fbpx

10 Little-Known Facts About The Common Cold

10 Little-Known Facts About The Common Cold

1 of 11

You wake up with a scratchy throat and a sniffle, and you pretty much know how you got it, and what you’re in for…or do you? Here are 10 things most people don’t know about how we catch and recover from colds.

hostingparcel.com
hostingparcel.com

 

You picked it up 48 hours before symptoms occurred

If you’re trying to determine where you might have caught it, think back to where you were 48 hours before symptoms occurred. According to Ron Eccles, director of the Common Cold Centre at Cardiff University in the U.K., the common cold virus takes about two days to plant itself in the lining of your cells and produce symptoms. But here’s another fact about the cold: it doesn’t produce a fever. So if you’re running a temperature, you’ve caught the flu.

womenshealthmag.com
womenshealthmag.com

Exercise might be your most powerful weapon against colds

Experts say that your best bet at warding off a cold isn’t taking lots of vitamins or drinking lots of fluids, but in fact it’s exercise. Studies at the Appalachian State University examined how the immune system and viruses are affected by exercise and what they concluded was that working out at least five days a week for 30 minutes can cold-proof your immune system. Exercise moves your immune white cells around, making it easy for them to look for infection.

ThinkStockPhotos
ThinkStockPhotos

If you’re sleeping less than seven hours a night, you’re at risk

People who sleep less than seven hours a night are three times more likely to catch a cold, according to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. The study also found that spending your time in bed wisely helps protect you against the virus. In other words, if you’re in bed, sleep—don’t watch TV or work on your laptop.

commons.wikimedia.org
commons.wikimedia.org

Orange juice is not your savior

Your well-meaning mom might have served you a tall glass of orange juice when she heard you sniffle to pump up your vitamin C levels. Unfortunately, researchers at Australian National University and the University of Helsinki found that for the majority of people, vitamin C levels do not play a role in preventing or reducing cold symptoms when you already feel one coming on. However, having solid vitamin C levels when you are healthy can cut your chances of catching a cold in half.

diet777.com
diet777.com

 

This pretty flower might fight your cold

Echinacea, a beautiful pink flower, was under scrutiny by researchers at University of Connecticut. What they found after studying more than 1,600 people is that echinacea not only cuts one’s chances of catching a cold in half, but can also reduce the duration of a cold by around 1.4 days.

dailyhit.com
dailyhit.com

 

The cold could make you gain weight

If you put on 15 pounds and can’t pinpoint how it happened, think back to your health in the last year or so. If you had the cold virus, that might be to blame. Researchers at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego published their findings in a recent issue of the journal “Pediatrics” and reported this: children who had been infected by adenovirus 36—a common strain of the cold—were on average 50 pounds heavier than those who hadn’t caught that strain. This could be because that particular strain causes gastrointestinal issues.

ThinkStockPhotos
ThinkStockPhotos

Hot beverages can kill symptoms fast

Here’s one trick mom was right about: drink tea and hot soup. One study in the journal “Rhinology” stated that by just drinking a hot beverage, you can get immediate and long-lasting relief from coughing, sneezing, runny nose, sore throat and fatigue.

blog.magazines.com
blog.magazines.com

An ingredient in breast milk might alleviate symptoms

Don’t worry: you can find the ingredient in supplements at the pharmacy! ChicagoHealers practitioner Tom Bayne said, “A derivative of lauric acid, monolaurin, is a fatty acid found naturally in breast milk (and is) known to decrease symptoms of the flu and fatigue.” Just speak to your doctor in advance about the right dosage and if there can be any drug contraindications.

youthareawesome.com
youthareawesome.com

The average person catches 200 colds in his or her lifetime

Dr. Eccles tells us that by the time you turn 75, it’s likely you’ll have lived through 200 cold viruses. That averages out to about two years of your life sniffling! However, we catch most of our colds in the early years, and incidents taper off in the elderly.

lauthoneill.com
lauthoneill.com

 

Colds are not as easy to catch as you think

If you think you can’t even come within 10 feet of someone with a cold without catching it, researchers at Cardiff University Common Cold Centre say think again. Their study found that when healthy people were placed in a room with cold sufferers, it was actually very difficult for the infection to jump from one person to another. The cold virus needs to encounter a certain set of conditions to infect someone, and without those conditions, it cannot thrive. Most colds are caught at home from those we have prolonged contact with.