Mitcz.com : Official blog of Rev. Mitcz, the demented devilish comedian from Hollywood, CA.

This post is mostly here so I can link my friends to a central source for something interesting I found (in my travels ’round the interwebz) to “cure” the so-called common cold. While I, personally, have done this, and can verify that it worked for me – I feel like I should drop a number of disclaimers and notes first.

• I am not a doctor
• I am not getting paid by anyone to tell you this shit
• I am not some anti-corporate conspiracy theorist shithead who’s going to tell you this information “is what THEY don’t want you to know, man!”
• I could give two shits if you take any of this seriously or not. Again, it makes ZERO difference to my income (see any ads on this site? nope)
• I have never, in 10 years of blogging, been a shill for the interests of any particular group or idea
• I’m only speaking from personal experience

QUICK BACKGROUND

All of that out of the way – let’s get to the heart of the matter. The “common cold” as it is often called is really just a generic ever-changing virus. The reason why there’s no over-the-counter cure is because it’s constantly mutating. It’s not life-threatening by any means, but it’s …. well, basically annoying. Ever OTC remedy you’ll find will say that it’s aim is to lessen the effects of the common cold. And, that’s great. I fuckin’ love NyQuil. I think it tastes great (I truly do, I wish there was a drink based on that shit), and it helps me sleep when I’m sick. The only thing I’ve found that actually does any good was Zicam. That is, until that whole class action lawsuit business. Still – I use it. Even the very item they say kills the sense tof smell. I still have that in my medicine cabinet, cause it worked pretty well for me and I can still smell.

THE CAUSE

Okay, so the only REAL way (as every doctor will tell you) to “cure” the common cold is to just let your body do its thing. And, what is that “thing” your body does? It heats up (this is why you get a fever), it drains fluids (in the form of a runny nose), and it ejects pieces of the virus stuck in your air passages (in the form of a cough). Viruses are simply cells that are not native to our body. Most viruses (this includes the “common cold”) can be heated internally and destroyed. It just takes a few days to really do it up right. Our bodies are pretty amazing like that.

THE CURE

The reason you’re reading this, I’m sure, is “okay, what is this fucking cure you speak of?”. To put it simply : get yourself a hair dryer, point it at your face, and breathe. To put it into instructional format….

1. Get yourself a hair dryer with an adjustable heat setting
2. Put it on “low” heat
3. Point it up at your nose
4. Keep the dryer’s temperature and proximity to your face at a level that you can FEEL heat going into your airway, but BEFORE it becomes anywhere near painful. It’s likely to be uncomfortable, but not by any means painful.
5. Breathe deep, slow breaths for between 5 and 10 minutes (I usually go for 10, doctors say “around 3 to 5″ minutes)
6. Blow your nose
7. Go to sleep

My personal experience was to do this on the first night of noticing I’m starting to get a cold. That weird scratchy feeling in your throat, the beginnings of your nose running and being “sniffly” – that’s when I do it. I take some NyQuil (or a sleeping pill, as I did a few months ago), and I follow the techniques I outlined above. I woke up the next morning feeling right as rain.

THE RESEARCH, PROOF, AND PROFESSIONALS

I first found out about this through a comment on one of my favorite sites of all time – Metafilter. Specifically ask.metafilter.com – a subdomain dedicated to users asking other users questions. One comment in particular is this one here that breaks down the basics of why it works. Another comment (from the same user) mentions it again in reference to allergies but this time – he links to an actual doctor’s recommendation about it. I have since Googled around and found other links…

• This eHow article
• This entire thread of Ask MeFi that is replete with other people extolling the virtues of “the trick”
• All the times the hair dryer trick was mentioned on Ask MeFi
• An entire Google search about it, which brings to light a few other times it might work

Take it or leave it – I’m just putting it here cause it worked for me and it might work for you. That’s why I wrote this entry.

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