My feeling is that if the podcast is accurate, and you’re taking them correctly, the effect should be really pronounced. (For me, the uncertainty is “did I have a cold at all?”, except for the first time when I took them too late.)
If you’re taking them as recommended and have an effect size like “yeah, this seems to knock a couple of days off, I think”, then… while they still seem like good things to recommend, it feels like pretty strong evidence against the main thrust of the podcast. (With caveat that I’m not sure how much individual variance to expect.) E.g. I wouldn’t describe them as “these things cure colds” if that’s the typical experience.
My model is that viruses grow exponentially in your body, so it’s best to nip them in the bud as soon as possible. I’ve tried to become really good at noticing symptoms of a cold very early on, including subtle body sensations which aren’t listed as standard cold symptoms. Then I aggressively respond by: taking it easy, drinking lots of gatorade/water (especially in the middle of the night if I wake up briefly while sleeping), gargling warm salt water, sucking zinc lozenges, etc.
Before I did this, I would get sick and it would take me forever to recover. Since I started doing this, it feels like I’m usually able to nip it in the bud if I’m sufficiently proactive and keep doing this stuff for a bit even when it feels like the cold is probably gone.
It’s hard to separate the effects of different things, but intuitively, vitamin C/ordinary supplemental zinc don’t feel as helpful as theanine and ashwagandha, and gargling warm salt water seems to help right away. The zinc lozenges feel more helpful than any other supplement, but I wouldn’t say they are the most important tool in my arsenal either.
I bought some of these lozenges, and anecdotally, they seem to help me recover from colds faster also.
Are you able to be more specific?
My feeling is that if the podcast is accurate, and you’re taking them correctly, the effect should be really pronounced. (For me, the uncertainty is “did I have a cold at all?”, except for the first time when I took them too late.)
If you’re taking them as recommended and have an effect size like “yeah, this seems to knock a couple of days off, I think”, then… while they still seem like good things to recommend, it feels like pretty strong evidence against the main thrust of the podcast. (With caveat that I’m not sure how much individual variance to expect.) E.g. I wouldn’t describe them as “these things cure colds” if that’s the typical experience.
My model is that viruses grow exponentially in your body, so it’s best to nip them in the bud as soon as possible. I’ve tried to become really good at noticing symptoms of a cold very early on, including subtle body sensations which aren’t listed as standard cold symptoms. Then I aggressively respond by: taking it easy, drinking lots of gatorade/water (especially in the middle of the night if I wake up briefly while sleeping), gargling warm salt water, sucking zinc lozenges, etc.
Before I did this, I would get sick and it would take me forever to recover. Since I started doing this, it feels like I’m usually able to nip it in the bud if I’m sufficiently proactive and keep doing this stuff for a bit even when it feels like the cold is probably gone.
It’s hard to separate the effects of different things, but intuitively, vitamin C/ordinary supplemental zinc don’t feel as helpful as theanine and ashwagandha, and gargling warm salt water seems to help right away. The zinc lozenges feel more helpful than any other supplement, but I wouldn’t say they are the most important tool in my arsenal either.