As a former promotor pf ColdFX, I feel obliged to report that Marketplace looked into ColdFX’s claims and found them wanting. When I started taking, it was based on a small study that showed a reduction in both incidence and severity in those who took ColdFX every day, versus those who did not.
Apparently they have since done bigger studies, however, which show only a minor reduction in incidence of colds, but none in severity. Also (and this was also true of the first study) it was only for people who took ColdFX every day, not those who started only at the onset of a cold.
Furthermore, Marketplace showed evidence that the Chinese factory where the stuff is assembled doesn’t maintain the best health standards, and at least one batch of the stuff contained a potential harmful bacteria.
So, as a believer in science and all that, I thought I should stop taking the stuff. Perhaps the milder colds that I had previously experienced on it would have happened regardless.
But I have to say… My current cold, the first in a few years that I haven’t treated ColdFX, was definitely worse than any I had while taking it.
I realize that this is also not proof. Perhaps I would have been equally stuffed up regardless of my American ginseng intake. So, I’m just reporting this as an observation.
Fortunately, I’m feeling much better now. That’s the thing about colds. Whatever you do or don’t take for them, they still just go away and you feel better.
January 30, 2012 at 9:45 am
We both took ColdFX for the first time just after Xmas – Jon started one first, so he already had some symptoms, and I started taking it just in case. His cold was definitely extremely mild – whether that was due to the ColdFX, impossible to say. I did end up getting a very mild dose of sniffles/sneezing, but nothing that would have inconvenienced me in anyway if I’d not already been on holidays. So again, whether that was due to the ColdFX or not… we’ll never know. I saw the ads for the Marketplace episode but forgot to watch it.