Colds

There are over 200 cold viruses for you to catch, and they are all different! When you catch any one virus, the body produces antibodies to that one virus, and you will then be immune to that virus. That immunity is unfortunately only effective for that one virus, and you can still catch any of the other 199 or so. The immunity also wears off over time, so you can still catch that one virus a number of years later. It also means that a cold vaccine would have to have over 200 ingredients, each individually tested against each strain of virus. This is why there is no hope of a vaccine against colds. So we still get a lot of colds!

Children catch up to 10 colds a year. The average for infants and pre-school children is 4 to 8 colds a year. As children get older, they develop resistance to more types of cold virus, and catch progressively less each year. So that by the time they are adult this becomes 2 to 5 per year. Resistance increases through adult life, so that the elderly may have no colds in a year, or only one. The average is 3 colds per year over an 80 year life span, which is about 250 colds in a lifetime. Just think that if each one lasted a week that is about 5 years of life with a cold. It is certainly important to treat colds properly and not miss out on 5 years of life!

Cold symptoms tend to be mild, and build up slowly. They usually start within 24 hours of infection with a scratchy, irritating throat and sneezing. The symptoms increase over the next one or two days with the throat often becoming sore, and a runny nose. This is the time to treat the symptoms to make you feel better, and help your body fight the infection. Adults do not usually have a raised temperature, but children often do, and this should be treated.

A cold normally lasts about a week, but may drag on to two weeks, but it is quite common to catch a second cold before you have recovered from the first, and this looks as if the first infection has just gone on for a much longer time than expected. However if a cold lasts much longer than two weeks, then think about seeing the doctor.

It is not necessary to see the doctor about a normal cold unless you have any other medical problems. Remember that antibiotics do not help a cold because they only help infections caused by bacteria. Complications can happen after a bad cold infection, especially if you have other medical problems, or not in such good health. Sinusitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections, and asthma may be triggered.

Meningitis is always a worry when any child is ill, even though the chances of catching it are very small. 

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! 

Become a hermit seems at first to be the only way to prevent yourself catching the cold or flu virus, because they are caught from other people. The more people you come into contact with, then the more chance you have of catching it. If there is a lot of infection about then you may be able do some things to help. Hire a video rather than go to the cinema. Travel by car rather than by bus, tube or train. There are of course limits.

Washing your hands regularly will minimise your chances of catching these viruses. This is because most times you actually catch colds and flu by touching something with the virus on it, and then touching your eye or nose. You can also catch the virus through the air by someone sneezing, but there’s not so much you can do about this.

Your lifestyle can really help your body be in the best health to fight cold and flu viruses:-

• Eat a balanced diet of fruit and vegetables. Aim for six portions a day or more for maximum health
• Alcohol in moderation. More than 28 units a week for men, and 21 units for women is not good for your health
• Drink plenty of fluids. We all tend to drink too little. The water balance in your body is important, and it helps your health
• Keep fit. You don’t need to become a super athlete, but you do need to do something regularly to give your body some work to do. Half an hours walking, four times a week is a good target to aim for as a minimum. More than this helps in other ways. Over exercising is not good for your body. Super-athletes get more colds than normal
• Have enough rest. Your body needs to be regularly recharged to be in good health
• No smoking. Even breathing in other peoples smoke makes your health worse. Smokers do not get more colds and flu, but when they do get it the symptoms are worse, and lasts longer
• Control stress. Easy to say, harder to do. Being under stress can double your chance of catching a cold. The body is often most vulnerable when you calm down after a bout of stress.

Supplements can improve your health, and make your body more able to fight off infections. This means that even though you are exposed to the same number of viruses, your body is better able to fight back, and you get less infections. Supplements that can be used are:-

• Vitamin C
• Zinc
• Echinacea
• Antioxidants
• Garlic

Flu vaccination can help build up your resistance to flu. They are given by your doctor or nurse if they think you are particularly at risk to the effects of catching flu. They only give protection to the four or so types of flu in this year’s vaccine, and the effects only last about a year. There are no vaccines for colds.

