Managing the common cold

^{I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. Consult your doctor before beginning any new treatment.}

Long story short: when I feel a cold coming on, I do two rituals.

1. Twice-daily sinus rinse with saline spray. (e.g. Arm & Hammer Simply Saline)
2. Once-daily zinc drink. (e.g. Emergen-C Immune+ packets, not to be confused with Emergen-C Vitamin C/Daily Immune Support)

Neither of these is supported by scientific evidence. They may be placebos. Since they’re cheap, harmless placebos and they seem to work, I don’t care.

Background

In 2022 I wrote a whiny blog post about how often I catch colds. I never published it, but here’s an excerpt:

I hate colds. Some of it’s physical, some of it’s emotional. I got colds all the time when I was a kid. The head-cold restrictions at my house were miserable: no sugar, no friends, no Tylenol or decongestants or meds of any kind, no doctors, no sympathy, no reprieve from the chore chart. For me the routine was very familiar: first a sore throat, often very raw and excruciating. Then a runny nose that required constant attention. Finally, a wet cough that persisted for several days. I’d feel better for a couple weeks, a month if I was lucky, and then repeat the whole process again.

The greatest increases in my quality of life have been as follows:

1. When I graduated from college. Much less time around strangers and therefore fewer colds.
2. When I started working from home. No more open floor plan, less time around coworkers, and fewer colds.
3. The COVID-19 pandemic. The only good thing about the pandemic was that I didn’t catch cold for a year. The masks, Zoom meetings, and public gathering restrictions kept me happy and healthy in a way I’d never been.

[…]

Quick poll: if you knew you were going to catch cold next week but you could pay to prevent it, how much would you be willing to pay? 25 dollars? A hundred? A thousand? I think I’m comfortably in the hundred-dollar range, offhand.

I know there are worse things than the common cold. I’ve been through several of them. But the constant, lifelong, on-and-off colds wore me down in a big way and I’d reached the point where I was willing to try anything.

Development of my rituals

I’ve read several studies about cold remedies over the years, and typically they find little to no benefit versus placebo. Zinc is one of the more promising ones, though about half of studies find no significant benefit.

When zinc is administered as a dissolving lozenge, the results tend to be a little better than when it’s administered as a pill. Therefore, it seemed to me like the most effective (if still, officially, ineffective) treatment would be something that gets zinc all over the inside of your mouth and throat. On that logic, I bought some Emergen-C packets. Each packet contains 10 milligrams of zinc and dissolves completely in water. Whenever I felt a cold coming on, as well as any time I’d been around a lot of people, I started having a glass of Emergen-C and swishing it like mouthwash while drinking. Anecdotally—do not repeat this as though it’s science—a lot of colds never materialized and I had far more cold-free days.

^{Emergen-C hasn’t paid me, sent any free or discounted product, or communicated with me at all.}

I still do this without hesitation. There’s nothing in Emergen-C that’s likely to hurt me, and the Costco box doesn’t cost too much.

More recently, I’ve added a second ritual: a saline rinse. I haven’t read any studies on this one for the common cold (though it may be helpful for COVID-19), but my reasoning is that a lot of colds take hold in the sinuses: you get a runny nose because your body’s trying to flush them out, you get a sore throat from post-nasal drip, you get a headache from sinus pressure, etc. So any time I feel a cold coming on or have been around a crowd, I irrigate the damn things. I grab my saline spray, tilt my head back, spray a bunch in each nostril, let it wash through to the back of my throat, and blow my nose. It’s a little gross, but I tell you what, it’s not as gross as a cold.

I like to do these rituals in a specific order: first the sinus rinse, then the zinc drink. I won’t embarrass myself by describing the fantasy logic behind this, but you can imagine.

Does the sinus rinse help? I think so. It seems to further reduce the likelihood of a cold materializing, and when it does materialize, the symptoms are less annoying. So I’ve stuck with it.

Secondary practices

These things probably also help:

• As mentioned before, I graduated from college and work from home. I also don’t go to church anymore, so I’m rarely around large groups of people, which helps me avoid “the bug going around.” My kids are in school, so I get some secondary exposure, but it’s still better than when I was in an office or classroom every day and church every weekend.
• Graduating from college has also reduced my stress levels by a factor of a thousand, which has likely helped my immunity.
• I’m diligent about washing my hands after I’ve been around other people, especially if any of them were visibly sick.
• I’ve taken up biking. It’s pretty well-established that exercise helps you get sick less.
• Sleep is important to me. When I feel especially tired I try to go to bed early. If I’m still awake at midnight I take a Benadryl or Hydroxyzine.
• I try to eat a vegetable every day. Pretty low bar, I know, but it’s achievable and moves the needle.

Some of you are going to say, “It’s not about the pseudoscience packets, Isaac, the real story is right here.” You may be right. I’m still gonna drink my packets.

Results

I don’t have data to back this up, but I genuinely think I catch fewer colds, and the ones I do catch are less severe. I no longer feel like I’m living in the gaps between colds, like I’m arranging my life around them. (In a way my rituals are a form of that, but it’s a good tradeoff.)

Do I think I’ve cured the common cold? Not at all. I still catch stuff now and then. I still take sick days and stay in bed with Tylenol and Cepacol and a box of tissues. I’m mortal, and not particularly impressive as mortals go. But I’m doing better.

What works for me may not work for you. Maybe I’ve just got a zinc deficiency or something. *Shrug.* Whatever it is, I’m sticking with it.