‘Tis the cold and flu season. I know this is true because I fly back and forth to my home in Palm Beach Gardens every week, and this time of year, I just pray that I won’t be sitting next to someone sneezing up a storm between takeoff and touchdown.

Every now and then on a flight, I’ll see a passenger drop a dollar-sized tablet into a plastic cup of water and watch it fizz. It’s not Alka-Seltzer—although I wouldn’t blame some people for taking an antacid after eating an oxymoronic “airline meal”—but a tablet of Airborne.

What is Airborne? If you don’t know, then you’re behind the cultural curve. In the fall of 2004, Oprah Winfrey invited a second grade schoolteacher, Victoria Knight-McDowell, to tell the world about this “wonder remedy” she developed after she got fed up with catching colds from her cherubic students. She informed Oprah that for several years she experimented with various vitamins and herbal substances until she discovered a blend of seven herbs that flood the body with amino acids, antioxidants, and electrolytes. (The ingredients on the label are vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, magnesium, zinc, selenium, manganese, and potassium organic herbal extracts: lonicera, forsythia, schizonepeta, ginger, Chinese vitex, isatis root, and echinacea, along with the amino acids glutamine and lysine.)

When Oprah told her audience that she was an Airborne believer and had stocked up on all five flavors, the mega-influential talk show host created a nationwide stampede into Walgreens and Long’s Drugs.

Airborne was no longer Victoria’s secret.

Okay a horrible pun, but since then Airborne has enjoyed a cult-like status among the true believers who can’t fathom the thought of boarding a passenger jet without bringing a $7 tube of Airborne onboard. As soon as the drink cart passes by, they’re plopping an effervescent tablet of Airborne into a glass of water.

I have friends who swear by Airborne, but when I feel a cold or flu comes charging my way, I go into a defensive mode and take more supplements to give my body the extra defenders it needs to prevent a cold or flu from scoring. Vitamin C happens to be just one of those supplements, but I also think echinacea, zinc, elderberry, wild oregano, hyssop, and goldenseal are worthwhile “defenders” against a cold and flu offensive.

At the first sign of a sniffle, Americans are increasingly looking for a supplement that can help them instead of purchasing an over-the-counter drugs for a cold or flu. They are wary of the side effects—such as drowsiness—often associated with these over-the-counter drugs, which are heavily advertised, relatively inexpensive, and endorsed by lab-coated health professionals on TV and in print ads. These OTC drugs contain analgesics such as acetaminophen, aspirin, and ibuprofen, antihistamines, and nasal decongestants, which is why millions are looking for a more natural, homeopathic approach. In 2006, sales of homeopathic immune boosters grew by 13 percent, according to the Nutrition Business Journal, and sales of cold and flu supplements grew by 8 percent in 2006 as compared to 2 percent for traditional OTC brands like Benadryl or NyQuil.

 Let’s take a closer look at some of the cold and flu supplements find more favor these days:

Echinacea: It’s better to take this herb from the purple coneflower in the early stages of a cold or flu because it is not an antibiotic, meaning that it doesn’t kill germs. Also, echinacea stimulates the production of white blood cells, which can speed to the area of infection and do battle with germy invaders. Science is suggesting that echinacea—when taken early in a cold—may be one of the more promising cold remedies on the market. A recent analysis in the Lancet Infectious Disease Journal showed that echinacea shorted colds by an average of 1.4 days and reduced the odds of getting a cold by 58 percent.

Zinc: I grew up sucking on zinc lozenges whenever cold symptoms paid a visit. The lozenges release zinc ions into the mouth where they go directly to the infected nasal tissues. Zinc is a crucial nutrient for optimal immune system function. According to research findings reported in Annals of Internal Medicine, zinc lozenges shortened cold duration significantly, and Michael Macknin, Ph.D. and co-worker at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, reported that colds lasted only 4.4 days compared with 7.6 days in the placebo group.

The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine reports that not all zinc lozenges are effective, probably due to different formulations. The best zinc lozenges to use contain the amino acid glycine as a sweetener instead of agents like sorbitol and mannitol. If you feel a cold coming on, you may find that dissolving a zinc lozenge in your mouth every couple of hours to be an effective remedy, but zinc’s bitter taste and tendency to irritate the mouth can be a problem for some.

Elderberry: This herb from a fragrant, flowering tree contains antioxidant flavonoids that stabilize cells walls against foreign intruders like flu and cold viruses. Teas made from elderberry fruits or flowers have been a folklore treatment for colds and flu for centuries. Researchers believe that elderberry has an ability to stop flu viruses from replicating, which is the end of the ballgame since flu viruses must reproduce or they cannot infect the body. A study conducted in 2003 showed that elderberry reduced symptoms and shortened the duration of flu in fifty-four participants between the ages of eighteen and fifty-four. On average, these flu patients recovered in 3.1 days, compared to 7.1 days for those given a placebo.

