To prepare for writing her new book, Ah-Choo! The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold (Twelve, $22.99), Jennifer Ackerman offered up her nose for a spray with a rhinovirus, one of the 200-plus viruses that cause colds (she caught a ten-day infection).
She also interviewed top cold researchers—and came away with surprising insights into the virus we love to hate. Her hot tips about colds:
Everyone thinks that if you get a cold, it means your immune system was weak or run-down.
That’s a myth. Cold symptoms are caused by your immune reaction to the presence of a cold virus, so people with active immune systems are actually more prone to having cold symptoms.
“Have ‘prudent paranoia’,” one pediatrician told me. Don’t worry about touching an ATM, but if you shake hands with somebody with a cold, wash your hands. If your kid high-fives everyone on the football team before you hand out the snack, give her some hand sanitizer.
The hands are the conveyors of cold viruses, and your nose and eyes are major portals of entry into your body. So keep your hands off your face. We all have miserable records on that. We touch our faces 200 to 600 times a day, so it’s a tough habit to lick.
It’s okay to go out with wet hair it won’t make you catch a chill. But sleep deprivation and chronic stress do make you more susceptible.
Take a sleep!'
Source: Readers Digest
She also interviewed top cold researchers—and came away with surprising insights into the virus we love to hate. Her hot tips about colds:
Everyone thinks that if you get a cold, it means your immune system was weak or run-down.
That’s a myth. Cold symptoms are caused by your immune reaction to the presence of a cold virus, so people with active immune systems are actually more prone to having cold symptoms.
“Have ‘prudent paranoia’,” one pediatrician told me. Don’t worry about touching an ATM, but if you shake hands with somebody with a cold, wash your hands. If your kid high-fives everyone on the football team before you hand out the snack, give her some hand sanitizer.
The hands are the conveyors of cold viruses, and your nose and eyes are major portals of entry into your body. So keep your hands off your face. We all have miserable records on that. We touch our faces 200 to 600 times a day, so it’s a tough habit to lick.
It’s okay to go out with wet hair it won’t make you catch a chill. But sleep deprivation and chronic stress do make you more susceptible.
Take a sleep!'
Source: Readers Digest
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