Living in the allergy capital of the world, it is said, somehow I have basically no "allergies" anymore.
It is terrible also that few people are ever taught or learn the basics of personal hygene and health: how to breathe, how to have bowel movements (at least daily, responding quickly to the call, small short squeeze if needed, no long straining), how to clean the rectal area at least daily (water flowing downwards, no soap), washing hands frequently with non-drying soap, etc. I wonder if some of the alleged benefits of certain kinds of treatment ACTUALLY come from the doctor finally explaining to you how to do these things--I had recurrent severe rectal pain until it finally sunk in that I should not use soap to clean the rectal area after a doctor advised me of this for the nth time.
Back in the mid 1980's I had a cold, or something. I had a sore throat and chesty cough that didn't go away for months. I figured I had finally succomed to allergies. Finally, I went to a doctor who prescribed an antibiotic, and in a couple weeks I was over it.
In 2008 I took a ride with a carpet installer in his small truck filled with rotten looking carpet padding. He was coughing constantly, and often smoking. After picking up some liquor at a liquor store, we went to a comedy club where it seemed there were a lot of sick coughing people.
About a week later I developed a chesty cough. I figured it was allergies or something for over a month. Finally, I went to a doctor who prescribed an antibiotic and I was over it.
I understood the bug at this time to be mycoplasma, which appears endemic in a lot of communities, as I have experienced. Especially where people congregate in large numbers who do not generally se doctors because they do not have health insurance, OR they are somehow predisposed against modern medicine
Mycoplasma causes a minor lung infection that you can basically live with untreated. "Walking pneumonia." So many people do. Some people get over it untreated, others do not, just keep on hacking away for months to years. Untreated for years, it can lead to lung cancer. And it is more than just one specific germ, it's a constantly mutating thing like flu. Sometimes called NTM, Non-Tuberculosis Mycoplasma, because Tuberculosis is also a mycoplasma, but a more life threating one. When you congregate with other people who have mycoplasmas, new variations arise and get around.
I am fortunate that when I have cough or cold like illness, I can generally avoid being in public, and I think this is a very good to do. I think it is irresponsible to be possibly spreading germs by shedding germs through coughing, sneezing, or blowing nose. Such germs can travel up to 6 feet when someone coughs. (One way to avoid catching germs is to avoid touch hands--where they often accumulate--to face especially around nose. And washing hands. There may not be much else you can do. The person coughing should (a) stay out of public as much as possible, (b) cover their mouth with the arm, preferable the inside of the elbow.
But the USA has become a kind of Dickensian dystopia where sick people are often expected to work when sick, spreading their germs, regardless. Often, and most especially, those without health insurance.
Mycoplasma causes a minor lung infection that you can basically live with untreated. "Walking pneumonia." So many people do. Some people get over it untreated, others do not, just keep on hacking away for months to years. Untreated for years, it can lead to lung cancer. And it is more than just one specific germ, it's a constantly mutating thing like flu. Sometimes called NTM, Non-Tuberculosis Mycoplasma, because Tuberculosis is also a mycoplasma, but a more life threating one. When you congregate with other people who have mycoplasmas, new variations arise and get around.
I am fortunate that when I have cough or cold like illness, I can generally avoid being in public, and I think this is a very good to do. I think it is irresponsible to be possibly spreading germs by shedding germs through coughing, sneezing, or blowing nose. Such germs can travel up to 6 feet when someone coughs. (One way to avoid catching germs is to avoid touch hands--where they often accumulate--to face especially around nose. And washing hands. There may not be much else you can do. The person coughing should (a) stay out of public as much as possible, (b) cover their mouth with the arm, preferable the inside of the elbow.
But the USA has become a kind of Dickensian dystopia where sick people are often expected to work when sick, spreading their germs, regardless. Often, and most especially, those without health insurance.
It is terrible also that few people are ever taught or learn the basics of personal hygene and health: how to breathe, how to have bowel movements (at least daily, responding quickly to the call, small short squeeze if needed, no long straining), how to clean the rectal area at least daily (water flowing downwards, no soap), washing hands frequently with non-drying soap, etc. I wonder if some of the alleged benefits of certain kinds of treatment ACTUALLY come from the doctor finally explaining to you how to do these things--I had recurrent severe rectal pain until it finally sunk in that I should not use soap to clean the rectal area after a doctor advised me of this for the nth time.
