Yesterday I learned a new word - pre-cold.

According to an ad on TV, the first sneeze is not from a cold. It is from the pre-cold, which (amazingly) their product will, if not cure, at least alleviate to some extent.

Of course, that doesn't mean that the "real" cold won't cause you discomfort but it will be shorter since you don't have to suffer the full "pre-cold" process.

I was glad to learn the "pre-cold" has been found since no one has ever prepared me for it. I always assume that the first sneeze and all those thereafter are part of the main affliction. But not so. That first aspiration is just a snot-filled overture to the main mucous malady.

The question is, will they soon have a remedy for the "after-cold", which I assume must also await discovery as a pervasive illness. That, of course, would be the period between the "cold" and the next "pre-cold." There is bound to be an antidote soon since that's an awful lot of time where we aren't buying anti-cold treatments.

Viva Madison Avenue!

Have you not understood that when the druggies develop a medicine that doesn't work as planned they invent a malady for it to treat? It's Victor Borge's old business about inventing a cure for which there was no disease: http://thinkexist.com/quotatio...e-was-no/362856.html

I agree, Proof. It's a huge market, and in my opinion it's all for naught. It seems to attract the most highly educated.

I always take echinacea as the first signs of a cold. That, and a couple of pints or Real Ale, seem to stop the real cold from developing.

My dh (dear husband) recently fought off a virus at pre-cold stage, in anticipation of business travel (lots of vit-fort-orange juice, vitamins, & zinc pills)-- the trip went well, but he came down w/a 2ndary infection post-trip that cost him a couple of wks of illness!

p.s., RE, I'm w/you on the echinacea,tho I fortify w/Aquivit...which is standing me in good stead in the NJ blackout (the Aquivit, that is), & it's also helping w/stomach issues brought on by days of strange canned food..

I can only say that the research studies don't support using echinacea. However, it's like using a placebo. You think it will work, so you perceive the symptoms differently.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
I can only say that the research studies don't support using echinacea. However, it's like using a placebo. You think it will work, so you perceive the symptoms differently.

Maybe it's the Real Ale, then...

OR...maybe Real Ale is a placebo! That is, maybe really Budweiser is the excellent beer, but you think Real Ale should be (since it's more expensive, comes from England, etc.) so you perceive it to be better.

I do think that's true of some of the hugely expensive European clothes we get that are all the rage. The Italian shoes wear out in a few weeks, the Louis Vuitton bags are ugly and the Burberry plaid is downright childish.

quote:

maybe Real Ale is a placebo

How could Real Ale be a placebo? Everyone knows * that medicine must taste nasty if it's to do any good, so it must be that Budweiser is the most efficacious of all! It must also mean that RA isn't a medicine (placebo or not), I suppose.

* See here.

quote:

Originally posted by bethree5:
Aquivit...which is standing me in good stead

You can still stand after all that Aquavit?

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
OR...maybe Real Ale is a placebo! That is, maybe really Budweiser is the excellent beer, but you think Real Ale should be (since it's more expensive, comes from England, etc.) so you perceive it to be better.

I do think that's true of some of the hugely expensive European clothes we get that are all the rage. The Italian shoes wear out in a few weeks, the Louis Vuitton bags are ugly and the Burberry plaid is downright childish.

In the USA Dudweiser is a cheap beer - along with other chemical fizz such as Swiller and Curse. In the UK it is an expensive beer because AB/Inbev have, very cleverly, positioned it as a premium product - a wonderful exotic import from the US of A.

Ignorant drinkers fall for this hype (promotion is a very powerful part of the marketing mix - more important than price in many cases) and happily pay up to twice as much for a pint of chemical fizz as they would for a pint of beer. AB/Inbev keep very quiet about the fact that Dudweiser is actually manufactured (I won't grace it with the term "brewed") in London (England, that is, not Ontario). It is, of course, made from such rubbish ingredients as rice (instead of barley) just as it is in the USA.

UK craft beers are more expensive in the USA than mass-market chemical fizz for rather different reasons; they are imported and beer, being around 95% water, is a very expensive thing to ship across the world. And even US-brewed craft beers are expensive compared with US chemical fizz; it is difficult to get the economies of scale that the mega-brewers enjoy and, of course, US craft brewers use good ingredients which are more expensive than rice and the other adjuncts that the chemical fizz manufacturers use, so their cost base will be higher in any case.

I can't speak about clothes and shoes as I rarely ever buy them. My moste recent pair of shoes - bought when I was till living in Reigate, have started to crack on their uppers and so, after around 12 years, I will have to buy another pair. I buy quality; not prestige brands. If the two coincide, fine.

If I could justify it I would do as does Prince Philip and buy my shoes from Lobbs - but I doubt now I would live long enough to amortise the very high price (at least £2000) that they charge for pair of their hand-made to measure shoes. http://www.johnlobbltd.co.uk/main/main.htm

BTW, folks, I was just kidding about Real Ale being a placebo.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
BTW, folks, I was just kidding about Real Ale being a placebo.

Of course you were. Everyone knows that it has genuine medicinal properties.

Here is an article on the medicinal properties of beer. Here are some cardiac properties:

quote:

Here are some of the known mechanisms of effects of alcohol on risk of CHD:

·Alcohol increases serum level of HDL - the beneficial cholesterol.

·Alcohol decreases serum fibrinogen and increases serum TPA, thus thinning the blood.

·Alcohol decreases platelet adhesion making the blood less sticky.

·Low dose alcohol consumption protects the heart from future ischemia/reperfusion injury.

There are others, too!

A fascinating article. In fact, it proves that beer is even more beneficial to health than I had originally thought.

Just remember, it's for drinking beer in moderation.

Absolutely. Everything should be in moderation; excess is almost always bad, no matter what it might be.