Don't try this at home: my super-recipe for geting rid of colds and flu

Not intended as medical advice, this is just what I do... bearing in mind that I trained in nutritional therapy and herbal medicine in the UK and have kitchen cupboards that hold more bottles of nutritional supplements and herbal remedies than they do food...

with that said, here's the list of stuff I do and take that usually sees off colds and flus quite quickly; in this case a highly successful 3-4 days instead of the 2-3 weeks that seems to be the norm for the latest Colorado virus.

TheraFlu (or Lemsip, the equivalent in Britain). This is the only conventional med that I take; it's kind of a high-tech, pharmaceutical version of the old-fashioned lemon, honey and aspirin drink that my mum used to use and my dad spiced up with a tot of rum or brandy.

As a daily supplement in hard training -- and I step up the dose when colds threaten -- the plant sterol and sterolin supplement Moducare. This has some good research behind it, including a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial on marathon runners. "Such individuals are prone to transient immune suppression due to the activation of several endocrinological shifts that ultimately lead to decreased immunity. This study showed that the marathon runners had less inflammation post event (lower IL6 plasma levels), less haematological disturbances (less lymphopaenia and less neutrophilia in the peripheral blood) and maintained their adreno-cortical status compared to their baseline values.. The study thus showed that Moducare was able to abrogate the immunological shifts that usually accompany endurance exercise." (Bouic PJD et al (1999): Int. J. Sports Med. 20, 258-262.)

As soon as I get the first inklings of a cold or sore throat I also bung in Cold Snap, which is a locally-produced (CO) mix of 20 Chinese, Japanese and Western herbs, and get some zinc lozenges to suck.

Then the deadly drink -- I drink this concoction as required, but probably three times a day and once in the middle of the night. I can't give exact measurements, since it's all highly unscientific and intuitive...but the recipe is:

to a glass of filtered (and preferably ozonated) water add drops of these liquid herbal extracts:

Samento from Nutramedix,a fantastic natural anti-microbial from South America,
Ginger
Turmeric
Rose Hip
Echinacea
Goldenseal
Licorice and
Nettles...

stir in several teaspoonfuls of vitamin C powder (I use a calcium, magnesium and zinc ascorbate)
add a pinch or two of cayenne pepper...
add your flavouring of choice -- some kind of antioxidant rich fruit berry juice would be good....
swig down along with several capsules of grapeseed extract (must be Masquelier or equivalent standardised OPC complex).

It's not pleasant, but it does the job.

Just to make sure I am going completely over the top, I also do steam inhalations: you can just stick your head over a basin full of boiling water to which add several drops of Olbas oil. I have a water ozonator, so I have that bubbling through the water while I'm inhaling. Ozone has a bad rep, but used properly kills bugs.

If I had access to a steam room or sauna, I'd do that too!

One of these days I'll just take the Thera-Flu on its own; who knows, that mauy be all you need to do!!??