Common Cold Cure: Judging A Book By Its Cover

Even if the lozenges had been available I’m not sure I would have ordered.

There’s an article from the Times about a potential semi-cure for the common cold: Zinc. Sign me up for that. I am a terrible patient (like my father). Colds are the bane of my existence.

The article and underlying research point to zinc lozenges sold by ColdCure.com. I thought I’d go there and order some for my next cold. Don’t rush.

As of December 3, 2010, we sold out of Eby’s ColdCure and are not taking new orders at this time. We may resume sales later in 2011, but maybe not too. Our production capacity is far too small. Also, we gave up after fighting the nay-sayers for over 30 years.

We would prefer that major pharmaceutical companies that have the capacity to supply the gigantic need of the public for properly made zinc lozenges make and market them.

That’s a shame because studies looking at zinc lozenges have often found good results.

A March 2008 report in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, for example, found that zinc lozenges cut the duration of colds to four days from seven days, and reduced coughing to two days from five. – NY Times

Here’s my problem. Even if the lozenges had been available I’m not sure I would have ordered. The ColdCure.com website looks like it just stepped out of 1995. I viscerally distrust a website that looks bad!

Is that wrong? Doesn’t make a difference. It is what it is.

I wonder how much I miss because good web design has become a choke point in my decision making process?

14 thoughts on “Common Cold Cure: Judging A Book By Its Cover”

  1. As in everything, my dear friend and Naturopathic Physician, will tell you that not all zinc is equal. And yes, that is high in her arsenal of cold fighting. A recent study by ‘traditional medicine’ said that it doesn’t make a great difference. The same study also said it eased symptoms and shortened the common cold by 1.6 days! I’ll take it!! And, yes Geoff, me too! If a web site looks like a four year old designed it, I am not likely to partake in their goods.

  2. Geoff, the link is (at the moment at least) pointing to a non-existent page on your site instead of the ColdCure page.

    I went to their page just to see what you consider to be a bad design… trying to learn what not to do.

  3. — I wonder how much I miss because good web design has become a choke point in my decision making process?

    The psych folks call that: lack of face validity. Yeah, I worked with some of those guys once.

  4. The good news is that ColdEeeze uses the exact same ingredient as the lozenges used in George Eby’s (not a doctor, and no medical background) famous study. The study, and it’s results both came before his marketing of ColdCure. His study was made using already available generic zinc lozenges. He LATER concocted a slight variation on the ingredient to enable him to get a patent. The patent has since expired, so there are many alternates on the market. That is the more likely reason he has stopped production. Everybody keeps mentioning Coldcure because George Eby was the first one to figure out that Zinc was useful in treating colds. He’s considered to be sort of the father of using zinc for colds.

  5. Now how will I know for sure that my cold is 1 day shorter? maybe it isn’t and I think if I didn’t take the zinc it woulda bee one day shorter. I think I’ll just suffer the one extra day.

  6. how about strengthen your immune system so you don’t get the common cold. there are products on the market that will work.
    zinc products never worked for me its a scam.

    1. The coldcure.com site is made without CSS which limits its ability to be styled. Columns are too wide to easily read on a screen. It has an old look reminiscent of the web from a decade ago.

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