The modern way of curing winter sniffles

’TIS the season to be snotty and no matter how healthful our resolutions, most of us are clattering about in the medicine chest, desperately seeking a magic cure for midnight coughs and morning mucous.

Like politics and religion, illness is the great divider of communities. There are those for whom the doctor on speed dial is a must, while others swear by a bundu bash in search of traditional herbs.

And then there are the fence sitters, like me, for whom “a little learning is a dangerous thing”. We are the amateur medical researchers. Google is our GP and hypochondria our poison. I have come to realise that the more we know, the less we know.

When I began writing about health several years ago, it dawned on me that I now knew more than the average woman, owing to my privileged behind-the-scenes look into the brains of dozens of experts in medical and nutrition fields. This wealth of knowledge was supposed to assist me in raising utterly pure children in an organic way – a topic I’ve touched on before and admitted was a failure.

It also gave me insights into anti-ageing techniques not yet available in the public arena.

Truly, if one’s aim in life was to be eternally youthful, beautiful and a supermom, health journalism was the way to go.

The problem with theory is putting it into practice.

It’s all very well to hear, off the record, that the eye of newt grown in the Magaliesberg is a secret ancient remedy for longevity known only to a wizened handful of indigenous herbalists – but actually tracking down the elusive ingredient is nigh impossible.

Still, it’s exciting to think that beyond the usual mainstream medicine, you may have hit upon the key to both healthy lungs and skin. And so the search continues.

But regardless of how much I’ve read and how many remedies I’ve consumed, I still get colds. We live in an age of fingertip-fast answers. We think we know it all – but a runny nose 60 years ago is the same damn runny nose today, no matter how many fancy saline sprays we force up our nostrils.

Perhaps we have all become both too smart and ignorant for our own good.

Just because science tells us one thing today, doesn’t mean it’s going to agree with itself tomorrow. Just yesterday, Omega-3 was every mother’s gift from the gods. Now, we’re told it’s just a fabulous marketing scam, or are being warned about the damage from taking too much.

Until recently I believed the hype about the dangers of salt; but now, I’m reading that we don’t get enough.

I used to think lots of fresh air was the best remedy for a cold, but a nutritionist told me last week that bundling up in a warm room was the only way to go.

When it comes to health, these days, you’re pretty much on your own. I’m taking everything with a pinch of salt, a dose of chicken soup, a touch of organic Elderberry tea and a bar of chocolate. Because of it tastes good to you, it probably is.