Does zinc work in treating the common cold?
The selection of the appropriate MeSH headings was important. In this search the two obvious headings are ZINC and COMMON COLD. Most of the submitted searches included these headings; however, many searches used common (tw) and cold (tw) and one person used common@cold. When there is a MeSH heading that exactly covers the concept you are seeking, it is not a good idea to do this. Using the proximity feature adjacency is a particularly costly and inefficient way to retrieve data for which there is a MeSH Heading. Searching for common cold (mh) retrieved 162 citations almost instantly and cost $.06; searching common adj cold retrieved 146 citations after a pause of a few seconds and cost $.39. You are paying more money to make the computer work harder and retrieve less if you use adjacency inappropriately. Ms. Kilby searched directly in ELHILL using the MeSH headings ZINC and COMMON COLD. She saved the strategy she ran in MEDLINE and used this strategy in all the Backfiles. She also sear