Now my exposure to a constantly coughing person has been unavoidable at work. I got a cough for a couple weeks. Having learned my lesson, I didn't wait one month or two months. I went to doctor and got an antibiotic and the cough was over at the end of the course.
Now I seem to have gotten another cough, but managed to get over it, by amplifying the positive and reducing the negative pressures in my life. By ensuring enough sleep, getting to bed early, drinking enough fluids, and straight water for two hours before bedtime. By ensuring a long gap between dinner and breakfast with absolutely no snacking allowed in between.
Perhaps I have finally developed some resistance the the bug I've had and gotten over several times with assistance before also.
But I've also learned some tricks in avoiding coughing around other people, which I think is very worth avoiding, both in spreading bugs we've developed immunity and helping spread new variations.
The first thing I learned was that by swallowing, I could sometimes suppress coughing.
Another is a general principle, which I understand is good lung heath.
Basically, but not with any stress, attempt to keep the lungs more filled with air. Breath in slowly and deeply. Allowing exhales to happen, but consciously being more on the "full lung" side than the "empty lung" side, in which you may also be slouched down, feeling ill, and coughing.
Keep breathing in, chest up (not crumpled in toward abdomen). Note that proper breathing in requires moving the diaphram, which means extending the abdomen, aka stomach, outward, not actually trying to breath by raising the chest as such. Also it helps to keep shoulders back. All those things your mother and coach and music teacher scolded you to do, but never completely explained why. A hundred years ago people were more familiar with the basics of proper immuno-defensive breathing because they didn't have antibiotics to rely on, and TB was a leading cause of death.
Proper breathing is the best thing for helping the immune system do it's natural work, clearing the junk out of the lungs in the long term, and even in the short term suppressing coughing. There's a natural conveyer belt of removing the junk in the lungs, and it works best with a relatively full lung.
Coughing as such is only intended as an emergency response, when something has so gummed up the natural system that it doesn't work. This is true at birth, we all require a cough to get the lungs cleared and started. But after that, they should mostly just work without coughing.
Disease processes hijack the coughing system, for the obvious purpose of spreading the disease. So when we have a disease, we cough a lot, sometimes useful and needed, but also often not so.
Over the years I've tried all the cough remedies, and none of them work in the long run. The kind that sort of work, the opioids, have a slew of side effects and when the opiod wears off, the coughing may still be there, only worse. And that general path describes all cough remedies that have any effect at all, except perhaps hot water. Some people praise special teas, but I've even found teas to have that "cough more" when the tea wears off kind of thing.
Proper breathing is the best thing for helping the immune system do it's natural work, clearing the junk out of the lungs in the long term, and even in the short term suppressing coughing. There's a natural conveyer belt of removing the junk in the lungs, and it works best with a relatively full lung.
Coughing as such is only intended as an emergency response, when something has so gummed up the natural system that it doesn't work. This is true at birth, we all require a cough to get the lungs cleared and started. But after that, they should mostly just work without coughing.
Disease processes hijack the coughing system, for the obvious purpose of spreading the disease. So when we have a disease, we cough a lot, sometimes useful and needed, but also often not so.
Over the years I've tried all the cough remedies, and none of them work in the long run. The kind that sort of work, the opioids, have a slew of side effects and when the opiod wears off, the coughing may still be there, only worse. And that general path describes all cough remedies that have any effect at all, except perhaps hot water. Some people praise special teas, but I've even found teas to have that "cough more" when the tea wears off kind of thing.
And, please see a general doctor (not just an allergist) and get proper treatment if you have continuing cough for more than 2 weeks. Do not just assume it's allergies. Even in the allergen capital, allergens go up and down. If your cough stays the same for months, despite these variations, it's probably not just allergens, one doctor told me.
Strangely, here in the allergy capital of the world, I basically have no allergies anymore. Every time I thought I had allergies, I had bugs.
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