It's OK, you can
kiss me
We snuff
out some of the myths surrounding the common cold
By Express Team
If you are among those who have called in sick from work lately with
a cold (you probably called it flu - it sounds so much more convincing that way,
doesn't it?), you may have tried a range of remedies, bought or home-made.
Chances are none of them will have cured you. You may be kicking someone you
know for infecting you. But you could be mistaken. We all think we understand
the common cold. Yet few of us have a clue about how we get it or what to do to
shake it off.
Take snogging. You would have thought that French kissing a snotty lover was a
bad idea on many levels. But contrary to widespread belief, it is very hard to
catch a cold by exchanging saliva. In 1984, researchers had the unenviable job
of observing hundreds of students snogging. Kissing, they concluded, resulted in
no transmission of the cold virus. "The virus travels in the mucus from the
respiratory system," explains Professor Ron Eccles, director of the Common Cold
Centre at Cardiff University. "Unless you have a bad cough, and some of the
respiratory mucus has made its way into your saliva, the cold virus will not be
transmitted by kissing."
Most of us think colds are highly contagious. Certainly, most adults get two to
five colds a year (schoolchildren can catch double this number). But scientists
say colds are not, in fact, terribly easy to pass on. Under laboratory
conditions, when healthy volunteers are kept with those suffering colds, it is
remarkably difficult to spread the infection. This is because the mucus from the
respiratory tract of someone infected has to get directly into your respiratory
tract.
To do this, an infected person must either sneeeze or cough near you so you
inhale their infected droplets, or touch a surface, allowing you pick the virus
up on your fingers (a cold virus can live on a doorknob for hours). You then rub
your eyes or touch your nose (your eye drains into your nose), depositing the
virus in your own respiratory tract.
Since you touch surfaces handled by thousands of individuals every day (just
think of the handrail in buses) and breathe in the droplets of a variety of
sneezing strangers, it would be harsh to blame your loved ones for every sniffle
you develop. Indeed, for every symptomatic individual, there are two or three
infectious people touching things with virus-infected fingers. Handwashing may
reduce infection rates, but, as Eccles admits, "You'd have to wear a space mask
to rule it out entirely."
Since so much is known about cold viruses, it seems amazing that no
pharmaceutical company has come up with the cure that would make its fortune.
There are a couple of flu "antiviral" injections in use which, if administered
within the first 24 to 48 hours of illness, are said to shorten some flu bouts
by a day or so. But these will not touch a cold.
Cold viruses, while they manifest many "flu-like symptoms" (fever, runny nose,
cough), are different from flu viruses. Cold symptoms come from 200 different
viruses (though up to half of all colds are the fault of one culprit, the
"rhinovirus"). To kill a cold you would have to kill the specific cold virus
that has seized you. One American company did recently invent a vaccination
against the rhinovirus but, says Eccles, "It had to be taken off the market
because women taking it kept getting pregnant" - the injection apparently
interfered with the contraceptive pill.
So do we just have to accept colds as inevitable? Proactive types swear by
vitamin C to avoid a cold. Vitamin C has no proven effect in preventing a cold,
but, says Eccles, "it may reduce the severity and duration of one because it is
an antioxidant". Antioxidants boost your immune system, and, as Eccles puts it,
"Your immune system is the cure for the cold: in seven to 10 days, your immune
system will overcome the virus." Coughing, though, can last 10 weeks. Similarly,
other foods such as garlic - another clinical "grey area" - peppers and onions
have "antiviral properties" that may help fight the virus (possibly explaining
the clinically unsubstantiated adage, "feed a cold and starve a fever").
Indeed, "Any hot and tasty food or drink that promotes mucus is a good idea,"
says Eccles. "Mucus secretion in the airways is a beneficial symptom - it washes
out the virus." Eccles recommends a good curry.
Over-the-counter cold treatments might not be a waste of money either. For a
cheaper route, drink hot honey and lemon and take paracetamol for your headache.
Nasal congestion, caused by swelling of the large veins in the lining of the
nose, often stops you sleeping, so decongestant sprays and other nighttime
remedies can help you fight a cold, says Eccles, because they promote sleep,
which restores your busy immune system.
Doctor's orders, then.