No cure so you gotta rest. Nose is stuffed so you gotta mouth breathe. Throat is dry from mouth breathing. Dry throat makes it painful to swallow. Pain keeps you from sleeping and recovering. Lack of sleep leads to worse symptoms like piercing headaches. Need to rest to get rid of the headaches. Headache and swallowing is too painful to rest properly. Lack of rest perpetuates headaches, nose congestion, dry throat, painful swallowing.
What is this BS
https://doi.org/10.1592/phco.20.19.1417.34865
You might not like the advice, but it doesn’t make it quackry. You’re an adult, you can take any medicine you like. But the advice is sound, avoid treating symptoms as a first resort.
Interesting study, but the sample size of 54 is a bit too small, and usually strong medical research requires placebo controlled randomized trials. The ones that received medicine in this trial had to meet a specific criteria I.e. not randomized. Still interesting study to build off of nonetheless
Sorry, if you want to make a claim contrary to well established and generally accepted medical advice then you’ll need much better evidence.
The study you linked has a pathetically small scale of 120 individuals, is not randomised or placebo-controlled. Classic P-hacking. The result literally states that a better study is required.
This meta study, which includes the one you linked, concludes that there is no effect on the duration of an infection.
Your advice is anything but “sound”. The only sensible advice is to follow the advice of your health care professional, and we both know what that will be.
can you share an extract from the link that speaks to your point? im just not able to access the link
On a human level it should just make sense, don’t treat things that don’t need to be treated. If your fever is getting dangerously high, or if it’s preventing you from sleep and you got to work in the morning, use your medicine. But it shouldn’t be the first thing people go for. I have a mild headache I’m going to take some medicine, I have a slight fever I’m going to take some medicine, I have a sniffly nose I’m going to take some medicine. That’s not indicated.
They’re very few panaceas in this world, all medicines have trade-offs.
The quote suggests the study was suggestive of the conclusion but inadequate to reasonably confirm it.
Person 1: “don’t treat fevers, doing so prolongs the illness itself”
Person 2: “there’s no evidence of that, it’s quackery”
Person 1: “here’s a study that says there’s no evidence that it’s false, either.”
Person 2 was probably being somewhat rude, but also wasn’t wrong in the substance of the actual comment.
I’m of the camp that treating a fever makes me feel better, and it isn’t shown to prolong or worsen illness.
I feel you’ve missed a minimum of two very important points here. Person 1 actually shared a link showing that treatment of 'flu-induced fever prolonged the infection (rather than attempted to prove quackery, or failed to affirm the negative). Then it was argued that feeling better is not a helpful way of measuring effectiveness of treatment.
Pov You contract gangrene in the tropics, far from a hospital.
Your best chance of survival is still to bite on this wood while I cut off your leg. It’s not going to make you feel better, but you might just live.
Would you still prefer the analgesics?
Sure, one thing you will find in all paper is that further studies are warranted. I was just illustrating to our dear friend above that their quackery statement wasn’t being civil.
I’m sorry if you’re offended by being called a quack.
It’s a term often applied to those making bold medical claims without sufficient evidence.
Sadly, if you want to make a claim contrary to settled medical science generally accepted the world over and applied in literally billions of cases each year, a study you found on google with 120 volunteers is… insufficient.