear pain
* Pain around our eyes, especially with a green    nasal discharge
* Shortness of breath or a persistent    uncontrollable cough
* Persistently coughing up green and yellow    sputum

Generally speaking, however, if we have cold symptoms, medical care is not necessary. Rest and attention to the lifestyle factors, and using listed below natural supplements will help us to recover quickly and if we stick to them, will significantly reduce our chances of catching another one anytime soon.

If we have cold symptoms and visit our mainstream doctor for help, we are practically guaranteed to leave the office with a prescription for antibiotics. We most likely will not have any underlying cause tests done – prescribing antibiotics for cold symptoms became a standard of our time.

We listed antibiotics side effects among other mostly prescribed prescription medications on the market these days.

You can assume that this information about antibiotics side effects is very new and is not yet known to an average mainstream doctor who is writing prescriptions for cold symptoms to adults but even more often to children. Unfortunately it is not so.

If you are following our media, you are aware of a dramatically increasing number of our women diagnosed with a breast cancer during last decades. We all are wondering what are the reasons for these increasing numbers.

I was reviewing my collection of relatively old health related information and was really “impressed” with the following piece I didn’t notice earlier:

In February 2004 a Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published an article, which concluded: “Use of antibiotics is associated with increased risk of incident and fatal breast cancer.”

The authors noted that although a direct cause-and-effect relationship could not be determined, “these findings reinforce the need for prudent long-term use of antibiotics.”

Anyone of us being a professional in any field is trying to follow all the latest developments in this field. It seams many mainstream doctors don’t have enough professional self-respect to do the same in their very important field. They probably consider the latest “news” supplied by pharmaceutical companies’ sales people being sufficient.

Although the above study was focused on the breast cancer, there are obvious risks for men too. In fact, latest medical statistics note more cases of men having the breast cancer also.

Repeated disruption of normal digestive flora by antibiotics significantly interferes with a major source of vitamin K, biotin, and other essential nutrients, which healthy digestive flora - probiotics produce. And antibiotics destroying our probiotics are just one of many problems they cause.

If you consider the above information being too old and you shouldn’t rely on it, in November 2010 JAMA revealed the following:

* Using antibiotics for ear infections in children is no better than just    giving the kiddies pain relief.
* Antibiotics did produce some slight benefit but this was lost when side    effects like diarrhea and rash were factored in.
* Researchers say the review shows the merit of a watch-and-wait    approach to managing ear infections.

Based on their review of more than 100 studies published over the last decade, the researchers were able to quantify the risks and benefits of kids’ ear pain relief treatments with antibiotics.

They estimated that for every 100 otherwise healthy children with uncomplicated middle ear infections, about 80 could be expected to improve without antibiotics within about three days.

Additional 12 children could be expected to improve during this time if all were treated with antibiotics, but 3 to 10 would develop a treatment-related rash and 5 to 10 would get diarrhea.

In other words, the number of kids who would benefit from treatment with antibiotics is about the same as the number who would develop treatment-related side effects!

If parents are concerned with antibiotics side effects, a physician could provide them with a “just in case” prescription for kids ear pain relief as well as for cold sysmptoms. Most of the contingency prescriptions get never filled.

There is an economic factor too. Antibiotics are prescribed more for ear pain infections than for any other childhood illness. A 2006 government survey found the average cost for treating ear infections to be $350 per child, totaling $2.8 billion a year, in the USA alone.

That could be quite a saving if doctors wouldn’t as often rush to grab a prescription pad!

Researchers in the Netherlands found and reported in 2009 that use of antibiotics for acute ear infections in young children increases the risk of recurrent infections by 20%.

In the same study, they found that 63% of kids given antibiotic amoxicillin had another infection within three years, compared with 43% of kids given placebo.

And 47 out of 75 kids given amoxicillin had at least one recurrent infection, compared with 37 of 86 given placebo — that amounted to a 2.5 times higher risk of recurrent ear infection in the amoxicillin group.

The research team pointed to a weakening of the body's natural immune response caused by the antibiotic, saying that using antibiotics for ear pain relief at the initial stage of infecting could cause an "unfavorable shift" toward the growth of nasty antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

These researchers flat-out say that we need to cut back on use of antibiotics in young kids for ear pain relief.

There are several research-proven things to do making cold symptoms go away a lot quicker. Some of them like vitamin C and zinc lozenges, are usually advised in such situations. But if these cold symptoms solutions don’t help we need to look at other options, which we listed below on this page.

But before using even these commonly suggested solutions for cold symptoms, we need to give our white blood cells a full germ fighting chance.

The first step in beating cold symptoms and flu season once and for all is the same first step the best holistic doctors are recommending for preventing other various illnesses - get rid of the sugar!

