My old boss, an amateur nutritionist, used to say this: up your Vitamin C intake to 1000 mg (more than that is just wasted because you flush it) and drink water until your pee runs clear. My doctor pooh-poohed the Vitamin C bit, and I agreed that he was probably right but said that I was going to take it anyway. He laughed and said, “Well, it isn’t going to hurt you.”
I am susceptible to colds and viruses, and they can be very dangerous for me. So I start babying them at the first sign, with measures like that, and balancing rest against keeping busy just as if nothing were wrong, and anything else that sounds plausible. It all may just be psychological, but two out of three times I am able to brazen out an oncoming cold this way. The third time, I can’t tun fast enough and the cold catches me, but I keep on with the babying tactics and take whatever seems to help—Sudafed, Thera-Flu, tea, echinacea, whatever—and usually get off lightly even when tougher souls around me are being brought down.