Roomate is coughing up a lung

SniperGuy

So my roomate is hacking so hard it sounds like he's dying (and to top it off he coughs once, which sounds like a cannon every five minutes, very hard to sleep through) and I do NOT want to get sick. Any tips for keeping myself illness free in these tight quarters?

Pheezer

It's very likely that whatever he's got will be communicable by the saliva he expells when he coughs, or transferred via his hands. So, wash your hands prior to eating (and wash them properly, between the fingers and all), don't put your hands near your face when you haven't just washed them, and keep at least a meter or two away from the plague bearer. Also, obviously, don't share food with him.

DevoutlyApathetic

Vitamin C namely can seriously help with immune response. Drink a bunch of OJ or buy some pills. Otherwise spend as much time elsewhere as you can.

KalTorak

Also grab some of those turquoise or purple earplugs to help with the sleeping.

Blue Is Beautiful

Airborne, that shit seriously works. i spent a week in a house with 5 sick people (two of them kids) and didn't even sniffle.

http://www.airbornehealth.com/

Sentry

Blue Is Beautiful wrote: »

Airborne, that shit seriously works. i spent a week in a house with 5 sick people (two of them kids) and didn't even sniffle.

http://www.airbornehealth.com/

Seconded. That stuff is magical.

Treeloot

Sentry wrote: »

Blue Is Beautiful wrote: »

Airborne, that shit seriously works. i spent a week in a house with 5 sick people (two of them kids) and didn't even sniffle.

http://www.airbornehealth.com/

Seconded. That stuff is magical.

Airborne is a bunch of bullshit. Don't waste your money.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airborne_%28dietary_supplement%29

meatflower

http://www.alacer.com/

Emergen-C
1,000 mg of Vitamin C per pouch, ton of B vitamins, plus all the other stuff you need.

I've been taken two a day for the past several months, never felt this good. I ran out last week and two days later I caught a cold, immediately started taking it again and got over the cold within two days. Normally I'm out for a week or something.

The Cat

If he's symptomatic, he's probably been spreading germs for a week at least before the coughing started. The incubation period is quite long for most minor respiratory problems.

Thanatos

Airborne is a bunch of pseudo-scientific bullshit. It's an "herbal supplement," made up by a fucking teacher. Not a science teacher, an elementary school teacher.

If it actually did anything, they would sell it as medicine, like Zycam, which actually will help reduce the duration of the common cold.

The jury is still out on vitamin C, but for the most part, research seems to indicate it has little to no effect on the common cold.

supabeast

Tomorrow's Monday, get your roommate to a doctor and find out whether or not he has a serious case of bronchitis or something similar. At least that way you'll know what it is if you get sick.

embrik

Buy a bottle of Zinc. Get the 50 mg tablets. Take one every day with food when you start to feel a scratchy throat. It works for me every time.
Wiki link

meatflower

embrik wrote: »

Buy a bottle of Zinc. Get the 50 mg tablets. Take one every day with food when you start to feel a scratchy throat. It works for me every time.
Wiki link

Why not just take a multivitamin that has the zinc and everything else though?

Morninglord

Too many vitamins can hurt your liver guys. If you are eating a normal diet, vitamin tablets are probably too much. I'm not saying it'll explode or anything, but over a long period of time it can cause harm rather than good, cos your liver is working overtime to get rid of stuff it doesn't need. Vitamins don't just sit there if you have too much of them until you actually need them, they get processed and expelled.
Plus they're fucking expensive, just buy fresh vegetables and learn to cook em in tasty ways.
Of course if your food is french fries and two minute noodles, by all means hit the multis.

Ain't No Sunshine

If anything will help at this point, it's simple distance. Enjoy being outside your room. Also, have your roommate cough into tissues, then wash his hands; reducing aerial droplets may reduce your exposure. More than likely, however, the fact that at some point you both will sleep in the same room is going to present an exposure risk.

I can say with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that Vitamin C and Zinc supplementation are not substantively shown to affect the course of any upper respiratory infection. That said, to dietary supplement advocates: if the pills make you personally feel better, and you're not taking them instead of going to a doctor when you feel very ill, then feel free to take them.

Thanatos

Ain't No Sunshine wrote: »

I can say with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that Vitamin C and Zinc supplementation are not substantively shown to affect the course of any upper respiratory infection. That said, to dietary supplement advocates: if the pills make you personally feel better, and you're not taking them instead of going to a doctor when you feel very ill, then feel free to take them.

o_O

Link?

Because last I checked, zinc had been shown to reduce the duration/severity of the common cold.

Shadowfire

Thanatos wrote: »

Ain't No Sunshine wrote: »

I can say with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that Vitamin C and Zinc supplementation are not substantively shown to affect the course of any upper respiratory infection. That said, to dietary supplement advocates: if the pills make you personally feel better, and you're not taking them instead of going to a doctor when you feel very ill, then feel free to take them.

o_O

Link?

Because last I checked, zinc had been shown to reduce the duration/severity of the common cold.

I think it's more the idea that "Oh shit, I could get sick, I'd better take some vitamin C and Zinc right now!" is BS.

Ain't No Sunshine

Thanatos wrote: »

Ain't No Sunshine wrote: »

I can say with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that Vitamin C and Zinc supplementation are not substantively shown to affect the course of any upper respiratory infection. That said, to dietary supplement advocates: if the pills make you personally feel better, and you're not taking them instead of going to a doctor when you feel very ill, then feel free to take them.

o_O

Link?

Because last I checked, zinc had been shown to reduce the duration/severity of the common cold.

It has been shown, and it also has not been shown. I think the official tally for and against efficacy of vitamin C is something to the tune of four and four, and for zinc, two to three studies? The issues are that the studies in play show value versus a null control but not versus placebo, have bias of artificiality, and that the nature of the p.o. zinc tablets (they tasted awful in the early studies) may have had a part in coercing the test subjects to claim they were better so they could get out of the study and stop taking them.

Also, the pathophysiological "story" - the how and why of zinc affecting colds (if, indeed, it does) - is not clear at all, and that's a huge issue with the science. What this boils down to is that I would not prescribe it as if it worked and couldn't defend anybody prescribing it in that way. Whether it "really does" work, well - if you feel that it makes you better, and that's worth your money, then that's a good thing. I doubt it'll do you harm.

Linking is the rage, so...the 'current controversies' part of this link isn't so bad.

http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/factsheets/cc/zinc.html#issues

SkankPlaya

I've been taking Emergen-C regularly for the last 2 or 3 weeks becuase I've had some family and friends that have been sick, and while I haven't gotten really ill, I did get a cold of my own.

Just make sure you wash your hands every chance you get. wash things your roomate comes into contact with. Drink lots of fluids and stay away as best you can.

Dioltas

It's really basic yet important - but WASH YOUR HANDS and DO NOT touch your face/mouth/eyes/nose/FOOD/etc without washing your hands. Doesn't matter as much if he washes his hands since presumably he is coughing over everything, you only really have control over your own. Also, go out and get some exercise. It's just good for you. And drink lots of water.

The Cat

Dioltas wrote: »

It's really basic yet important - but WASH YOUR HANDS and DO NOT touch your face/mouth/eyes/nose/FOOD/etc without washing your hands. Doesn't matter as much if he washes his hands since presumably he is coughing over everything, you only really have control over your own. Also, go out and get some exercise. It's just good for you. And drink lots of water.

Exercise is doubly handy as an early warning system, too, because you'll notice your form will be off some time before you get symptoms. The length of time I could run non-stop on the elliptical machine dropped by a full third the week before I got my last head cold.