Flexing

I finally shrug off a cold that's been bugging me since last Thursday and head off to Hanmer Spring today for a hot water pool bath. Hanmer Spring is the only hot water pool that I knew existed in South Island, NZ, and with it only 1.5 hrs drive away, it was the place to go when one ran out of ideas of places to go. Nothing special there, I must say, and its not that relaxing as the place is buzzing with people (for NZ standard that is, if in Malaysian standard it's like omg, so few) but still a good escape from my cold and damp flat (no wonder the flat's cheap!!). So anyway, I went with several flatmates and we just spent the whole afternoon bathing there and picnic and prayer at this park below called Dog Stream Park (weird name):

This part of the entry may perhaps be the most beneficial to you readers out there as I am about to impart my feeble knowledge here, see it is as a token from me rewarding your perseverance in reading this entry this far. Steam inhalation has been thought to relieve the common cold and I was going to use this idea to convince one of my flatmate who caught a cold from me (muahahaha) to join the trip. But, I did some research and behold, according to BMJ (British Medical Journal) Clinical Evidence, there is not enough evidence from clinical trial to suggest whether steam inhalation has any effect on reducing the severity or length of the common cold. Clinical trials that were referred to in this report showed mixed result - some showed very modest benefit of steam inhalation while others showed no benefit at all. Meta-analyses (analysis of result of clinical trials by pooling them together) could not be done because of heterogeneity of study population, different method of assessment and poor reporting by some trials. Other information that might be useful:

Treatments that might be beneficial in common cold: antihistamine (only at reducing symptom of running nose), and decongestant (short-term relief of congestive symptoms)

Treatments with unknown effectiveness: analgesics, anti-inflammatory, echinacea, and zinc

Treatments that is unlikely to be beneficial: vitamin C

Treatments likely to be ineffective and possibly harmful: antibiotic