Catsfoot wrote:
> The last time I suffered from the flu/cold was 8 years ago, this year I was run
> down from a lot of stress do to visiting a family member whom was hospitalized
> for 2 weeks after bowel cancer sugary.
Please don't take this as a diagnosis of your condition - it is not, just a bit
of my own experience. I used to get soar throat and persistent dry cough, sometimes
with fever, often without. Always thought this was an infection of some sort.
The cough would get worse, actually giving me a headache that made it hard to sleep.
This would make me feel even worse, making the cold itself progressively worse - vicious
circle. Later, while looking into chronic fatigue and fybromyalgia I started reading
up on adrenals. To test my guesses about adrenal exhaustion started taking various
supplements - DHEA, pregnenolone, raw desiccated adrenal tissue, and licorice root
extract. All were helpful, but for various pains and itches an extra dose of
licorice root was particularly useful. To this day, if I get a throat itch after
prolonged lack of sleep or serious stress (either physical or emotional) I will
take licorice root extract and its usually gone very fast. I do NOT take licorice
root on a continuous basis - it's basically useless as your body gets adjusted
to it and you need ever higher doses. The way licorice root extract works is by
inhibiting the enzyme that breaks down cortisol. Thus, in theory, it would restore
cortisol to the normal levels that your body would maintain if adrenals
weren't exhausted (by stress) without going over those levels.

DISCLAIMER: LICORICE ROOT IS A POTENT HERBAL PREPARATION. RESEARCH THIS
YOURSELF BEFORE TAKING IT. THIS IS NOT AN ADVICE, I AM NOT A DOCTOR, DO
THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Ilya