Homecare Minor-Ailment Arsenal

Technorati tags: Health, Home Remedies, Flu

Feeling a little under the weather the past few days. Probably caught my wife's brother-in-laws flu/bronchitis over the last weeked, compounded with the fact that I had to do a day-trip drive to Kerteh, Terengganu, for a meeting on Sunday (yeah... they work on Sundays), further compounded by the wet weather we've been getting of late.

Whatever the cause(s), Walski is not a well puppy these past couple or three days...

Whenever I feel a little under the weather, rather than running to the nearest 24-hour clinic, I prefer to self-medicate, using mostly natural stuff. My homecare arsenal consists of what you see below.

Honey, table salt, and Berocca (more on this later). For this particular bout of flu, the symptoms started with a really sore throat, which later developed into post-nasal drip, and mild fever.

The salt is for gargling with. Make a saturated salt+water mix (stir in salt until the water can't desolve it anymore). This does the same thing, topically, as anti-biotics do, without the nastiness of anti-biotics. I've avoided anti-biotics, unless absolutely necessary, for the past 10 years or so. I believe that for flu, anti-biotics don't do squat - as they're designed for microbes, not viruses.

I also believe that our General Practioners (GPs) at the ever-abundant 24-hour clinics really abuse the prescription of anti-biotics. It's what they prescribe for almost any ailment you go see them for (apart from the Medical Cert thingy that gets you off work). Fortunately, I'm allowed to work from home, so although I'm sick as a dog, I'm still working and earning my keep. Taking 10 - 15 minutes off to blog this is just like taking a coffee break in the office...

Honey acts as a salve for the throat, and does help keeping the soreness in check. Plus, it gives you energy, just in case you feel so sucky that you don't have an apetite for food. AND it is an anti-microbial, and so it retards the growth of any secondary microbes, like in your throat. Honey is truly one of nature's wonder food!

So, what's this Berocca thingy? It's actually effervescent tablets containing Vitamin C, B-Complex, and various other minerals. It's produced by Roche Consumer Health, which is now part of Bayer Healthcare which also produces Vitamin C only bubbly tabs (Redoxon), that you can find at your local pharmacy. Unfortunately, I've not been able to find Berocca in Malaysia. If anyone knows otherwise, please, please, please let me know ASAP.

The closest place I know of that you can buy this is in Singapore. I was first introduced to it in the UK some years back. Now, what makes Berocca better than just plain old Vit C is that for your body to absorb Vitamin C effectively, you also need a certain amount of B-Complex. The Vit C / B-Complex combo essentially strengthens your body's resistance, enabling you to fight off those nasty viruses better.

I've been self-medicating myself for almost a decade now, and try to avoid synthetic meds (particularly anti-biotics), unless it's to tackle the symptomatic stuff that makes life a little miserable (like fever, or runny nose). Your body heals itself, not the meds - this is what I believe. Some doctors will agree with you, some don't. Somehow, I think there's a conspiracy between the medical world and the pharmaceutical comapanies, especially when the Health Ministry talks about adopting bans on certain high-potency vitamins.

A little bit of education, like knowing which vitamins are water-soluble and which ones are fat-soluble, and knowing which vitamin helps with what, goes a long way towards leading a healthier lifestyle, without having to live with the crutch of pharmaceuticals to regulate your health. I especially do not like anti-biotics because in most cases, they don't help (like against viruses), but more importantly, prolonged use actually weakens your natural ability to fight infections.

For example, Vitamin C and B-Vitamins are water-soluble, so there's no danger of overdosing, other than having a tad bit of diarrhoea once your body is saturated (in the case of Vit C). Your body just gets rid of the excess. On the other hand, A, D and E are fat-soluble, and therefore retained by your body, and could become toxic if too much is taken.

The move of totally banning high-potency vitamins is really stupid. The UK and Europe, I believe, are trying to do this. Not sure about Malaysia.

I should be back to 105% in a day or so. However, if it does get worse despite the home remedies, then I might go see a doctor, just to make sure it isn't something really nasty like H15N. I may believe in home remedies, but I'm also not stupid...