Although a cold is pretty insignificant as far as health problems go, colds can pack a lot of misery in a several-day-long package.
Colds and flu – what’s the difference?
It may be hard to tell the difference between a cold and flu, since both have a sick feeling and sniffles in common. But flu is often more serious than a cold. A cold can come on gradually, taking a day or more, but flu can come on much more quickly. A person with a cold might have a mild fever, but fevers can get quite high with the flu. Flu symptoms include cold symptoms, but also headache, overall achiness, and sometimes vomiting. The biggest difference is that a cold is, at worst, a several-day inconvenience unless it opens the door to a secondary infection such as pneumonia, but flu can be deadly depending on the strain.
What about flu shots?
Vaccination is a controversial subject. Flu shots may prevent some cases of the flu although it will never be known whether the person would have developed the flu otherwise. Flu shots, or any vaccination, can, like any medication, have unwanted side effects…including the flu itself. We believe there are better and safer measures you can take to protect yourself, but that it’s ultimately your decision.
A frequently asked question is: why are there flu vaccines but no cold vaccines? In a given year, there are usually only one or two strains of flu so it is relatively easy to vaccinate against those. But cold viruses mutate so rapidly that a vaccine geared to one strain would be almost useless.
What about antibiotics?
Antibiotics are effective against bacteria, and both flu and colds are caused by viruses, so antibiotics are useless against them. They are, in fact, worse than useless, since overuse of antibiotics can cause problems from the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to the killing of the beneficial bacteria in the intestines that help with digestion. They should not be taken for a cold or flu, then, unless you have a history of a bacterial infection such as bronchitis, pneumonia, or sinus infection that routinely follows a cold in your case.
What about cold medications?
Most of the unpleasant symptoms of a cold aren’t due to the cold itself. Rather, they are byproducts of the body’s trying its best to heal. The fever and associated aches and sick feeling are the body’s way of both increasing the effectiveness of the immune system and making the body more inhospitable to viruses and other opportunistic microorganisms. Taking anything to reduce the fever can help you feel a bit better for a few hours but can do you a disservice in the long run.
In fact, the fatigue and achiness are your body’s way to get you to get the rest you need in order to heal. Don’t try to fight this process.
The sniffling, dripping, sneezing, and coughing are your body’s way of housecleaning, getting rid of the casualties in the war between your immune system and the bad guys. There are medications that suppress these unpleasant symptoms, but to your body’s overall detriment.
So what can be done for a cold?
Echinacea tincture, taken when the first cold symptoms appear, can help ward off a cold or reduce its severity. Vitamin C and zinc, available as lozenges, can help boost the immune system. Slippery elm lozenges can help ease the discomfort of a sore or scratchy throat without the down sides of pharmaceuticals. There are homeopathic medicines that can help with the various cold symptoms without side effects or interfering with healing.
Why do some people get more colds than others?
If you have a roomful of people, and someone walks in who has a full-blown cold, some of the people in the room will get a bad cold, others will get a mild cold, and most of the people will probably not get it at all. What makes the difference.
One factor is basic hygiene. Frequent handwashing is important, since one way the cold virus is passed on is from hands to the mucous membranes of the face (nose, eyes, mouth). Antibacterial soap doesn’t help; even if it is effective against bacteria, colds are caused by viruses. And those alcohol hand-rubs aren’t nearly as useful as an actual handwashing
Another factor, a major one, is the health of the individual’s immune system. One of the things that reduces immune function is stress, whether emotional or due to toxins of whatever sort. If your immune system is busy dealing with another infection, possibly one you’re unaware of such as a dental infection, it will be less likely to protect you against getting a cold.
Preventive nutrition
Good nutrition is crucial to health, including the prevention of colds and other infections. Vitamin A builds resistance to respiratory infections. Vitamin C aids in preventing and treating viral and bacterial infections, especially colds. It may have a direct killing action on viruses and bacteria in addition to stimulating the immune system. The mineral copper helps to fight viruses
SSKI (supersaturated potassium iodide), ten drops in water three times a day for up to ten days, can help. Do not use if sensitive to iodine.
Dairy products and sugar especially should be avoided. Sugar suppresses the immune system and worsens health in general, and dairy is known as a stimulant of mucus production and a cause of ear infections, which can follow colds
Take calcium when you feel a cold coming on, also the amino acid lysine, or Livit-1 (phyllanthus amarus). A packet of Bioprotein-A under the tongue stimulates the thymus, an organ in the neck that produces the immune system’s T cells.
