By TRACY DINGMANN Journal Staff Writer
It’s mid-January, and everywhere you look, family, friends and co- workers are falling victim to the flu or common cold. Then there are those who swear they’ve stayed healthy by using over-the-counter cold-prevention medicines such as Airborne, Zicam, Cold-Eeze and Emer’gen-C. True believers say the products, which contain various formulations of Vitamin C, zinc, echinacea and other herbs and vitamins, actually prevent colds and flu. Many of them contain natural ingredients, running counter to Western medicine. Each week, consumers spend millions of dollars buying them.
But do they really work?
We tried asking Albuquerque doctors that question this past week, but they weren’t exactly champing at the bit to answer. In fact, public relations people at the University of New Mexico and Presbyterian Healthcare couldn’t find any doctors who wanted to take it on.
But one brave Lovelace Sandia Health System doctor — Dr. Allen Adolphe, chairman of internal medicine at Lovelace Medical Center — did step up to the plate to give his opinion.
Simply put, he doesn’t believe over-the-counter medicines that claim to prevent colds and flu work.
“My personal opinion is no, but I’ll add a caveat to that,” he said. “I don’t think they work because haven’t seen any clinical data one way or the other. Let me put it way: If any one of them really worked, it would be in the medical literature and there would be clinical trials that we would all be reading about.”
‘The placebo response’
Adolphe conceded that people who believe cold prevention medicines work may actually get them to work.
“There is something called the placebo response, and it can have a significant effect of some 25 to 30 percent. So if you take something and think it is going to make a difference, then it may make a difference.”
Intel engineer Sabrina Aragon said her husband recently persuaded her to try Zicam nasal spray to ward off a cold. Now she is one of those fervent believers that Adolphe talks about.
“I felt like I was getting sick on Thursday, and it got even worse on Friday. I kept using Zicam and on Saturday it was totally gone,” said Aragon. “My husband had used it before and swears by it. And it actually works! I’ve heard good things about Airborne, too.”
Aragon said she doesn’t care if doctors say cold prevention medicines aren’t medically proven.
“Even if doctors say they don’t work, that would not matter to me. It felt like night and day.”
While there are no definitive clinical studies, there is anecdotal evidence that natural remedies such as zinc and vitamin C can affect colds and flu, said Adolphe.
That’s why school nurse Annette Underhill thinks using cold prevention medicines such as Airborne and Zicam can’t hurt.
“I think they are somewhat helpful as far as prevention, because we know vitamin C helps in warding off colds and helps you sometimes recover more quickly,” said Underhill, who works at Governor Bent Elementary. “I myself take Emer’gen-C. every day, or try to. The more you do to boost your immune system, the better.”
Underhill has been taking Emer’gen-C for about two weeks and has stayed well so far in the face of dozens of sneezing and coughing students.
At any rate, Adolphe said he doesn’t go around discouraging people from using preventive cold preparations.
“I wouldn’t tell anyone who is feeling ill not to try (them), because (they) may help. But there are no clinical studies that would make me recommend (them).”
The magic bullet?
A few years ago an antiviral drug called preconaril was found to reduce the course of colds by 48 hours or so, said Adolphe. It was presented to an FDA advisory panel but was not approved.
“The advisory panel for the FDA didn’t think (reducing a cold by two days) was clinically significant enough to market,” said Adolphe. “That’s the only drug that I know of that can actually reduce the symptoms of a cold, and you cannot get it; it has not been approved.”
But there is a magic bullet for one kind of flu, said Adolphe. A prescription antiviral medicine called amantadine will work on Type A flu if caught in time. People who feel severe muscle aches and other signs of the flu must call their doctor immediately and start on it right away for it to shorten the duration of their illness.
In the end, Adolphe said his advice for people suffering from a common cold is the same doctors have used for years.
“If a patient calls me and says, ‘Dr. Adolphe, I have the following symptoms: a low grade fever, sniffles and a cough; what can I do?’ I would recommend the same things my grandmother told me: Drink lots of fluids, rest and use antihistamines for symptomatic relief.”
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