afraid of the flu

Just when I think I've got it more or less together as a fully functional, independent adult, life comes around and knocks me flat on my butt. Literally.

I've spent the last couple of weeks battling the flu.

Yes, the flu.

In July.

And if it wasn't the flu, then it was something darn close to it, as I registered a temperature of 103.5 at one point, had a raw, sore throat and still have a persistent, hacking cough that doesn't seem to want to go away no matter how much cranberry and orange juice I chug.

Honestly, as miserable as I felt when the bug first bit, it's a darn good thing I wasn't in one of the high-risk groups, because two weeks later, I still feel wrung out.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flu season can last as late as May. Lucky me, that I get to experience it now. Though they say October and November is the best time for flu shots, the agency notes that being vaccinated in December or later is still helpful.

Let me just raise my hand right now and offer myself as an example of "better late than never." No, I did not take advantage of one of the many opportunities in and about town this year get a flu shot -- same as nearly every other year before this. The one and only year that I did get a flu shot, in my second year at college, I wound up getting the flu and missing three days of class.

Of course, as soon as my wan, petulant face put an appearance back at work, doing its duty in spreading the misery and germs to everyone around me, in came the helpful advice to get over the nasty flu monster:

Sleep. A lot.

Drink lots of fluids.

Get lots of vitamin C.

Get lots of vitamins, period.

Heck, buy stock in Airborne and load up on the stuff.

Yeah, right. That's when the monster stopped growling and the stubborn self kicked back into gear. If billions of dollars annually sunk into pharmaceutical research cannot come up with the cure to the common cold, then what makes a second-grade teacher -- the creator of Airborne, according to its Web site -- think she's got the answer in a fizzy orange tablet?

I know that hordes of people swear by the stuff, but I point to a January 2007 column in science and technology rag Scientific American in which columnist Michael Shermer notes that Airborne's Web site used to provide a link to "clinical results" on the product -- "used to" being the operative words. ABC News investigated the clinical trial and found out that the company that conducted the study was a two-man operation that had been started specifically to do the Airborne study.

source:www.nctimes.com