A cold is one of those things that old wives’ tales and rumors seem to thrive on. For instance, is there anything to what they say about how a bowl of chicken soup helps fight a cold? Actually, there is a modicum of truth to that one. A regular bowl of chicken soup does clear stuffy nose and help with all the inflammation. But there are lots of other pieces of traditional advice to to with battling the cold virus that don’t have a leg to stand on. Let’s look at some of them now, shall we?

One of the first ways you ever get to know that you’re coming down with something often comes from noticing that you have lost your appetite. Of course, pretending that you’re okay and making yourself clear that plate up isn’t really going to be much help. To somehow manage to get the calories you need without actually eating a regular meal is what you need to aim for. They actually did study this on mice that were exposed to the flu. Mice that were battling the cold virus found it much easier to recover if they were on a high calorie diet. If you aren’t a weight-loss diet of any kind, you need to skip it if you happen to have a cold.

One of the most long-lived myths to do with catching a cold has to do with how if you don’t bundle up before you go out, you will likely to catch cold. This much we can grant this particular old saw – the cold virus and the flu virus do circulate a lot more when the weather is cold. But you don’t avoid catching a cold staying clear of the outdoors. In fact, anyone who gets a lot of physical activity – even the middle of flu season – is far more likely than someone who just sits at home, to stay healthy and free of a cold. Activity boosts the immune system. Apart from this, there’s pretty much nothing to be said for the whole bundling up theory we get fed ever since we’re little.

This next one is probably something you can track down to a piece of spam that a few years ago became some kind of an urban legend over the Internet. It’s that if you slather Vicks VaporRub on someone’s feet and cover them over with socks, that you cure colds and coughs very quickly. The only way that Vicks VaporRub can work is if you rub it over such a place that the vapors can get into the nose and relieve congestion – much the way steam does. Wherever you apply it, if you cover it over, the vapors are going to get anywhere where they can do any good.

If you see your child trying to head for school with wet stringy hair right after a shower, would you stop her dead in her tracks and give her a blow dryer and a stern look? There’s nothing wrong with that; that’s what most mothers (if not every mother) would do. The truth is though that there is nothing about the cold virus that makes it go after people with cold, wet heads. The worst that can happen is that one’s head could go dangerously cold and it could make them vulnerable to an infection of any kind. There is nothing about our clothes or wet hair per se that makes us extra vulnerable to a cold though.

Etiketler: cold virus, common cold, vicks vaporrub

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