Decades ago, Professor Emanuel Cheraskin and his colleagues demonstrated that refined sugar significantly impairs the ability of white blood cells to fight germs and cold symptoms. To reach this conclusion Professor Cheraskin drew blood samples from research volunteers, and then observed under a microscope how many germs the average white blood cell could destroy per minute.

One hour after each volunteer swallowed approximately 1 teaspoonful of refined sugar, his or her white blood cells could only destroy half as many germs as before. And the white blood cells didn’t recover their full “germ-eating” capability until four to five hours later.

Professor Cheraskin observed at his subsequent experiments – “if an individual ate a sweet roll or doughnut for breakfast, or even just sweetened his or her coffee or tea with sugar, then had a soft drink or candy bar at lunch, ate a piece of pie or other sugared dessert at dinner, and perhaps had some ice cream before bedtime, the only time he or she should allow to ever expose him/herself to germs should be between 2 AM and breakfast time”.

Otherwise the likelihood of catching an infection would be significantly greater since the person’s white blood cells would be impaired from consuming sugar all day long.

The “germs” Professor Cheraskin’s team observed were bacteria, not “common cold symptoms” viruses. But it has been well known that eliminating refined sugar as well as refined carbohydrates is absolutely necessary to minimize or eliminate flu and cold symptoms.

Uncovering and eliminating (or desensitizing) allergies is a close second to eliminating sugar when it comes to flu and cold symptoms prevention.

* recurrent colds
* sore throats
* ear infections
* bronchitis and
* flu and cold symptoms

show that if the recurrent infection didn’t subside after the parents got rid of all the refined sugar in the child’s diet, s/he should then be checked for allergies, particularly food allergies.

Every single one of these children had significant food allergies, and if the offending foods were eliminated (or in the long run, desensitized), the recurrent frequent cold symptoms and infections always vanished (or nearly so, except perhaps for the very infrequent cases of sniffles). You can visit our Probiotics and Enzymes pages to learn what you can do to eliminate food allergies in your or your childrens life.

The same strategy applies with adults, although in general adults have a greater proportion of inhalant allergies than children, which is best dealt with by total removal from the environment, or desensitization.

Taking care of sugar and allergies will give our immune system a solid foundation for fighting all kinds of infections, including ones with flu and cold symptoms. But there are also a few supplements that can support our efforts even further.

Some of the most exciting recent vitamin D3 research has demonstrated its ability to prevent viral and other infections by stimulating the production of “natural human antibiotics” in our body.

You can follow the above link to see more information and the latest recommendations on Vitamin D3 dosages for adults, children and even pregnant women.

Holistic practitioners often recommend taking a minimum 1 gram of vitamin C four times daily at the very first sign of a cold or flu symptoms. If the vitamin C is tolerated well (meaning it doesn’t cause loose bowels or diarrhea), considerably more is safe and even more effective.

I personally take 4 grams every three hours and never fail to get a significant improvement in cold or flu symptoms by the next day.

One of the most effective germs infections fighting treatments known to holistic world is Colloidal Silver. At least 750 germs can't exist in its presense.

Years ago, when I was making my first steps in researching holistic treatments, antibiotics producing pharmaceutical companies used every method of pushing this powerful competitor from the market.

At the first sign of a cold it is recommended to use 1 tablespoon to start, and then continue to take 1 teaspoon on an empty stomach every 3 to 4 hours while we are awake until the infection is gone.

Another recommendation which I use myself is putting the above amounts of colloidal silver under the tongue for a minute or so, before swallowing it. The micro blood vessels under our tongue allow the silver to enter the blood flow without going through our digestive system and start acting immediately.

You can find colloidal Silver (5 ppm - parts per million) in many Health food stores.

Some individuals have sworn that zinc lozenges are “almost miraculous” for treating colds. Others swear they are useless.

Research studies have been equally conflicting. The answer to this contradiction is that certain types of zinc lozenges are indeed very effective, while other types are not effective at all.

Ananda Prasad, Ph.D. - professor at Wayne State University School of Medicine is widely recognized as one of the leading researchers and authors on zinc.

On one of his presentations at the meeting of the International Society for Trace Element Research in Humans (ISTERH) he reported about a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study he and his colleagues conducted to examine the effects of zinc acetate lozenges against the common cold.

Fifty research volunteers took either zinc acetate lozenges (which contained 13.3 milligrams each of elemental zinc) or placebo every three hours while awake, starting within 24 hours of the onset of cold symptoms.

In the zinc acetate lozenge group, the subjects’ colds lasted an average of 3.5 days versus 7.4 days in the placebo group. Coughs lasted a mean 2.1 days and nasal discharge 3.0 days in the zinc acetate lozenge group versus 5.3 days and 4.7 days in the placebo group.

