It's Not Just You, Everyone Does Have A Cold Right Now

Achy head? Stuffed up nose? Slight fever? Too congested to sleep and to tired to go to work or school? No, it's not allergies, you have a cold and, it seems like everyone around you does too. No, you're not alone, colds are in full swing right now.

Myth 1:

The greatest myth about the common cold is that susceptibility to colds requires a weakened immune system.

Facts:

1. Healthy people with normal immune systems are highly susceptible to cold virus infection once the virus enters the nose. In volunteers studies, approximately 95% of normal adults became infected when virus was dropped into the nose (72, also see How Cold Virus Infection Occurs). 2. Of people who become infected, only 75% develop symptoms with a cold. (5, 72) The other 25% have virus growing in the nose but have no symptoms. They have an "asymptomatic infection". 3. Why people sometimes become infected but do not develop cold symptoms is a mystery. One clue is that in such instances the person may not be producing the normal amount of certain inflammatory mediators, the natural body chemicals which cause cold symptoms (2, also see What Causes Cold Symptoms). If this theory is correct, then people with active immune systems may be more prone to developing cold symptoms than people with less active immune systems!

Myth 2:

Central heating dries the mucus membranes of the nose and makes a person more susceptible to catching a cold.

Facts:

1. As discussed above, a cold virus does not need the help of dry mucus membranes to initiate a cold once it enters the nose (72, also see How Cold Virus Infection Occurs). 2. The nasal mucus membrane is very resistant to the effects of low humidity. Volunteers placed in chambers where the humidity was dramatically lowered (9% relative humidity, such as found in a desert) still have normal clearance function of the nasal mucus membrane. (73, 74) Low humidity makes the nose feel dry but the mucus membrane still continues to work normally. 3. The cold season in the United States typically begins in late August and early September at a time when temperatures are still moderate and central heating is not being used. (74, 75) September is the time of a major common cold epidemic despite people not being exposed to the drying effects of central heating.

Myth 3:	Becoming cold or chilled leads to catching a cold.
Facts:	1. As discussed above, almost everybody becomes infected whether they are chilled or not, if cold virus is dropped into the nose. (72) 2. One study has looked at this question. It was found that colds were no more frequent or severe in volunteers who were chilled than those who were not. (76)

Myth 4:

Having cold symptoms is good for you because they help you get over a cold, therefore you should not treat a cold.

Facts:

1. Approximately 25% of people who get a cold virus infection do not develop symptoms and yet they get over the infection as well as people who do have symptoms (5, 72, also see How Virus Infection Occurs). 2. The nose can only respond to irritative events such as a cold virus infection or dust or pollen entering the nose in a limited number of ways. Sneezing and nasal secretions are useful in removing dust and pollen from the nose but do not eliminate cold viruses since the virus is multiplying inside the nasal cells where it is safe. 3. Nose blowing propels nasal secretions into the sinus cavity. (41) Nasal secretions contain viruses, bacteria, and inflammatory mediators all of which are able to produce inflammation in the sinus cavity. This may lead to secondary bacterial infection. 4. Nose blowing, sneezing, and coughing benefit the virus by helping spread it to other people (see How Colds are Spread). 5. Commercially available and FDA approved cold treatments are safe and effective (see Treatment). It makes sense to use them because they benefit the cold sufferer and may help prevent the spread of colds.

Myth 5:	Drinking milk causes increased nasal mucus during a cold.
Facts:	1. Milk and mucus may look alike, but milk is digested like any other protein and is not specifically converted into nasal mucus. 2. An Australian study was actually done in volunteers to address this question. (77) It showed that people drinking lots of milk had no more nasal mucus than those not drinking milk.

Myth 6:	You should feed a cold (and starve a fever).
Facts:	1. The origin of this old saying is obscure. There is no scientific evidence that excess eating will cure a cold. 2. On the other hand, eating tasty food will not make a cold worse and may help the cold victim feel better. Commoncold.org features tasty recipes for the cold sufferer.

Feel better!

Welcome To The Cold Truth

I work in a research lab that studies colds and, I wanted to share information with you to make for a healthier world.

There is one sure thing for colds and flu - there’s a lot of it about. How much is actually about varies from year to year, but you can be sure that you will catch them sometime. This must be the golden age of colds and flu. So many people crowd together indoors in winter, at home, at work, at school, and in travelling. This makes the chances of coming into close contact with someone who has one of the viruses so much more probable. Even though the viruses are quite hard to catch, this means there are a lot of chances when you are exposed to them in everyday life. They are also travelling all around the world in a matter of hours. Colds and flu are having a very successful jet-set life travelling all around the world, and not just where it is cold, they are also at home in the heat.

We are all exposed to these viruses on a regular basis, but we do not get an infection every time. The great majority of times our body’s defences work well and we are not infected. Less often we are infected, but our body’s defences act quickly to kill the infection, without us ever being aware that we have been infected. Less often still we are infected and suffer mild symptoms. Thankfully, least often of all, we catch the virus and have a really bad infection. How bad our infection becomes therefore depends on chance, the strength of the virus, and our body’s defences.

The usual way we catch the virus is to breathe them in on droplets in the air when someone sneezes. They can also easily be caught by touching something with the virus already on it, such as a cup, door handle, or telephone. The virus sticks to our hand, and then we touch our eye or nose and it sticks there. From our eye it is washed down with our tears into the nose.

Your first line of defence is the layer of mucus lining your nose. Unfortunately central heating can dry this, making it less efficient at preventing infections pass through.

The flu virus is more infectious than a cold virus because it can last longer in the air, and still be infectious. This is why a new strain of flu can be so dangerous, we may not have any natural resistance to it, and can spread all over the world so quickly, affecting so many people. This makes any new strain of flu a potential major killer on a world wide scale, as without any natural resistance to it flu can kill even fit and healthy people.

The virus attacks the cells lining the nose and throat, and infects them. It only takes one virus to infect one cell. Each infected cell is taken over by the virus, and it makes many copies of itself, kills the cell, and releases these new viruses to infect other cells. This happens so quickly that within 12 hours of first arriving there may be a million cells killed in the nose and throat.

The nose and throat are now awash with viruses, and this is the time when we are most likely to pass the infection on to someone else. Usually by blowing (or wiping) our nose with our hands, and touching something before washing them. What we touch could be a door handle, a light switch, a telephone, a newspaper or a cup. The virus is infectious, and waiting for someone to touch it, and then touch their eye or nose, and spread the infection. Sneezing also spreads the infection into the air.

You are now the reluctant owner of a cold or flu infection!