Cure for the common cold

Just wanted to post and say that I have totally BLOWN a cold out of my system by following some advice that Michelle posted a year or so ago. Here it is again:


“Two tablespoons of baking soda in warm water morning and evening for three days. Your cold will be GONE.


Sound weird? Well, it works because it shifts the pH of your body slightly. Most viruses are extremely pH specific and when you alter your body chemistry a bit they can’t survive… which is one of the theories of why OJ works when you are sick.”


I can say that it worked wonders in my case, and I didn’t even have to take the Baking Soda for three days; one evening dose was enough to have me feeling about 80% better the next morning, and two subsequent doses have me completely cured. I also derived great enjoyment from picturing the viruses in my body gasping for “air” in what for a human would have suddenly been the equivalent of trying to breathe in an atmosphere of pure sulphur or something. Very satisfying.


So for anyone who’s feeling a bit under the weather with a cold, give this remedy a shot. It works.


(See what you can find with the Search engine? The Forum knows all, sees all, is the repository of all knowledge…)

blank stare “Yesss, the Forum, knows all…the forum…”

kidding.

Actually, thanks for posting this, char. I'll definitely remember this the next time I feel "the sniffles" coming about.

I felt the flu coming on last week. I always eat healthy and had been eating more organic oranges lately. Even though I felt tired and sore all over, I just kept eating as usual and upped my supply of organic oranges. I trained hard even though it felt much harder. And I never once got more sick. Other than a headache, soreness and lethargy, I never got a sore throat or typical flu symptoms. I managed to fight it off, and after getting some good rest this weekend, I feel good again! So I credit it to healthy eating, extra vitamin C, some extra rest and continuing to train.

Char, you have perfect timing dude. I’ve been stuck indoors since Friday with one of the worst doses I’ve ever had. I’m dying to get back to the gym. I’m going out right now to get some baking soda. I’ve already been scoffing down multivit, c, e, glutamine, zinc, fish oils, and basically everthing else in my medecine cupboard. Thanks!

haha, i still live at home. We are a Russian family, and all those ‘wives’ tales, home remedies, etc are always used around here when someone gets sick. I was sick yesterday…stuffy nose, sore throat, etc. So I ate a whole lemon and poured couple drops of onion juice down my nose. haha, yo it works like a charm. I’m barely sick today. The onion juice stung like a bitch, but it took the cold away.

AND, if you ask a foolish question, the Forum can be the forcible suppository of information as well.

Guy, guys, guys (and ladies)…you’re all so knowledgeable about some things and so gullible and easily convinced without proof of other things.

An amazing dichotomy. :wink:

Perhaps the reason that we are so knowledgable about some things, is that we are open minded enough to experiment and judge for ourselves. Not only draw from our own self righteous knowledge base.

Char - Glad I was able to help!!!

A good friend of mine has another remedy - he does yoga, and there is something called a lion pose, where you open up all the passages in your head and all the crap drains out and goes to your stomach. He says it makes him throw up sometimes. I've yet to master this one (it always triggers my gag reflex) but I've known him for 5 years and he has never been sick.

Doc T - hey, if it works, it works. You can nay say all you want, but my grandfather told me about that remedy. He has used it to stop colds since he was a child - and he is over 90 now. My mom is a nurse, and she was the one who told me the theory on how it works, but it still works. When I get a cold, I'm ususally sick for 7 - 10 days. When I do the baking soda thing, it's 3 days tops. Just because the remedy does not involve a drug doesn't mean it doesn't work... and as far as I know, no medicine can kill a virus - so who's to say that this doesn't???

Kahuna - did you try it? How are you feeling?

Dude, viruse dont breathe. they're even lower than bacteria. they dont breathe, they dont feel, they dont think, they dont hear. they're as big as a couple microns, u really think they have any conscience as to even being alive?
 just a curious note, arent colds caused by bacteria? FLUS are caused by viruses, colds im pretty sure are caused by baceria. besides if u 3 days to get rid of a cold is nothing extraordiinary.

I tried it, but only 4 hours ago. I’m going to bed now (It’s 1am in europe) and I’ll take another dose. I was already feeling a lot better today, so we’ll see tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted.

All I can say to anyone who thinks that this doesn’t work is: give a shot and see for yourself. If you have too much in the way of book knowledge to allow yourself to try it, hey, fine by me. Stay sick. What I know is that I usually get a cold like this once a winter, and it usually lasts for about a week. This time I felt better within about two hours of taking the baking soda, and the next morning I felt really good. Not 100%, but certainly MUCH better than I have historically under the same conditions without the baking soda.


Also, one of my students came in with a cold (sniffling, coughing, sneezing) at 3:00. We did the lesson - with difficulty - and I told her about the remedy. She took some baking soda and by the time we had our end-of-the-year school party that evening the symptoms, so far as I could see, were gone. So that’s another case.


To diesel: Dude, it was just an image. [Laughing] For pete’s sake!


And no, colds are caused by viruses. If they were caused by bacteria, you could probably get some sort of antibiotic to deal with the problem. But you can’t.

Well, I felt great this morning but forgot to take a dose. Then I went to the gym and did a dynamic push press workout, EDT chins and accessories, and now I feel like shit again. I’m going to take another dose now. I think I went a little too hard at the gym considering I am still sick.

