Geraniums for the common cold

Argh, it's starting already, the steady stream of the walking wounded with their steady stream of respiratory secretions. All of them sharing a small exam room with me, one after the other, and looking for relief for their common colds.

I want to shout to the waiting room, go home, rest, drink fluids, don't cough on me. I understand, however, that no one's got time to be sick, and they wouldn't be in my waiting room if they didn't feel awful. So I was interested to read in last month's Health magazine (it comes free with my morning paper subscription) that a South African geranium used early on in the course of a cold may shorten the illness by two days.

There's a host of studies supporting the efficacy of extract of Pelargonium sidiodes (EPs or essence of geranium). Doctors at the National Medical University in Kiev invited 206 cold victims down to the lab (but I'll bet they passed up the opportunity to get up close and personal in an exam room with these people). All the patients were assessed for their Cold Inventory Score (CIS)* intially and after treatment with EPs or some murky liquid placebo.

Darned if those dosed with the real botanical deal didn't blossom forth to health at double the rate of the control group by day five. And ten days into the illness, the experimental group was more than twice as likely to zero out on their CIS score compared to their phyto-free colleagues.

So who wants to try Umcka ColdCare? You can get it in Denver at Sunflower Market or Vitamin Cottage, or find a store near you online at Nature's Way and hook me up with your testimonial.
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*The CIS is a fancy way to prove the obvious, namely that the person in front of you coughing, sneezing, and wiping a Rudolph Red nose has a cold. The researchers asked "Do you have nasal drainage, sore throat, nasal congestion, sneezing, scratchy throat, hoarseness, cough, headache, muscle aches, and fever?" They then computed the sum of symptom intensity differences (SSID) of the cold intensity score (CIS) from day one to day five. Don't ever think that there's no scientific method behind phytomedicinal research!