So the forum went down again and now it’s a day later for my observations.
First, a bit of background. My entire adult life until about a decade ago consisted of getting the flu or a ‘cold’ twice a year, once in the early fall and once again in mid-late spring. That is, when the weather turned. That pattern changed a bit when I passed 60 years old. Instead of getting sick only once in the fall, I’d get sick, then well, then after a while sick again. Maybe two or three times. Which gradually became getting sick off and on all winter until the following spring. Generally nothing serious, but a nuisance. This past October, the routine started again, however, about mid-late Feb my cough moved from my throat to my lungs. I could feel a bit of pain in my lungs when I coughed. To me that’s a sure sign of pneumonia, which I’ve had several times before and didn’t want to get it again. Plus, with the COVID scare starting I doubly did not want to get pneumonia. I had a used Vick’s Inhaler with camphor laying around, so I thought maybe the camphor would help prevent getting pneumonia. So I started breathing through the inhaler through my mouth, filling my lungs with the vapor. It worked! Within about 3 days the pain in my chest was gone and my cough went away. I got well!
As a COVID preventative I continued breathing through the inhaler, replacing it once a week or so as it wore out. I also started taking zinc supplements and tonic soda every day. Which led me to ordering the cinchona powder from Only Bitters. My winter colds/flu stopped! All of March, April and May I stayed well and was quite happy about that. Then I stopped the daily tonic soda and zinc supplements because I also experienced increased thirst and dry mouth and throat. I wanted to determine whether it was the zinc/tonic causing it. Turns out it was.
Anyway, I went for about two weeks without the zinc/tonic and almost immediately I fell ‘under attack’ from flu/cold again. The inhaler kept it at bay but only just. I did not get sick, but my throat was irritated, I had a lot of nasal mucous and generally felt enervated from fighting it off. Then I started my cinchona tonic experiment described here. Within a few days, I was back to full health again!
I’m trying to determine adequate dosages. I started taking 10 ml of my mix in 100 ml of soda 4 times per day. That dose stopped the incipient illness, but it also brought back the thirst, the dry mouth and throat. Once I was clear of whatever virus/bacteria was attacking, I reduced the dose to 2 times per day. That seems to be working to keep me healthy and has reduced most of the dryness of the heavier dose.
So I’m thinking now that for prophylaxis 2 x 10 ml per day, or possibly even 1 x during the summer months. And 4 x 10 ml per day as a therapeutic dosage.
I’m also going to increase the mix concentration by using 10 grams of powder for the next batch so I can reduce the overall amount of ethanol I’m consuming with my daily dose. The ethanol is noticeable and I’d prefer to get it down as low as I can. Also, the stuff is fairly expensive, so if I can get adequate dosage with less of it, so much the better.