Honey
I did get my flu shot more than a month ago, but obvioiusly that doesn’t make you immune to any of the other respiratory viruses circulating around this time of year.
From this chart, it looks like it was most likely rhinovirus/enterovirus.
California Influenza and Other Respiratory Disease Surveillance for Week 45 (November 8, 2015 to November 14, 2015) • California Department of Public Health Influenza Surveillance Program
Now I am eagerly anticipating the 14-21 days of post-infectious cough.
But now I am a true believer in using honey for its antitussive properties instead of using Robitussin.
Effect of honey, dextromethorphan, and no treatment on nocturnal cough and sleep quality for coughing children and their parents. • 2007 Dec • Paul et al • Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med • PubMed
Conclusion: In a comparison of honey, [dextromethorphan], and no treatment, parents rated honey most favorably for symptomatic relief of their child’s nocturnal cough and sleep difficulty due to upper respiratory tract infection. Honey may be a preferable treatment for the cough and sleep difficulty associated with childhood upper respiratory tract infection.
Honey plus coffee versus systemic steroid in the treatment of persistent post-infectious cough: a randomised controlled trial. • 2013 Sep • Raeessi et al • Prim Care Respir J • PubMed
Conclusions: A combination of honey and coffee can be used as an alternative medicine in the treatment of [persistent post-infectious cough].
Honey in otorhinolaryngology: When, why and how? • 2011 Jun • Werner et al • European Annals of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Diseases • ScienceDirect
Conclusion
In this age of budget restrictions and optimization of medical resources, the research and development of effective and inexpensive treatments constitute a major concern for all clinicians. In this context, application of honey to inflamed mucosa and head and neck skin or mucosal wounds provides a real therapeutic benefit. The local action of honey on multiresistant bacteria also participates in more effective antibiotic practices. The antitussive action of honey also appears to be useful in infants over the age of 1 year. The other properties (antioxidant and antimitotic) of systemic administration of honey need to be formally demonstrated by in vivo studies, although many articles based on animal experimentation and cell culture are in favour of these effects. None of the thousands of varieties of honey available throughout the world appears to be truly superior. Various countries, such as Australia and the United States have already developed the medicoeconomic use of this product. When will a French medicinal honey be available?
However, the Cochrane Database Systematic Review is still skeptical:
Honey for acute cough in children. • 2014 Dec 23 • Oduwole et al • Cochrane Database Syst Rev • PubMed
Authors’ Conclusions: Honey may be better than ‘no treatment’, diphenhydramine and placebo for the symptomatic relief of cough, but it is not better than dextromethorphan. None of the included studies assessed the effect of honey on ‘cough duration’ because intervention and follow-up were for one night only. There is no strong evidence for or against the use of honey.
So I suppose it’s unfortunate that bee death rates have increased.
This WaPo article tries to be optimistic about beekeepers successfully managing the higher death rates of bees, but the fact of the matter is that these changes in management have increased costs and are more difficult to implement and we don’t really know why the death rate has increased from 14% per winter to 20-40% per winter.