It must be spring... the bike is out again.

Spring must have sprung. I got the bike out of retirement today and cycled to work, for the first time since October. Surprisingly it didn't kill me. MapMyRide.com tells me that the route is 11.7 miles, and it took me 1hr 25min. Hmmm. That's an average of 8.25 mph. Not great. Although, having said that my fastest time of the same route last year came in at only a little over an average of 9 mph.

Man flu

I have man flu. OK, so its really just a cold, but 'man flu' sounds so much more entertaining.

Here are my top tips for how to fight 'man flu':

1. Don't use those 'cold & flu' combined pain relief and decongestant remedies like Lemsip (well, don't use them during the day, a Lemsip at night is OK). Because what happens is one out of the pain relief or the decongestant runs out of effectiveness before the other and you end up having to wait a few hours before you can have another.
2. Contac. I don't know if the rest of the world has this, but in the UK, these are the best. Slow release capsules of pseudoephadrine hydrochloride. Basically, its a decongestant that actually works for about 10 hours. Take one when you wake up and another about 10 or 11 hours later.
3. Pain killers. Ibuprofen works best for me. Take as often as you're allowed to.
4. Zinc. Someone told me about this a few years back and I was sceptical, but it seems to actually work. As soon as you feel the onset of a cold, start taking Zinc supplements. This boosts your immune system. It doesn't diminish the symptoms of a cold, but it does (appear to) shorten the duration of a cold. Since I've been taking Zinc during colds, I can only remember one cold that was bad for more than two days (sure, there's a few days of sniffling after that, but only two days of blocked noses and aches).
5. Eat chili and drink orange juice. Just because.

What's the difference?

Can anyone tell me the difference between this:

Each tablet contains 200 mg of the active ingredient ibuprofen (as ibuprofen lysine).

Also contains: Povidone, sodium starch glycollate, magnesium stearate, hypromellose, talc, Opaspray White M-1-7111 B (contains hypromellose and titanium dioxide) and Opacode Black S-1-8152HV (contains iron oxide, shellac, soya lecithin and antifoam DC1510).

and this:

Each tablet contains 200 mg of the active ingredient ibuprofen (as ibuprofen lysine).

Also contains: Povidone, sodium starch glycollate, magnesium stearate, hypromellose, talc, Opaspray White M-1-7111 B (contains hypromellose and titanium dioxide) and Opacode Black S-1-8152HV (contains iron oxide, shellac, soya lecithin and antifoam DC 1510).

Any ideas?

Funny thing is, these retail for different amounts in Boots the chemists... The migraine ones are about 20p more expensive. Why?

Thank you for smoking

Interesting film. Intriguing without being gripping, consistently entertaining without being laugh out loud funny. It was one of those films that keeps you watching because you just have no idea where the story is going to go.

The film is basically a character study of Nick Naylor, the 'face' of the big tobacco companies. His job is to defend the tobacco companies in the public arena. And he is very good at his job.

As is usual in these sorts of movies, we see things going well for him, then things going badly, then a couple of unexpected twists and finally he is faced with a decision that could change his life. Does he repent and change his ways? Well, that would be telling.

This is not a 'must see' movie. But its quite far from being a 'must avoid' movie too. Its quirky and entertaining with a darkly comic edge. If you like that sort of thing this is well worth a look.

The drugs do work...

Richard Ashcroft was wrong when he said 'the drugs don't work, they just make it worse' because in my experience of the last two days, the drugs do work. Well that one (pictured on the right) does anyway.

A few years ago I went through a rough period with mysterious headaches. I had them occasionally in spring / summer 1999, but didn't give them much thought. They returned in force in February 2000 leading to a period of 6 weeks when I was signed off work in March / April. My doctor didn't really know what they were, they were a bit like migraine, but were certainly not 'classic' migraine.

The pattern of attacks was this:

• I was fine in the morning - no symptoms.
• By lunchtime I was feeling light-headed and a bit dizzy.
• By 2pm I had a medium-strength headache, fairly severe light-headedness and what I can only describe as a fuzzy brain - basically I found it hard to think about things, let alone concentrate on anything. Doing a simple sum, for example, would have taken me ages.
• By 4pm I had a major headache - always at the front of my head, usually both sides (which is unusual in migraine) and had to be lying down in a darkened room with a cold facecloth on my forehead.
• By teatime the headache had eased but I was still fuzzy brained.
• By about 8pm I was more or less back to normal.
• Repeat daily.

It wasn't so bad if I got outside (and stayed outside) in the mornings and the symptoms definitely varied according to the weather (cold and wet days were bettern than warm and dry). Under my doctor's advice I tried various drugs, was referred to various specialists (ENT and neurology) but nothing really worked. A holiday in Tenerife worked though! During the holiday and after it I was fine.

But in the spring of 2001 it came back again. We managed (by trial and error) to find a drug that greatly reduced the symptoms to a manageable level, but it wasn't very satisfactory. So I went to see the famous herbalist Jan de Vries who tried various things with me. Homeopathic things did absolutely nothing, but then again there is nothing in them to do anything... Herbal things worked better. Indeed, the herbal mixture Marum Verum (no idea what's in it) actually had a better effect than the prescription drugs... but still didn't get me back to normal.

When 2002 came around, the symptoms returned again in the spring. The doctor prescribed Pizotifen. It worked straight away. Bliss. No headaches. However, it only dealt with the symptoms, not the problem so I stuck with the herbal stuff and eventually managed to get rid of the headaches altogether... in 2004.

2005 and 2006 were fine. But over the past few weeks I've felt it coming back again, and last weekend was awful. So this time I went straight to the doctor and got Pizotifen. Bliss again.

I'll start the herbal stuff to deal with the problem too. It'll take a while though. Wish I knew what the root of the problem was. Any suggestions anyone?