Well, my annual sojourn into the valley of the winter crud started yesterday. And, if all goes as it has in the past couple
of years, it should pretty well be over by tonight. As I’ve written in the past, my winter crud experience has changed significantly since I began a daily EpiCor regimen.
A nagging little chest tickle came on a couple days ago, along with some sinus congestion. In my earlier years, I could almost set my watch to what would happen next: the chest tickle turns to a cough; the sinuses turn into a cavalcade of infection; the infection makes its way to the chest, which turns the nagging dry cough into a crunchy, yucky hack that sounds like a St. Bernard barking. Breathing turns into a wheeze fest. And after 10 days of this crap, I give in and go to the doc to get my Z-Pack. Which may or may not really work, since it may be a viral thing I’m dealing with.
Now, the symptoms don’t really grow into that potpourri of misery described above. They pretty much stay in check and then are gone in a day or two. To me, this is the picture of immune balance: immune defenses reacting proportionally to confront virus or bacteria. Which means just enough to vanquish the bad stuff, but not too aggressively to cause a lot of overkill symptoms (endless phlegm, inflammation, etc.) And this year, unlike the past two, I’ve not had the luxury of maybe getting some extra sleep in the morning to help the cause. My schedule this week made that sleep impossible.
I must stress, this is just a description of my experience and is not any kind of suggestion that everyone can have the same kind of result. Peer-reviewed, published human trials (Alter. Comp Med. EpiCor Cold Flu) do support the kind of experience I’m describing. Still, the trials do not constitute settled science.
So here’s to another year of conquering the crud.