I agree with Doc T on this one. If these remedies worked, there would be someone on the Fortune 500 list to rival Bill Gates.
By the way, if you made your vascular spaces more basic to any appreciable degree, you would not be feeling better. There is an easy way to tell if you caused your bloodstream to become more basic. Char-Dawg were you hypoventilating? Your respiratory center would try to compensate by retaining PCO2. This would tend to drive the pH back to normal. My guess is that you weren’t hypoventilating. In fact, I’ll bet your immune system had “figured out the particular antigen present upon the virus.” In fact, the time frame is important. It usually takes upwards of 48 hours for the body to mount an effective, specific response.
However, there is another extrememly important factor at work here. It is the power of the placebo. This may seem like I am dismissing your suggestions. However, I am not. There have been many studies showing the power of this effect. It cannot be underestimated. So, if one could bottle the placebo effect, I suspect one would be nearly as rich as Bill Gates. Therefore, if you feel it works for you, it probably does. Stick with it if it makes you feel better. However, beyond the placebo effect, it is probably better for you to avoid trying to prove the efficacy of these remedies. Believe me, the data is lacking.

Data shmata.

And as for your fortune 500 list, who's gonna get rich marketing baking soda? It's just the same as the hundreds of dollars I have spent on different formulas to get rid of my dandruff. What cures it? Apple cider vinegar at a buck a litre. Now who's going to get rich marketing that? Look at all the mouthwashes and throat gargles that they are pushing. What works the best? Warm salt water.Another nightmare for Listerine's advertising company.

Stop trying to justify or nullify results with data. If it works, use it. I'm still not convinced, but I'll keep trying. When doctors and scientists understand every facet and function of the human body and everything that it interacts with, then I'll rely on thoeries and data alone.

just drink vodka and you’re cold will go away. There is one side effect, this will only cause your cold to go away for about a day. But, if you stick with it, and drink for 7 days, your cold is gonna be gone before you even know what hit you.

Good points about the lack of data. But here’s what we DO know:


I tried it and (placebo effect or not), it worked.


My student tried it. There was NO placebo effect, as she really didn’t want to try it and didn’t think that it would work. (I basically talked her into it.) It worked anyway.


Michelle and members of her family have tried it, in some cases over many years. Placebo or not, it apparently works.


Kahuna took a shot one evening, woke up the next morning feeling great (just as I did), forgot to take the next dose and relapsed. It would say that a result like this indicates that the remedy has some effect (again, placebo or not).


Now, in the absence of people saying “Hey, I tried it and it DIDN’T work”, what are we to assume here? Seems to me that the case for is stronger than the case against, the lack of double-blind, control-group data notwithstanding. While the sample is admittedly small, there’s an easy way to expand it: the people on this site who feel like it could give the remedy a shot and post their results.


Finally, as far as marketing goes, what kahuna said is 100% correct. I suppose someone could repackage baking soda as “Doctor Yoda’s No-Cold Soda!” or some such and market it. He might even make some money for a while. But you can’t patent baking soda, and other companies would catch on soon enough.


Well, anyway. I’ve done my bit by posting. If people want to ignore what I’ve said here, they’re certainly welcome to do so. But as far as I’m concerned, baking soda now has a place in my “medicine” cabinet. And people who take the attitude of try-it-and-see just might be in for a pleasant surprise.


Happy Holidays!

Man, some people unnecessarily jump on me for simply having the word “Doc” in my name.

The reasons I don’t think it works are both medically based and based on common sense. The fact is that you don’t know if you’re getting a “cold” or some other short-lived virus until after it’s run its course. How do you KNOW you didn’t just have a virus that was going to run its course in 3 days anyway? That’s as deep as I’ll get into the medical side of it.

Practically speaking, I agree with the previous post about it being widely publicized if it were some miracle cure. Not by the medical establishment, of course, but at least by the national media who seems to clamp on to even the slightest hint of a cure for any number of diseases.

And guys, there’s no reason to question my open-mindedness just because I don’t agree with you. There’s being open-minded, and there’s thinking critically with experience and facts behind you.

I’m with Doc T on this one guys. Biochemically impossible to change your physiological pH with oral baking soda to any substantial degree. The body corrects fluctuations in its pH very rapidly.Your pH will ALWAYS be 7.35-7.45 unless something is extremely seriously wrong with you.

Blood flow to the sinus area just isn’t sufficient anyway to affect a pH change, even IF you could do it systemically. In all seriousness, we could test the theory out by attempting to raise the pH directly at the site of infection ( nasal cavity) via an intranasal preparation of sodium bicarbonate. Then we would know for sure if there is anything there. Any volunteers with colds???

DocT, I apologize if it seemed like I was jumping on your for your education level. Wasn’t my intent.


I have to admit, though, that being called “gullible” on this thread was a bit of a shock. I’d like to think that I’ve been posting long enough on this board and with a high enough quality of information that that particular adjective wouldn’t be applied to me. Maybe I was gullible for trying the remedy - but gullible for seeing what happened and posting the results? Can’t quite bring myself to agree with that.


To everyone who says that there’s no way this can work, I have only one question: Why have four people tried it and found relief?