The infections collected here are all viral, all common, and none of them has a cure. That sounds like a reason for pessimism and is not one, because something else is true of all four: how badly each goes depends mostly on how quickly treatment starts.
That is the thread running through this section, and it is worth setting out once.
With these, the question is rarely which remedy. It is how soon.
Each one has a window
Antiviral treatment does not work the same way an antibiotic does on a bacterial infection. It interrupts a virus while it is still multiplying, which means there is a period during which it helps a great deal and after which it helps very little.
- Shingles — within about seventy-two hours of the rash appearing, which is also what reduces the risk of lasting nerve pain.
- Cold sores — at the tingling stage, before anything is visible. Once blisters have formed, cream achieves little.
- Genital herpes — within five days for a first episode; for recurrences, at the first warning sensation.
- Flu — within about forty-eight hours, for people at higher risk of complications.
The practical consequence is the same in every case, and it runs against the usual instinct: the moment to act is when symptoms begin, not when they become bad enough to justify the fuss. Advice to wait and see how it develops is advice to miss the window.
Antibiotics do nothing for any of them
Antibiotics act on bacteria. They have no effect whatsoever on a virus, so they do nothing for a cold, for flu, or for any of the others here. Taking them anyway risks side effects for no benefit and contributes to resistance. Where a bacterial infection develops on top of a viral one — which happens, and is usually signalled by getting better and then worse again — that is a different situation and worth being seen for.
Vaccination is the only thing that prevents rather than treats
Two of the four have a vaccine, both free on the NHS to the groups who benefit most, and both are routinely missed by people who are eligible. The annual flu vaccine and the shingles vaccine are the only interventions in this section that stop an illness happening rather than shortening it once it has.
Immunity cannot be boosted
Every winter brings products promising to strengthen the immune system. A normally functioning immune system is not running below capacity and cannot be topped up. What genuinely reduces how often a person is ill is sleep, not smoking, vaccination and hand hygiene — a duller list, and the accurate one.
Two of these carry a stigma out of all proportion
Herpes simplex, in both the oral and genital forms, is among the most common infections there is, and the weight the word carries bears no relation to how serious the condition actually is. UK clinical guidance now explicitly advises against alarmist framing when the diagnosis is given, because the distress gets in the way of people absorbing what they are told.
The articles here follow that: accurate about transmission and about what reduces it, and unwilling to treat a common virus as a verdict on anybody.
The remedies get assessed, not dismissed
A great deal is sold for these illnesses. Most of it does nothing, a few things help modestly, and a small number cause harm. Each article says which is which rather than waving at the category — including where something unfashionable turns out to have evidence behind it, and where something widely recommended turns out to be dangerous.