a continuation of Teh Snot
Dec. 11th, 2006 03:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baratronI have Teh Snot still/again. What I think happened is that my cold went away, and I either caught another one straight on top of it, or this is really severe allergic rhinitis. I don't know which, but my nose is running like a tap while my ears are completely stuffed up and congested. I've been awake an hour and got through more than 10 "man-size" tissues already.
Both echinacea and zinc do terrible things to my digestive system. I'm also vaguely under the impression that one or both of them don't mix well with allergies - where the problem isn't so much a "bad" immune system so much that the immune system is busy fighting the wrong things. I already take a good multivitamin, and extended-release vitamin C, combined with a pretty good diet containing multiple fruits & vegetables and industrial quantities of innocent smoothies. I've started washing my hands religiously when I get in from "the outside", even if I don't think I've touched anything. Beyond that... um.
The only sensible thing I can think of is not to go out or see people when I can't reliably breathe through my nose, as breathing through your mouth bypasses a lot of the respiratory tract's cilia and mucus cells, so makes you far, far more likely to catch an inhaled virus. But that means cancelling a lot more work than I currently do, which'll be inconvenient to students and leave me short of money, so it's not really that sensible. But I really do not need constant Snot for a couple of months of the year, nor the threat of chronic fatigue due to hyperventilation or resurgent Epstein-Barr. There must be something I can do to improve my immune system, surely?
Both echinacea and zinc do terrible things to my digestive system. I'm also vaguely under the impression that one or both of them don't mix well with allergies - where the problem isn't so much a "bad" immune system so much that the immune system is busy fighting the wrong things. I already take a good multivitamin, and extended-release vitamin C, combined with a pretty good diet containing multiple fruits & vegetables and industrial quantities of innocent smoothies. I've started washing my hands religiously when I get in from "the outside", even if I don't think I've touched anything. Beyond that... um.
The only sensible thing I can think of is not to go out or see people when I can't reliably breathe through my nose, as breathing through your mouth bypasses a lot of the respiratory tract's cilia and mucus cells, so makes you far, far more likely to catch an inhaled virus. But that means cancelling a lot more work than I currently do, which'll be inconvenient to students and leave me short of money, so it's not really that sensible. But I really do not need constant Snot for a couple of months of the year, nor the threat of chronic fatigue due to hyperventilation or resurgent Epstein-Barr. There must be something I can do to improve my immune system, surely?
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-11 06:12 pm (UTC)I've had good luck with treatment by my acupuncturist and naturopath, even though I do have to sort of go "la la la" to myself while she says the high-woowoo stuff.