desh | (no subject)

(no subject)

I love learning things about my body, especially because I seem to know less than most people my age know about themselves.

Tidbit of the day: I suspected this before, but now that it's happened again, I can call it definite. Six hours after I have a dose of pseudoephedrine, not only can I start feeling my nose get stuffed up again, but I can start feeling my thoughts get unclouded again. That stuff really messes with my ability to think clearly and move at a normal speed.

But depending on how bad the cold is and how much thinking I have to do, it can still be worth it.

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On the other hand, when you take a medication for a cold it cuts down on some of the severity but makes it last longer, so you may as well just feel miserable for one day and then get better more quickly.

Really? I've never heard that before. Do you have sources?

She is both right and wrong. Its called darwinian medicine. The illness you feel when you are sick comes from two sources, (1) your body's attempt to remove/kill the pathogen that is making you sick and (2)the pathogens attempt trigger your bodies immune responses to spread itself. So if treat a symptom that is an affective part of your bodies natural immune response it might take you longer to get better. For instance, coughing is very affective in preventing you from getting sick, Fevers can help diminish the number of pathogens you have. However, sometimes it is good to treat the symptoms. (lots of examples at your request.)

However, if I am not mistaken you have a cold. Colds are viruses and unaffected by our bodies immune response. You just have to let it go its course, but you can still do it comfortably. Don't worry about treating colds, this idea is for treating serious illnesses

Dude, you rock.

Yeah, with fevers I think it's usually best just to let them run their course and treat with things like a cool washcloth rather than fever reducers... unless of course it's so high that it's threatening your life. Burn little buggies, burn!

I've heard other examples of this sorta thing, but they shouldn't be repeated here cuz they involve icky bodily functions and various substances being expelled from various orifices.

There's a flip side though--just because you're coughing or otherwise expelling the bug doesn't automatically mean you're helping yourself get better faster. It doesn't work in all cases, and in many cases it just spreads the bug to other people. Some bugs actually cause that bodily reaction specifically for that purpose, in which case it may not be an immune system response at all and it doesn't help you in the slightest.

did you take Medical Anthropology with Huss-Ashmore?

No, but I did take it over one summer with some Grad Student.

Is that were I learned all that crap in my head? I never can remember....

D'oh! I was wondering why I couldn't find anything actually proving what I said.

Thank you!

take echinecea and vitamin c.

I brought a whole pharmacy to work today; it was nuts. C, zinc, Tylenol, pseudoephedrine just in case, cough drops with both menthol and something else (both of which are labeled as "anesthetic"), and cough syrup containing both a cough suppressant and an expectorant. I could mix my own batch of DayQuil right there in my cubicle.

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