The Uncommon Cold

Hola! Michael here! I am writing to you from 35,000 feet aboard a lovely Delta 767 in route from Seattle to sunny Florida. As my wife and I were walking through the airport, we saw several people of Asian decent clad with white surgical masks. My initial thought was, “Are they concerned with giving or receiving germs…or both?”

I travel so much that I am on a first name basis with skycaps and TSA agents in several cities, but I have yet to have donned the dreaded “mask!” What is amazing, though, is how many people out there travel with a cold, sneezing and coughing without covering their mouths, thus spreading germs wherever they go!

By the way, if you didn’t read this month’s cover because you were so excited to read my article, the topic o’ the month is (drum roll)… “The Common Cold.” That’s right, that uninvited guest infecting an estimated one billion Americans comes from one of 99 known rhinoviruses (rhino, Greek for nose), which is a relatively small and extremely common contagious virus.

There are two ways to catch a cold:

1. Air born droplets breathed or touched on a contaminated surface.
2. Person-to-person contact.

Symptoms of the common cold include:

• Sore throat
• Runny nose
• Nasal-congestion
• Sneezing
• Cough
• Occasional fatigue
• Headache
• Sabotaged taste buds (usually when someone takes you out for a steak dinner!).

One sure way to tell if it’s just a cold is this…you still can go to work, travel or even go to the gym (but please don’t because that is how a cold spreads!). When it’s the flu, you feel so bad it’s “man down” and you are miserable!!!

As always, our Home Cures That Work staff of outstanding contributors will offer a variety of healing modalities custom tailored to address the topic at hand. So, before I offer my “two cents” on matters of a spiritual nature, I will share my own personal common sense strategy for keeping the common cold at bay—even if you travel weekly via planes, trains or automobiles or you are constantly surrounded by people in your daily environment.

Common Cold, Common Sense Tip #1: Don’t Be Afraid of Germs

Common Cold, Common Sense. The first thing you must realize is that it is virtually impossible to live without coming in contact with germs. The fear of them is actually a sickness called “mysophobia.” Notable mysophobics include:

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  Howie Mandel, comedian and host of NBC’s “Deal Or No Deal” fist bumps his contestants and refuses to shake hands. He has a house behind his house where he retreats when his children are sick.
• Donald Trump will not touch elevator buttons and once said he would do anything in his power not to shake hands with a teacher because their desks have 17,000 germs per square inch.
• Michael Jackson and Howard Hughes both wore masks and gloves in public and slept isolated in oxygen controlled “germ free environments.”

The truth is the fear of germs is the quickest way to get sick! Let me explain!

• Fear causes high levels of stress…
• Which releases hormones…
• That actually lower your immune system.

Here is an example. When I worked in a church in Nashville, Tennessee the secretary who worked the front desk was petrified of getting sick. Every day she would spray Lysol before and after someone would come in. Believe it or not, she came down with a cold every month!

So, Michaels first common cold, common sense tip… don’t be afraid of germs!

Common Cold, Common Sense Tip #2: Take Vitamin D3-5.

I use the Biotech vitamin D brand and take 5,000 IUs twice a day in the summer and 5,000 IUs four times a day in the winter.

Taking D3-5 (dry caps) will do more to keep you cold free more than any one thing I can recommend and here is why. Think about it…why there is a “cold season?” Because in the summer, there is usually ample sunlight but in the Fall/Winter when colds are prevalent (especially in the North), it is dark and cold for months.

Doubling your D3-5 in the winter months is like getting internal sunlight. Since we get a large percentage of our D vitamins from the sun, your levels remain stable with supplementation.

Common Cold, Common Sense Tip #3: Hands off!

Keep your hands away from infected surfaces or people and then touching your face, especially the mouth or nose! That’s just asking for trouble!

Common Cold, Common Sense Tip #4: Little Red Help

Before you take off for a flight, take an old school little red Sudafed. This will keep your sinuses clear during the entire flight. If you don’t get your upgrade, then see if your carrier sells “economy comfort” seats or ask for an exit row because they never seat children in these zones. Also, remember to carry a good hand sanitizer and make sure you wipe down your service tray, seat arms, in flight magazines and lavatory door. Why? Because you are flying in a Petri dish with wings!

This isn’t being a germ-a-phobe… it is common sense. The white surgical mask is highly effective, but they make you perspire and look…ridiculous!

Here is my secret weapon The Mini-Mate Wearable Air Purifier by Wein. This personal ionizer is the best $99 you’ll ever spend if you are a frequent flyer! Remember, airplane air is constantly re-circulated during your entire flight, so a personal ionizer is like breathing fresh air the whole way.

