STORY BY“I have to save him. I don’t want his daughter to be left with those lasting images,’” Dr. Ali Denktas remembers thinking as he and his team of cardiologists worked feverishly to save a patient, a fellow physician, a fellow father.
Just two hours before, it had been an ordinary June day for Dr. William Daily, assistant professor of anesthesiology at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. He was at a doctor’s appointment for his 11-year-old daughter, Sophie, when he began to feel that something wasn’t right.
“I can only go on what my family has told me,” Daily says, who recalls nothing of the event. “I made a call to my wife and told her that I had chest pain. She wanted me to head to an emergency center. I told her I would wait until after my daughter’s appointment was over.”
Following the appointment, Daily, 51, drove to Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. Walking hand-in-hand with his daughter on his way to the emergency center, he collapsed.
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Zinc no match for common cold
Since 1984, zinc has been studied, and now marketed, as a weapon against the common cold, but the reviews always have been mixed.
Recently, researchers conducted a review of 105 studies to determine if the popular over the counter zinc lozenges, nasal sprays or nasal gels had any clinical effects.
Of the 105 studies, only four met the strict criteria for valid scientific design. Of those four, only one study showed a small positive effect of zinc nasal gel on cold symptoms. The other three showed no benefits from nasal sprays or lozenges.
In fact, some of the zinc nasal sprays have been associated with partial or permanent loss of smell (anosmia).
This cold season, the cheapest and most proven weapon against the common cold is not to catch it at all, by washing your hands frequently and properly, and keeping your hands away from your own eyes, nose and mouth.
