Cold enough for you?
It’s been very cold in New England for the last few days. Having returned recently from visiting family who live in climes with less chilly winter weather, I found it a shock to get to the Boston airport very late at night and wait outside for transportation. Somehow, I’d forgotten to bring my gloves and scarf along, too, although I had meant to.
Brrrr.
To top it all off, I’d caught a cold from my grandkids. I love my grandkids very much, but they’re at that age where colds are common and expected. And when I get a cold, it doesn’t last just a few days. It segues into sinus congestion and a cough that usually endures, all told, for about a month. I’m not usually very sick, fortunately, but I wonder why my colds linger that way and have done so since I was a teenager.
I’ve tried those zinc lozenges and all they seem to do is delay the amount of time I feel as though I’m getting a cold but haven’t really gotten it yet. I take Vitamin C. I inhale steam. Decongestants make me sicker so I avoid them. None of it seems to matter.
And yet I like the weather in New England. I enjoy four dramatic seasons – as long as the ice storms are kept to a minimum. So here I stay – so far.
It’s been a very mild fall/winter here in western WA. Not remotely close to snow and not even many lows below freezing so that has been nice but the darkness is what really gets me. For some reason the older I get the more it bothers me.
Add vitamin D because you don’t get a lot of sunshine in the winter in NE. Studies show it probably doesn’t prevent a cold but likely shortens the duration.
My wife, the physician, has started taking a prophylactic dose of ivermectin twice/week for the winter months. She got a cold over Thanksgiving anyway!
Posting from Maui, so I can’t really say I know how you feel. But headed back today. Against the sun and across five time zones. So I leave today and arrive tomorrow. Not exactly looking forward to that.
Your colds sound like mine would get. Linger and then sinusitis. One tip. Avoid Ice cream.
I have been known to take a pill or 3, drink a lot of water, dress super warm and get under the covers and sweat it out.
luckily not lately.
Garlic for cold prevention and hot peppers for decongestant. But cold-prone grandchildren may overwhelm the above. (The Beverly Hillbillies once had a show about a cold remedy–hot toddy w whiskey. The punchline at the end of the show–and stay in bed for a week!)
The ice storm in December ’73 knocked out power for five days in CT. With a fireplace and a gas stove from pre-electric ignition days, we got along OK. House got down in the 40s, just like it did during the big freeze in TX four years ago. (four and an a half days without power)
TX is also under a cold snap, a.k.a. a blue norther. When I come back to New England in December or January, I never had trouble re-adapting to the cold weather. I just reverted back to my old habits of layer upon layer upon layer of clothing. Which I am doing during the current cold snap in TX. A TX native friend has jacked up the heat, but due to my New England childhood, I am comfortable in the low 60s. Just put on another layer.
Finally up to 50 near Old Town Fla, but still wearing my wool loincloth…
I take Vitamin D, zinc, and quercetin and have had limited colds. However, my vitamin D and zinc levels are tested every year with blood tests to make sure I am in the correct range.
The quercetin affects the cell membrane and allows the zinc to get into the cell to disrupt the virus replication. I learned that during Covid from the doctors who were trying to keep people healthy without vaccines.
But, if I do feel a cold coming on, I also drink a nice hot toddy (lemon, honey and whiskey in tea), bundle up, pile on the quilts, and sleep away. I always feel better afterwards.
The low wind chill for this morning was 0, temp was 12 degrees. I’m in OKC area.
Nothing works. A shaman wearing buffalo horns and shaking rattles and chanting at your bedside would be just as (in)effective.
It is what it is. Part of the human condition and there’s nothing we can do about it.
Highs in the 30s, lows in the 20s, here in central NC for the foreseeable future. But at least the sun is shining!
In south eastern WA we have the darkness mentioned by Griffin and usually a week or so of freezing rain and winter mix (ice covered roads). But this year it is just rain, not a day yet below freezing.
Good luck with your cold neo.
It’s been quite cold here for northern Florida. It’s become routine for us to cover our sensitive plants every night as the low dips to 30. Fortunately the FL sun gets us near 60 or higher during the day. I only have my 4 years of experience, but this has been the coldest stretch in that time frame.
No regrets whatsoever leaving that New England weather behind. Best day of my life was when I sold the snow blower. 🙂
I take Vitamin D, zinc, and quercetin and have had limited colds.
Same here. In fact, I don’t think I’ve had a cold in at least 5 years, other than maybe one or two very mild ones. But then again, I don’t have grandchildren, so maybe it’s not a real test.
Quercetin, zinc, D and C.
I’ve been taking loads of D for about 25 years. No effect on colds.
I had a bad 2023 with colds and infections, but 2024 went much better. In 2023, a friend gave me some Emergen-C. At first, I thought it was just extra vit. C, but it actually has a lot of vit. B complex in it too. Either Emergen-C worked, or it was a lucky coincidence.
