Thread: Colds and flu

It is cold and flu time of year again and doctors are telling us that these are viral diseases, not treatable by antibiotics, so what should we do? Granny would tell you to wrap up warm and keep your feet dry, but it can be demonstrated that the climatic conditions are not directly responsible for the infections.

Rather, because of the weather, we spend more time in close crowded conditions where the infections get passed round. Using a handkerchief or tissue when you cough or sneeze reduces the chance of passing the infection considerably.

When we were at school the science teacher did an experiment with us where a child stood at each bench, from front to back of the class, with a sterile petri dish containing agar. At a signal they all took the lids off and a volunteer at the front of the class was allowed to sniff a small amount of pepper and sneeze, then the lids were put back on and the dishes put to culture for a week until next lesson. Can you imagine the health and safety issues that would raise nowadays? But the vivid illustration of the decreasing growths as one got further from the sneeze gave a lesson in the health benefits of covering a sneeze probably stayed with most of us for life.

Spitting seems to have become more acceptable nowadays, one sees sportsmen doing it all the time. In the latter part of the nineteenth century when Louis Pasteur demonstrated bacterial infection laws were passed in England against spitting in public. Spittoons were removed from Public Houses and chewing tobacco went out of fashion. Within a year the death rate from upper bronchial diseases dropped by over sixty percent.

Victorians were notoriously ready to speak their mind "I say my good man..."

With the emergence of antibiotic resistant forms of Tuberculosis and the near certainty of another flu pandemic possibly we should be following their lead, though "Excuse me, but..." might be more acceptable.

These, however, are mere avoidance techniques, what to do if you actually catch the dreaded lurgie?
Well firstly aspirin, the Cold Research Council has shown that regular use of aspirin will reduce the life of a cold by an average of two to three days, and it makes you feel better. Aspirin has had a bad press because of its association with stomach problems, but used responsibly for short periods it is a very effective drug.

The other thing that can help is inhaling hot water vapour, adding things like menthol make it smell good but it is the warmth and moisture that have the effect. The organisms that infect the respiratory tract choose that part of the body partly because the temperature there is a couple of degrees lower than the rest of the body and they don't like it when you warm things up for them. By maintaining this for a longish period, over an hour, and raising the core temperature inside your body, it is sometimes possible to kill off an infection completely. The moisture part of it helps you to expectorate and physically expel the alien organisms from your body, as well as stopping your lungs from drying out. If you find long periods claustophobic even short periods will help shorten the life of your cold. For children I have built a tent over two chair backs with a sheet, this lets light through, and gone in with them with an electric kettle, kept carefully away from them on my side, while we play "camping" or they get a story.

Other than that I guess it's time to wrap up warm and keep your feet dry, good luck

The cold research council infected volunteers and kept them in isolation treated in various ways, asprin and hot water vapour were the only things that reduced the life of the infection, your quack is right about the vitamin C. I think he is pessimistic about the length of time as well, purely from memory it was something like 7-10 days reducing to 5-7 days. The starting to get it and stopping it dead with prolonged warmth is from personal experience and purely anecdotal.

Originally Posted by exocoetidae

As a cook, I have held to the habit of sleeving into my sleeve, where no one touches me and the vapor then doesn't spread. It depends what makes me sneeze that worries me.

When I am at Subway and the snotnosed kid making sandwiches sneezes into the crook of his elbow while making the sandwich ahead of mine, I leave. Doesnt spread, my ass. When he does it while making mine, I feign an empty wallet at the register and leave.

Originally Posted by exocoetidae

As a cook, I have held to the habit of sleeving into my sleeve, where no one touches me and the vapor then doesn't spread. It depends what makes me sneeze that worries me.

Thankfully, I have never had TB or pneumonia. I have known others to have suffered to the point of death from both, and I hope, Olly Buckle, that the pandemic to which you speak is never so serious and tragic.

Aspirin for colds and fluenzas, with its salicylic acid, is our saving grace.

Did TB, caught it off an Indian girl who had been back to Kenya to visit her family. The pandemic I was referring to was influenza, It chucks up a really nasty killer variant about once every 70-80 years that goes worldwide. The last one was in 1919 and probably killed more people than the war that had just finished. Do the maths, it's coming soon, and with higher density populations and jumbo jets it will go mad everywhere all at once. That is if Yellow stone doesn't explode, the North West American giant earthquake, the killer sunami, Java supervolcano and there are no asteroids on collision courses.

Originally Posted by Wannabee

When I am at Subway and the snotnosed kid making sandwiches sneezes into the crook of his elbow while making the sandwich ahead of mine, I leave. Doesnt spread, my ass. When he does it while making mine, I feign an empty wallet at the register and leave.

Think I might agree, except I wouldn't eat in subway, they put trans-fats in their rolls.

Originally Posted by Olly Buckle

Think I might agree, except I wouldn't eat in subway, they put trans-fats in their rolls.

Perhaps they do in the UK.

Not that I'm deluded about how healthy Subway is/isnt...

There was a program on the box about the junk they put in fast food, mind you I don't think any one featured on it looked good, Mum was right, take sandwiches, healthier and cheaper, just not so much fun.