Here is another tip for a flight lasting five hours or more. Upon landing, pop a high quality probiotic. Long flights at high altitude affect your intestinal flora. (1)

Common Cold, Common Sense Tip #5: Natural Solutions

If you start to feel symptoms of a cold, then here are some of my favorite “go to” natural solutions for a cold that are available at most reputable health and nutrition stores:

• Chinese herb andrographis
• Kan jang
• Umcka ColdCare products
• No Time For A Cold lozenges have not failed me yet. In fact, they come with a money back guarantee! If you don’t feel better in 24 hours, then they will send your money back to you!

Common Cold, Common Sense Tip #6: Get Plenty of Sleep.

To keep your immune system revved up, get 7 or 8 hours of sleep daily. As a speaker/singer, I have found that this strategy keeps me at my very best at home and abroad.

The Cold Hearted Truth

Those of you who read my articles on a monthly basis know I am a “word” guy… beside my love for writing, I am also a minister and a singer/songwriter. Therefore, the meaning of a word is quite important to me.

With that said, you would be hard-pressed to find a word with more abstract definitions than the word “cold” here are a few.

Cold: (Merriam-Webster)

1. Having or being a temperature that is uncomfortably low for humans.
2. Food that is not heated or a drink served chilled.
3. Lack of warmth concerning human emotion, unfriendly, without compassion, without enthusiasm, detached, indifferent, isolated.
4. Accomplished familiarity i.e., “I had my lines down cold.”
5. Gloomy, depressing.
6. To reconsider, unsure i.e., “I have cold feet.”
7. Unconscious i.e., “he was knocked out cold.”
8. A poor performance i.e., “the team came out cold in the first quarter.”
9. Rhinovirus, sick, ill.

The strategy I shared earlier works wonders to keep one free of the common cold (definition #9), but now I would like to draw your attention to a far more lethal malady affecting our world that supplements, sleep or even hand sanitizer are powerless to curtail.

We can find some of it’s symptoms in our list of definitions #3 to be exact: Lack of warmth concerning human emotion, unfriendly, without compassion, without enthusiasm, detached, indifferent, isolated.

Yes, my friends, there is a cultural virus reaching epidemic proportions that has isolated people groups, color and creed across our nation and around the world. It has undermined our greatest connection…the human touch. This “cold” has reduced life to texts, emails, facebook, twitter and politics. This dehumanization has been prophesied for thousands of years and is spoken of in the Bible. I refer to it now as, The Uncommon Cold.

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-having a form of godliness but denying it’s power. Have nothing to do with such people.” 2 Timothy 3: 1-5 (NIV)

Signs Of The End Times

“Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call attention to its buildings. “Do you see these things?” He asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

As Jesus was sitting on the Mount Of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”

Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah’, and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, THE LOVE OF MOST WILL GROW COLD, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the WHOLE WORLD as a testimony to ALL nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24: 1-14 (NIV)

Please understand I am not saying it’s the “end of the world!” What I am saying is that we have many of the symptoms today that could hasten it!

People have become cold hearted, selfish, racially polarized and generally unloving towards their fellow man. Hence, a far greater social virus has been born!

I am sure you will agree after reading these prophesies that this “Uncommon Cold” is of a far greater concern than the common cold… one is temporary, the other, eternal.

Here is Michaels “common sense” strategy for the greater of the two:

1. Love one another… love your neighbor as your self.
2. You cannot be an extravagant giver and a self-centered taker at the same time…be an extravagant giver!
3. Perform random acts of kindness often. Pay a stranger’s check at a restaurant. If someone is short of cash at the checkout counter, then pay the difference. Mow your neighbor’s lawn. Take a homeless person out to lunch. Men, start opening doors for women and stand up when they enter the room.
4. Live from the inside out, not the outside in. The spirit of entitlement is choking our nation.
5. Call friends and family instead of texting them and visit them face-to-face as often as possible.
6. Purpose to live at peace with everyone and keep short accounts.
7. Be a quick forgiver.
8. Most importantly, cultivate a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and you will experience peace and the “cure” for the Uncommon Cold.

Don’t let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid…

Love Never Fails,

Michael

 

Q. What can you do right now to mend a severed relationship in your family?

Q. Do you spend more time on the internet than you do with people?

Q. Do you believe it is more blessed to give than it is to receive?

Q. Can a virtual friend on Facebook hold your hand when you’re hurting or change your tire when it’s flat?

 

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(1) http://www.independenttraveler.com/travel-tips/air-travel/avoiding-the-airplane-cold