More recently, I’ve been tackling a low sodium problem, in part, by taking Propel, a powdered form of Gatorade. I thought it was just flavored sodium chloride, but interestingly, it has vit. B complex too.
Yes, to the zinc, vit. C, and vit. D also. But I’m careful with non-water soluble vitamins like D.
I also am in New England and all sniffling. Ah, winter.
I grew up in Providence, RI and now live in West Virginia. With each passing year I dislike the winter more and more. It shouldn’t hurt to go outside. I’ve complained about the cold weather for quite some time but to no apparent effect. My son lives in St Augustine, FL and I’m getting more and more tempted to join him.
In forty years, I’ve never gotten a cold in winter when I’ve had a humidifier running in the house.
Gregory H., speaking of pain when outside, there’s a fellow retiring in a couple of weeks at work. He and I interacted regularly when we were in the same department years ago. It took a while for him to warm to me, probably having something to do with the fact that my job was to review other people’s work, so I probably had a bit of that bad-cop vibe.
But I remember that the first time the ice finally cracked was when I noticed that he had a cartoon posted up on his board with one of those simply-drawn but cute little people bundled up saying to himself, “The air hurts my face… why am I living where the air hurts my face” and I was laughing to myself about it all day and told him so, and he loved the reaction. Today put me in mind of it again.
Ralph L’s idea seems quite good to me, too.
In spite of its frigidity, I think Canada should be annexed.
Gregory Harper,
St. Augustine is a magical city!
Sorry that zinc and C aren’t doing the trick. That usually helps me. I’m also lucky because I have access to raw milk and have been drinking it nearly every day, usually multiple times a day, for the past two years, and I get sick a lot less often than before. I seem to remember you making a post years ago about having genuine lactose intolerance and hating milk. Has anyone ever tried to induce you to try raw?
Definitely do as Don says, especially the quercetin, get the 1000 mg capsules. It really helps. I’ve taken smaller amounts daily for years. Once as my cardiologist was going through my list of meds and supplements, she looked up quercetin and then said, “Okay, Im going to start taking this!” Also the zinc, I use the gummies with elderberry and zinc. When my housecleaner had covid the clinic told her to take quecetin, fortunately I had given her a bottle of the 1000mg capsules just in case, so she was all ready when the time came for them. Emergencee is good for the vitamin C.
Rufus T. Firefly:
I’ve visited my son several times in the past couple of years (he lives on Anastasia Island) and quite enjoyed it. I never thought I would want to live in Florida when I was younger but I’m very tempted now. I think I would make the move if my daughter didn’t live relatively nearby in Maryland.
Brrrr… but if it’s ballet you want….
Here’s the Panda Variations (in snow motion…)
“Giant Pandas Bao Li and Qing Bao Play In The Snow”—
(Scroll down to first video.)
https://pjmedia.com/sarah-anderson/2025/01/07/watch-adorable-pandas-play-in-the-snow-as-winter-storm-hits-the-us-n4935752
H/T Instapundit
https://instapundit.com/694760/
Ha! I picked up a bug on the way over to Utah for Christmas and gave it TO my grandsons!
And everyone else, unfortunately; husband, daughter in law and son. For some reason the younger family members all got through it fairly quickly but husband and I were laid out for a solid week. We haven’t been that sick since before our son was born and that was over 30 years ago. Most anything I get is ambulatory with maybe a day of rest. Fought off the threat of sinusitis with Cipro but we are both still congested. Really hard to shake. I now realize how the flu can kill the elderly.
LOL, the ‘elderly’. I am almost 70!
20 years ago I had cancer and was advised by a Kaiser practitioner to take Coriolus mushroom extract as it has demonstrated immune function. I’ve taken it ever since and only get sick if I skip taking it or run out temporarily. I take D, C, and zinc, too. And thanks to those here who suggest adding quercetin to the regimen. Will do.
In an odd coincidence I just spoke with a woman while on Anastasia Island (she lives there) who just recovered from COVID. She has never had the flu in her life (she’s 80) and can’t remember the last time she’s been sick, prior to this bout of COVID (which was mild). She is part of a medical study trying to figure out why she is so resistant to colds and flu. She grew up in New England and has spent a lot of time there and on Anastasia Island and in the Bahamas.
I’m also living in MA and use the Quercetin, zinc, D and C combo, but also add the following when I visit the grandkids (whether they’re sick or not)
Cold-Away (chinese herbals in capsule form, made by Health Concerns)
Copperzap – used like a cotton swab inside the nostril (look up the website), the copper has antimicrobial and your nose is typically your most vulnerable point of entry.
Cold Away also at first sign of symptoms, and I use both when traveling (night before, morning of, before take off and after landing).
Copperzap every morning after brushing teeth, but usually only on days where I’m going to come in contact with other people
Last year I was on retreat in northern Iceland with 20 other people, I was only one who did not get flu or COVID (and they all masked up as people started dropping like flies; some had worn masks on the plane, obviously that didn’t help)