A SAD TALE OF STUPIDITY AND SELF-POISONING

“AVOID STRESS!” scream the displays studded around campus, and “WASH YOUR HANDS!”, “REST!”. Yes, yes, we got the idea, flu season is upon us. And there is a barrage of flu-warnings and flu-prevention advice, everywhere. In schools, in your child’s bag, in hallways, libraries, classrooms, offices, washrooms, everywhere.

I suppose this care and anxiety on the part of officialdom to prevent the spread of flu is preferable to the opposite situation- the deep unconcern and apathy of other states I could name as to whether their citizens catch a cold or not. But you can have too much  of a good thing.

“TAKE IMMUNITY BOOSTING SUPPLEMENTS!” shouted a new display in Killam early this week. So when I got up on Wednesday with a sore throat, I thought right, that’s it. I will beat the flu. I will take immunity boosting supplements. And I typed “immunity boosting supplement” in google, naturally, as you do when you want to find out about something new. And the first thing that caught my attention was “zinc”. “The moment you feel the onset of cold symptoms, take zinc supplements every two hours for boosting your natural immunity”- thus ran the article.

Not questioning the wisdom of the internet, I rushed to the drugstore and bought a bottle of zinc and vitamin C lozenges. I started sucking.

By Thursday, my cold symptoms were slightly better, though I was feeling a bit nauseous.

Friday morning, I couldn’t eat anything. It was as if my throat was locked. The nauseau was so strong that it reminded me of morning sickness. I didn’t take another zinc supplement- I simply couldn’t put anything in my mouth.

All day passsed in a haze of  nausea and hunger-induced dizziness- the cold symptoms forgotten in the general unwellness. I thought it was food-poisoning- but what had I eaten? I mentally reviewed everything I had eaten in the past 24 hours- everything was family food, which we had all eaten.  It took me until evening before it clicked. The only thing I had eaten which was unusual, which my family hadn’t eaten. The zinc supplements. I was zinced.

Lesson learned: I will only stick to the pills I know: Strepsils for sore throats, cold tablets for fever and aches, and the chalky things for an upset tummy. And of course, I will AVOID STRESS. As for the immunity-boosting tablets, whoever dreamt up that notice, and whoever wrote that lying article, may they be zinced to hell.