Elderberry is available in powders, capsules, and liquid fruit extract. Taking a liquid extract or tablet preparation is the way most people prefer to use elderberry against a respiratory infection.

Goldenseal: This herb, which grows as a wild plant in moist, mountainous areas of North America, can help relieve the inflammation of mucous membranes and stop cold and flu viruses from multiplying. Goldenseal is said to work well with echinacea, so you might want to consider taking a combination herbal supplement containing goldenseal and echinacea. The book Prescription for Nutritional Healing cautions against taking goldenseal on a daily basis for more than a week or using it all if you are pregnant or nursing.

Vitamin C: Last, but not least, Americans spend more money on vitamin C, roughly $300 million a year, than on any other immune-boosting supplement. A lot of people have heard that they should “mega-dose” on vitamin C when they feel a cold coming on. That’s because of  a revolutionary book, Vitamin C and the Common Cold, written by Linus Pauling, Ph.D., that was released back in the mid-1970s, when I was born. Dr. Pauling postulated that taking 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C daily would reduce the incidence of colds by 45 percent for most people. A thousand milligrams (or 1 gram) happened to be a massive amount of vitamin C because the recommended daily allowance (RDA) is 60 mg.

My father, Herb Rubin, a chiropractor and naturopathic doctor, tells me that back in the 1970s cold and flu sufferers were gulping vitamin C tablets like kids reaching for a bowl of M&M’s. Vitamin C, chemically known as ascorbic acid and found naturally in citrus fruits and juices, strawberries, cantaloupes, broccoli, and red and green peppers, was suddenly a hot commodity. After the mainstream media—New York Times, Newsweek, Reader’s Digest—jumped on the bandwagon and spread the gospel of vitamin C megatherapy, the idea of downing a handful of vitamin C tablets to stave off a cold became conventional wisdom for the Baby Boomer crowd.

Dr. Pauling must have made quite an impression on my parent’s generation because I run into a lot of people who tell me that vitamin C is their go-to supplement at the first sign of a sniffle. So, was Dr. Pauling correct? Is vitamin C a modern-day cure for the common cold? After all, it’s been more than 35 years since the so-called “Father of Vitamin C” issued his manifesto, plenty of time for medical researchers to pick up vitamin C by its ankles and give it a good shake or two.

The answer depends on who you listen to. Alternative medicine practitioners say that there are “numerous studies” showing that people who take large doses of vitamin C report reductions in the incidence, severity, and duration of colds, but traditional medicine remains unconvinced. The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine summed up this dichotomy, saying, “Since 1970, there have been over twenty double-blind studies designed to test Pauling’s assertion. Yet despite the fact that in every study the group that received vitamin C had a decrease either in duration or in severity of symptoms, for some reason the clinical effect is still debated in the medical community.”
The Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine has that right. The general feeling I get from reading traditional medicine’s take is that vitamin C in massive amounts does not prevent colds and at best may slightly reduce the symptoms of a cold, probably as a result an antihistamine-like effect. Even the Linus Pauling Institute, established on the Oregon State University campus in 1991, feels the same way. (Dr. Pauling died in 1994 after a hale and hearty ninety-three years on Earth.) Here’s what the official Linus Pauling Institute website says about vitamin C and colds:

The work of Linus Pauling stimulated public interest in the use of large doses (greater than 1 gram/day) of vitamin C to prevent infection with the viruses responsible for the common cold. Reviews of the research conducted on this issue over the past twenty years conclude that, in general, large doses of vitamin C do not have a significant effect on the incidence of the common cold. However, a few studies have indicated that certain susceptible groups (e.g., individuals with low dietary intake and marathoners) may be less susceptible to the common cold when taking supplemental vitamin C. Additionally, large doses of vitamin C have been found to decrease the duration and severity of colds, an effect that may be related to the antihistamine effects found to occur with large doses (2 grams) of vitamin C.

Here’s where I come down on taking vitamin C and other supplements for cold and flu symptoms, and I’ll express myself through the use of a football metaphor. Pretend that the Cold Warriors have the football and your team is playing defense. The Cold Warriors—those agents trying to score on your body—are constantly attacking, constantly probing your immune system. Most of the time you’re able to stop them. On this offensive set of downs, the Cold Warriors are in a third-down-and-long situation, so your team adds an extra pass defender to guard against the long completion.
That’s the same idea when it comes to using supplements. When a cold or flu comes charging my way, I go into a defensive mode and take more supplements to give my body the extra defenders it needs to prevent a cold or flu from scoring.

I also try to eat a bowl of homemade chicken soup, which I feel has tremendous health benefits, especially when you think you’re coming down with something. I’ll have more to say about chicken soup in my posting tomorrow.