TomG2 wrote:
Self doctoring is about as foolish as it gets. Many Winter Texans put themselves at risk by taking the readily available antibiotics from across the border. Often times, they take antibiotics for allergies and virus's, both of which are not helped by antibiotics. "If" I was going to try a home cure, I would try something like Claritin to see if it responds to anti-allergy drugs. I would take antibiotics only if ordered by a real doctor. Not an Internet buddy.
And the antibiotic should be prescribed in response to the results of a culture of throat/nasal mucous to see which particular bacteria is the problem. They now have strep tests that take less than 30 min, and this is important because while strep is fairly easy to cure, it is necessary to identify and properly prescribe antibiotic that will work against the infection.
Colds take about 2 weeks to cure on their own, or 14 days with the intervention of chicken soup. ;)