Help others not to catch your colds and flu - keep them to yourself and don’t pass them on! The first few days of having cold or flu are when you are most likely to pass the virus on to someone else. Stay away from others, wash your hands regularly, and sneeze into tissues - which must be disposed of without passing on the infection, as they are covered in active viruses!

Colds and flu are caused by viruses, which even antibiotics can't kill, because antibiotics only kill bacteria. So your doctor can't give you anything to cure a cold or flu infection.

Treat the symptoms - Your pharmacist has some wonderful remedies to help you feel so much better, while these viruses take their course. It is recommended to use either a single medicine or a careful combination of medicines which suits your particular symptoms. This will help you recover faster, and lessen the chances of you catching another infection while your defences are low.

• High temperature. Plenty to drink, the rigHt clothing, the right medicine, and tepid sponging are all important to control a high temperature. Knowing how to take a temperature helps, and when to call the doctor.
• Runny nose or catarrh need something to really help to stop your nose being red and drippy, and they will also help to clear a blocked nose. Vapour products are also very popular, and can help.
• Sore throat. Taking or sucking something to soothe the throat will help. If the throat is really bad then there are stronger products to numb the throat, and really ease the pain
• Cough - there are two completely different types of cough mixture. The sort that you will normally need with colds and flu is the cough suppressant, which calms down the cough. The other type is an expectorant which helps to bring up phlegm from the chest. This type can increases the amount you cough. It is important to use the right sort
• Blocked ears - if things sound dull and far away you need something for catarrh or a vapour product to clear this, as it is normally caused by catarrh blocking the tube between the throat and the inner ear.
• More than one symptom - take a careful combination of products, or use one of the all-in-one remedies which treat a combination of symptoms
• For children - there are special medicines for children, which are specially formulated for children's tastes

Look after yourself - This is equally important, and there are several things you should do for yourself to help you get better faster.

• Drink plenty of fluids (non alcoholic) to keep the body cells well hydrated, and more able to resist infection. It also replaces fluids lost by sweating
• Eat what you feel like.
• Nutrition is important. Make sure that what you eat will help your body fight the infections, but don’t worry about being off your food for a few days. It is drinking that is more important
• Keep warm, but not over hot, be comfortable, but have enough ventilation in the house
• Don’t overdo it! With flu have enough time to rest in bed until you are better, normally a few days. With colds and flu take it easy for a week or two. Stop any exercise until you are completely better. If you overdo things it will take longer to get back to full health
• Take Supplements -
  
  • Vitamin C
  • Zinc
  • Echinacea
  • Antioxidants
  • Garlic

Cold and flu symptoms do not always come alone - they often bring along their friends! This means that you can have more than one symptom to cope with. So you can have any combination of blocked nose, runny nose, sore throat, dry cough, chesty cough, temperature, headache, blocked ears.

This makes your choice of what to take more difficult, as you need to choose the right product to treat all the symptoms that you have, or use a careful combination of products.

You need to be very careful if you use more than one product, and if you are in any way not sure that the combination is safe to use together, then you should check with your pharmacist before you take them.

Taking a double dose of something can be very dangerous. This can easily happen when the same thing is in two products that you are taking together . Paracetamol is something to specially watch for, as it is in so many products, and unless you read the label very carefully, you may not realise that you are taking it. While paracetamol is perfectly safe to use in one product, if you are taking it in another product as well, then the double dose can be very dangerous indeed.

Taking two products to treat the same symptom is not a good idea. Even though the list of ingredients show that there is not the same ingredient in two products, it is still possible that you are taking two similar ingredients together, and this can cause problems. For example two products can contain a decongestant to clear the nose, and even though they have different names they should not be taken together. Check with your pharmacist if you are unsure.

Some products are fine to use together:-

• Vapour products and any other tablet or liquid for colds or flu
• Throat products and any other tablet or liquid to swallow for colds or flu
• Supplements and any other product for colds or flu not containing the same supplement