Blah…sick

So I’m sick.  Not in a Swine-flu sort of way, but the kind of sick you get when the weather changes quickly and your body is not prepared for it.  And while I have health insurance, I’m not really sick enough to go to the doctor, so today I headed to the drug store to find out what magical herbal remedies they had in store for me.  (Really, I needed lotion and vitamin C with zinc, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to look at the herbal tea section.)



I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by the variety of herbal teas available for illnesses.  Any trip to a health food store like Whole Foods proves that this is not specifically a German phenomenon, but what I think is particularly interesting about it in Germany is that it’s not really a specialty item.  Such teas and other homeopathic/holistic herbal concoctions are commonplace here – and I’m not talking about them having their own section in the store as they do in the US, they are scattered throughout as though there were no difference between them and other products.  On the other hand, it’s next to impossible to get Sudafed or any other sort of decongestant here without a prescription.  I think there are merits to both mindsets, it just depends on what you’re looking for.

I personally am pretty much beyond the fever at this point, but I still have a sore throat and a cough, so I opted for the Salbeitee which is for infections/problems in the mouth and throat.  I’m not sure where one starts and the other ends as far as the Germans are concerned, but it seemed like a safe bet.  There was also a tea specifically for coughs, but I’m thinking that part of this is allergy related, and therefore it’s not specifically a cough as a result of a cold, and therefore perhaps the throat thing would be better.  Who knows…I can always go back and get the other tea.

The tea that they have for colds (Erkältungstee) is specifically for fevers.  My fever broke sometime yesterday and doesn’t appear to have come back, so  I didn’t buy it, but on the box it explains that it is for colds that include a fever, and which you desire a “Schwitzkur.”  Schwitz is the German word for sweat.  Kur is the German word for cure.  So basically, I assume that this tea causes your body to heat up to the point that your fever breaks.  I’m not quite sure how this works any better than staying covered up in bed, but maybe it works faster.

Back to reading and trying to get well.