I’d like to share a story with you, if you don’t mind. It’s the tail end of cold season here in my state, and anyone who happens to catch the cold virus going around ends up miserable for a week to 10 days with the typical runny nose, headache, etc. I have one patient who comes to me and asks me what he can take as his symptoms are making him feel awful. It’s viral, no prescribed meds other than over the counter to help his symptoms, I tell him this and away he goes. Probably off to the drugstore for some popular cold medicine to ease the symptoms. The next morning, his wife is in front of me. Same diagnosis and same treatment recommended. Except she heads to the health food store instead. She stocks up on zinc lozenges and echinacea tea and elderberry syrup. I run into both of them a week later at the grocery store (it’s a small town) and pleased they’re both doing so much better! The husband said his cold was terrible at first but he was able to work as normal-as long as he took the over the counter cold medicine as the box instructed his symptoms were mild. He praised the cold medicine NyQuil to the heavens! Stated he would never be caught without it again during cold season. His wife? She was miserable for 4 days and then the herbal remedies she bought finally kicked in! I smiled as she told me she’d keep the secret of just how well that elderberry syrup and those zinc lozenges worked— she didn’t want me losing any patients.
I was very happy knowing both of them recovered completely and went about my shopping.
The truth? The truth is that they both had the same virus and their bodies handled it. No medicine or alternative therapies healed them- that was their immune systems. It wasn’t the miracle of NyQuil that made the husband better, although the acetaminophen in the medicine certainly helped his headaches and the decongestant helped his nose. He didn’t suffer much at all. And the Wife’s lozenges, tea, and syrup? While all of them have unverified claims to help heal colds, the truth is that the Wife’s cold ran its course too ~although she suffered her symptoms far longer than the husband. But she felt so much better that she was treating her cold “naturally”. She was just fine having miserable symptoms for those 4 days while waiting on her natural cure.
The bottom line? The wife made the same statement you just made. She knows the herbal treatments she took work! She’s living proof. She witnessed what they did for her. And they’re her go to cold season virus weapons from here on out! Now, could I have been a party pooper and burst her bubble, telling her that not only did those therapies not shorten the duration of her cold but also inform her that she chose to suffer for 4 days because she wouldn’t take some Tylenol or cold medicine? I could have, but why? She was very happy with her “natural” cures. It pains me to know she spent almost $60 on items from the health food store and yet still had miserable symptoms for 4 days until her immune system rose above the virus, but she certainly didn’t see things that way. And a bit of sugary elderberry syrup never hurt anyone not diabetic, so I smiled at her and gave her my blessing.