Fully moved in now, except for a few books and clothes left at Mum's. I will get the books next week.
Not that I ever needed justification, but this story gives me yet another reason to enjoy my rampant chocoholism.
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http://www.news.com....0-1225974729266
Chocolate better cure for common cold than echinacea
* From: NewsCore
* December 22, 2010 12:35AM
PEOPLE who buy echinacea to stave off a common cold are wasting their money and should buy chocolate instead, two separate scientific studies have claimed.
Echinacea, which is believed to minimise the impact of a common cold, was studied by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.
They found the over-the-counter herbal treatment only slightly delayed cold symptoms
In tests of 719 people, aged between 12 and 80, volunteers were randomly given either no pill, a pill they knew contained echinacea, or a pill that could have been echinacea or a placebo.
Those who received echinacea saw the duration of their cold reduced by seven to 10 hours.
"Trends were in the direction of benefit, amounting to an average half-day reduction in the duration of a weeklong cold or an approximate 10 percent reduction in overall severity," said Bruce Barrett, the lead researcher, writing in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
"However, this dose regimen did not make a large impact on the course of the common cold, compared either to blinded placebo or to no pills," he concluded.
In the UK, scientists at a British-based drugs company called SEEK, working with experts at Hull Cough Clinic, said that a naturally-occurring substance in cocoa - theobromine - has been shown to prevent the key features of a persistent cough.
Seek was developing a medication based on theobromine, which is found in significant quantities in cocoa-based products and which it says "has been shown to inhibit the inappropriate firing of the vagus nerve, which is a key feature of persistent cough.”
Professor Alyn Morice from the clinic, said, "Due to the drawbacks of current opioid drugs such as codeine, we are in desperate need of a non-opioid treatment with a drastically improved side effect profile for patients."
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I'm also fairly sure echinacea was shown to be barely more than a placebo years ago.
"Fortune favors the bold, though statistics favor the cautious." - Indomitable Courteous (Icy) Fist, The Palace Job - Patrick Weekes
"Well well well ... if it ain't The Invisible C**t." - Billy Butcher, The Boys
"I have strong views about not tempting providence and, as a wise man once said, the difference between luck and a wheelbarrow is, luck doesn’t work if you push it." - Colonel Orhan, Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City - KJ Parker