In essence, the zinc cut the amount of time the subjects spent sick in half. That is quite a significant reduction, if you ask anyone suffering a cold.

The real answer to mentioned above conflicting information is that the zinc itself isn’t what’s contributing to the conflicting results: Zinc has been proven to interfere with virus replication by direct contact, as well as in other ways.

Of course, while getting better as quickly as possible is the ultimate goal when we come down with cold symptoms, there are a couple of common sense precautions to bear in mind before bombarding our system with all of these treatments, especially all at once.

Certainly eliminating sugar and allergies, and taking vitamin D3 and Vitamin C, are all compatible with each other and can be taken together safely. Vitamin C can be used, but at higher (treatment) quantities – it is best taken with food to reduce chances of gastric irritation, especially having a sensitive stomach.

By contrast, colloidal silver should be taken on an empty stomach, with no food for at least one hour before or after. It should mostly be used when we are actually sick.

Obviously, it is better to be proactive and not get colds in the first place. But the Hydrogen Peroxide therapy is a totally non-toxic, increadably inexpensive and safe solution for any age children and adults to deal with colds or flu symptoms.

In 1928 Richard Simmons, M.D. suggested that colds and flu virus enter our body through the ear canal. His findings were dismissed by the medical community.

According to Dr. Simmons, contrary to what we may think or have been heard about how we catch the flu or the cold, there is only one way that we can catch the two. That is via the ear canal and not through the eyes or nose or mouth as most of us believe.

Keeping our fingers out of our ears would greatly reduce our chances of catching them, but both of them are microscopic and can be air-born and may land on or in our ears.

Once they have entered the inner-ear - middle-ear, they begin their breeding process and from there they have access to every part of our body to infect and make us sick.

In 1938 German researchers had great success using hydrogen peroxide in dealing with both - colds and the flu. The mainstream medical establishment has been ignoring their data for over 60 years.

It is important to begin the treatment as soon as symptoms appear. If we start the treatment promptly, its effectiveness should be in the 80% range.

The best results are achieved in curing the flu & cold within 12 to 14 hours when administering a few drops of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) into each infected ear - sometimes only one ear is infected.

This 3% Hydrogen Peroxide solution is NOT the 35% food grade product described on our Hydrogen Peroxide Therapy page and is available in most supermarkets and pharmacies Not for internal use, and the price of it is very reasonable.

The H2O2 starts working within 2 to 3 minutes from administration by killing the flu or cold. There is usually some bubbling and in some cases we can feel mild stinging occuring.

After waiting until the bubbling and stinging subside - usually 5 to 10 min – we need to drain the fluid onto tissue and repeat other ear.

Although this method is perfectly safe for infant/children to use, the loud bubbling and stinging can frighten them, so it is better to have someone they trust to put the solution in their ears.

Other conditions accompanying cold symptoms and how our grandmothers used to heal them

We already showed how unrefined salt and water can help overcoming asthma symptoms.

Very similar approach was used by our grandmothers and then mothers to help us with strep throuts when we were small kids.

They always had us gargle with saltwater to ease the pain of our swollen tonsils or to ward off our sniffles. And although the saltwater tasted awful, it always did the trick for us.

Surprisingly, it turns out that there is indeed some science to back up this old home remedy.

According to at least one study that appeared in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, a saltwater gargle can do more than help fight Strep Throat symptoms once they appear. There is some solid evidence that it can keep us healthier during the winter cold and flu season.

Scientists followed a group of almost 400 volunteers for 60 days during the peak of the cold and flu season. Some volunteers were instructed to gargle with salt-water three times a day. At the end of the study the gargling group had a stunning 40% drop in upper respiratory tract infections as compared to the group that did not gargle.

The researchers also found that those in the salt-water group who did get sick reported an improvement in their symptoms, such as a sore throat, when they gargled with the briny water.

The salt helps to draw excess liquid out of the swollen throat tissues that are causing us pain. In addition the gargling action helps to loosen up and clear away mucous, which may be trapping in allergens and bacteria that are making us sick.

To put the grandmom’s remedy to work for you, at the first sign of a scratchy throat or sniffle, dissolve 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. of salt in about 8 ounces of warm water.

Tilt your head back and gently gargle with a mouthful of the salt-water for about 15 seconds and then spit it into the sink. Repeat with the entire glass. Do it at least three times a day.

Copyright ©2010-2012 Unicare International, inc. All rights reserved.
No statements on this site have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
No products or information here are intended to diagnose, test, cure or prevent any disease
Please consult health care practitioner or assume the risk of any injuries.
The publisher is not responsible for errors or omissions.

SBI!

Cold symptoms account for more school absences and missed work than any other illness