Well I know I'm old. Here I am, writing about how a medication has improved my life.  Yes..it's true.

The medication?  Zicam  It's an over the counter zinc cold remedy available in the States.  It comes in different forms including a nasal gel, chewables, or melt-aways.  I prefer the orange flavored melt-aways.  They taste like the St. Josephs baby aspirin that you got as a kid.

The trick with Zicam is to take it as soon as you're feeling run-down. I usually can tell because my shoulders start to hurt and my eyes dry out.  This is the best time to start taking zicam.  While the recommendation is to take it every 4 hours,  I find that 2 or 3 times a day, especially before bed is effective for me.  There are other zinc remedies like cold-eze but I find that they make me nauseous.

How do I know it's effective?  Well after many of suffering through colds and raging sore throats, usually 2 or 3 times a season, since I've started taking zicam, my colds have changed.  I no longer take over a week to go through a cold. I used to start with a raging sore throat and then sniffles and running nose and finish with coughing.  All told this would take over a week and I'd feel 'punk' the whole time.

Now my colds start with me feeling run down but I bypass the sore throat and sniffles and coughing all together.  The run down feeling is usually gone after a few days as long as I take the zicam and rest a LOT and drink plenty of fluids.

Of course, Zicam is not going to work for everyone but I thought I'd share how this med has really helped me!  The big downside to Zicam is the price. It's pretty expensive but it's a lot cheaper than being sick for as long as I'd be otherwise. 

If you want to try it and save, here is a coupon for you!