1000 word excerpt


A-A-A-A.
Stand back, the elephant is going to sneeze.

Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!
Sneezes resound. Threes the charm.
Your nose is let loose and running.
You feel a trunk full of phlegm (exudate of virus and secretions) draining from your nose and sinuses.

Has your marathon of a cold begun?
Will you endure the whole distance?
Or do you choose a speedy sprint,
Crossing the finish line
Before your co-sufferers realize you are in the race?

The choice is up to you.
If you pick the latter, this book tells you how.
It suggests positive things you can do which will cause no harm to your body.


You feel a trickle inside your nose. It runs. You catch it in a tissue. You are wiping, sneezing or blowing your way through the day. The next day you are stopped up with difficulty breathing. How many times has it happened in your life? Too numerous to count? You can do something multiple somethings about it!

This book tells you the what, why, how, when, and where of your common cold. Most importantly, it tells you the how of doing something about it. It is common sense for the common cold. Medical science has no cure for the common cold. Only your body really knows all of its own, miraculous interactions that eventually effect a cure. In one way, this book could be considered a cure for the common cold: it helps you to help your body to do that real curing.

Everyone who lives gets exposed to common colds. They challenge life repeatedly. Over 200 viruses cause colds. Your body deals with these viruses all throughout your life. You could have one cold every three months for over 50 years of your life before you would become immune to most of the viruses known to cause the common cold.

Most colds do not need a doctor. They are self-limited (your own body takes care of them) and benign (produce no lasting undesirable effects or death). The symptoms of a common cold are really your body trying to bring you back to your normal state of equilibrium or wellness. Therefore, you use measures that are easy on your body and do not cause it harm in its efforts to bring you back to wellness. As your body handles each challenge, help it rather than hinder or thwart it in doing its job for you. The lasting effects colds produce if your body is allowed to do its fantastic workings are all good. They bolster your immune (infection handling) system with its immensity of interacting aspects.

The methods involve the use of no medications. In a section on remedies, the various cures which are touted for the common cold are discussed and why you should avoid them. With the alarming statistics on problems, illnesses and deaths from medications and hospitalizations, simple, innocuous alternatives are a must. With all the antibiotic and antiviral resistance developing now, this book with simple measures precluding use of them is a most valuable treatise on what other measures can be of help to get you through the challenge of the common cold. Bacteria do not cause colds; only viruses cause them. With the flood of herbal remedies getting on the bandwagon and their many problems coming to light, simple, non-harmful methods are a better option.

A preventive section of the book takes the solutions a step further in helping your body maintain equilibrium or wellness when confronted with these very common challenges. The suggestions help you stay free of the next cold. This is a must read and do book for any of you who want to keep colds to a minimal impact on your life or to avoid many of them.


During my early years at the University of Chicago, I became fascinated with the workings of all living things. After a very broad college education, my studies encompassed those for a B.S. degree in physiology (study of the workings of the body). Medical school at the University of Chicago School of Medicine followed. Over the years of my training in all aspects of medicine, special surgical and pediatric training, general pediatric practice, developmental and behavioral pediatric subspecialty teaching and practice, and assistant professorship and associate directorship of the High Risk Nursery Follow-up Clinic at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, I have watched the scientific knowledge of the human body increase exponentially. As some of this knowledge has been totally reversed to its opposite extreme, I have been more and more convinced that medical science will never know all the intricate workings of the human body. The discoveries over the years are helpful for some specific medical problems, but this knowledge is so changeable. I have come to believe that the human body itself with all of its intricate, intertwining workings has the only true knowledge of itself. Therefore, we should not thwart its workings. Let us rather strive to help it do its job of keeping us in a state of equilibrium or wellness.

I strongly believe in the patient and doctor working together. We can do this through this book. You have the knowledge of your physical, mental, social, cultural, spiritual and psychological factors, all of which are important in your illness. Within these pages you will find medical knowledge of human and dis-ease. Combining our two funds of knowledge, you come up with the best possible way of handling the challenge.

However, the most important actor on this stage of life is your body itself. It knows all. Its capability seems to be unlimited. In a word, it is fantastic! Learn what you can about it to hopefully do the best you can in helping it do all of its mostly unknown, intricate, intertwined functions to keep you in or return you to your homeostatic state: an equilibrium of good health in all aspects of your life.