Talk:Common cold
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Does cold weather bring on more infection?
It would seem to me that the best possible link would be the low humidity of cold air. This clearly leads to a drying of the nose, lips, etc., and this drying leads to cracking (even microscopically) which allows viruses to enter the body. The NIH (http://www.niaid.nih.gov/factsheets/cold.htm) says there's no link, however.... Sublium 16:02, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Regarding the "cold doesn't cause cold" issue, Dr. Greene gives an interesting argument (http://www.drgreene.org/body.cfm?id=21&action=detail&ref=55) which could give some justification why cold air could still influence the catching of a cold, despite no clinical evidence *yet*. I suggest that those who are knowledgeable about this have a look at this and maybe make a few additions to the article. I am definitively not knowledgeable enough of the subject yet to have a solid opinion. -- Simon Lacoste-Julien 16:30 (PST), March 7, 2004
The coldness of winter also reduces the immune system which would give an increase in infection Jonathanriddell 21:03, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)
I have heard that you can get a cold more easily when it's cold because the blood ciculation in the areas near the skin is reduced so that viruses can evolve more easily. I don't really know anything, but I think it hard to believe that there is no connection whatsoever. Is it really an established opinion that temperature has no effect? If not, the article is very misleading - many people may be sitting out there in the cold now feeling safe but catching a cold anyway ;-) --Abaris 23 Aug 2004
Cold weather tends to keep people in close quarters, leading to increased physical contact, so this could be a contributing factor. A-giau 05:52, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)
I'm not an MD, but Dr Greene's webpage renders me skeptical. Despite the .org extension, his web site looks pretty much like a commercial site. I'd always be careful with facts from this type of websites, although he does not seem to sell alternative medicines to treat common colds. He is a pediatrician, not a specialist on respiratory infections.
Apart from my prejudices above, he starts his argument by a short review of scientific research that showed no relationship between temperature and cold infections, which does not hinder him from setting up an unproven theory about how temperature might affect the chance of getting infected. IIRC, the volunteers in earlier studies were deliberately sprayed with cold viruses and temperature did not affect infection rates. His theory might seem plausible, but is not backed up by empirical data. -- Han-Kwang (talk) 12:47, 2 Nov 2004 (UTC)
If cold does not cause cold, how can you explain observable coincidence between staying in cold with getting ill? This coincidence seems too strong for nocebo. --Grzes 00:33, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)
I'm not an MD, but I tend to have more belief in controlled experiments than personal experience. As an analogy: I have observed that almost always if I choose between two queues in the supermarket, I pick the one that is slowest. Everyone else that I know has the same experience. This correlation is too strong to be a coincidence.
- This is orthogonal to the common cold issue, but I recall listening to a talk in a mathematics conference 6 years ago which gave some explanation using queuing theory for this phenomenon. I unfortunately don't remember the argument (and had no idea what were Markov chains and stochastic processes at the time). Now that I know more about those, I can't reproduce a model which would make you more likely to choose the bad queue if you only have 2 queues (because of the symmetry of the model). But I would first of all suspect a psychological component of noticing the bad events first (so that you would tend to notice less when you picked the right lane). And also, note that you often have more than 2 lanes. And so if you just consider the 3 lanes case (say one to your left and one to your right), and they are all equally likely of finishing first, then the probability that one of your neighbors being faster than you is 2/3. Simon Lacoste-Julien 22:05, 19 Mar 2005 (UTC)
There is a seasonal variation in common cold infections, which is attributed to people staying indoors more often, with less ventilation to get rid of airborne infectuous droplets. If the chance of a cold-bearing person transmitting his/her infection is 0.9 during summertime, and 1.1 during wintertime, that will make the difference between very few infections and an explosive epidemy.
- I know about the indoor argument, but my personal experience is that I catch colds when I have been in cold temperature not properly dressed, for some reasons. I can spend a lot of time indoor during the cold season and not get sick, and then if I spend some time outside during windy conditions without a scarf, for example, the next day I'm sick (usually throat pain first)... These coincidences are pretty consistent in my experience, and they would merit explanations (better than just 'you spend more time indoor during the cold season' which is a general statement not explaining the individual coincidences like 'I get out in the cold once and I get sick'). Simon Lacoste-Julien 22:05, 19 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Han-Kwang (talk) 10:25, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Close quarters, but also all irritants have been shown to increase concentrations of ICAM-1, the rhinovirus receptor. Cold weather is another irritant to the respiratory tract, so might increase ICAM-1 just like all sorts of irritants and allergens do. As well cold/humid weather tends to produce cold-like symptoms that might increase the transmission of the virus eg., sneezing and wiping etc. Ie cold weather uses the tricks that the virus uses to spread.. and might increases receptor levels to the virus.. BTW I don't think a "low" immune system explains it except that a immune *reaction* for whatever reason can affect ICAM-1.. Err.. at least in most cases, of course you can get ill from extreme cold.. Also of course the school system beginning in september around the world as well as just a fluke of periodicity in virus levels all explain it, need we more explanation? In this case all help to explain, and no, lots of explanations do not mean that we don't know the right one. (posted around March 2005)
Someone added to the main text that there is no evidence that chilling increases risk of getting the common cold. The BEST of these studies have been done using specific viral "loads" on subjects and having a treatment arm and a placebo arm. This doesn't exclude the possibility that cold weather affects the transmission.. And increasing the closeness of people and affecting the sneezing and wiping which is how the virus spreads is not the only way this might happen.. I agree with the poster so I didn't edit it just wanted to comment that alot of people misuse the data, not necessarily misused here
Cures?
- Early recovery from cold is simple, at the moment of "Cold ?" use a simple gauge mask to kepp warm and humid the nose by own breath. Continue for one or two days even during sleeping and working. With warm pads around neck will help quicker recovery. For detail
http://iccincsm.tripod.co.jp or mail to iccinc@f6.dion.ne.jp
Satoshi mochizuki(Ph.D.)
- I want a second opinion - is this blankworthy as an infomercial? Thanks. -- Pakaran 01:32, 6 Dec 2003 (UTC)
Does anyone have a problem with including information about zinc gluconate with regard to shortening the duration of colds? Here are some of the studies: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Display&dopt=pubmed_pubmed&from_uid=15499830
Sublium 21:29, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Reportable Disease?
- "Until the 1980s, by law, the common cold was not a reportable disease. "
- Which law? Where? Jonathanriddell 21:03, 3 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- In the United States (possibly Canada). Compton Encyclopedia 1963 says "The common cold is not a reportable disease under the law. Because of this, there are no reliable official statistics as there are for [..] other communicable diseases. In order to estimate its frequency, one must rely on various types of surveys..such as those made by the Public Health Service" I'm not sure where the 1980s bit came. Rhymeless 02:53, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)
"Most common of all diseases"
I thought that was tooth decay. Neutralitytalk 00:40, Jan 20, 2005 (UTC)