Talk:Common cold

Cause of a common cold?

Is it really true that you get a cold just by exposing to a cold weather? My parents always tells me that this is true, but more i read about it on the internet, it is more likely false. But i still have some confusion on this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.220.226.219 (talk) 18:55, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

No, one needs to be infected by a virus in order to have a cold. However, this virus is more likely to "survive" long enough to infect a host in colder, dryer weather. In addition, colder temperatures probably weaken one's immune system to some degree, which increases one's risk of infection even more. --Humanist Geek (talk) 01:10, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Your blood from the extremitys is restricted to lessen heat loss, thus the number of available immune response is dimished somewhat, pnumonia is a case of this —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.10.65.114 (talk) 10:39, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

This statement seems suspect to me: " Because strong immune responses cause cold symptoms, "boosting" the immune system increases cold symptoms." It implies that there's something one can do to boost immunity, and that this will increase cold symptoms. The article cited by Jennifer Ackerman says that there's "scant evidence that [supplements] bolster protection against infection by cold viruses." It does not say that one can actually "boost" one's immune system or that doing so would increase cold symptoms, although it offers a hypothesis that "People with more active immune systems may be especially prone to cold symptoms." However, to support that statement in the Wikipedia article, I think some more direct research would need to be cited demonstrating that people whose immune systems are more effective at fighting disease actually get more cold symptoms. Newbis (talk) 03:01, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

Prevention

This line "Probiotics in children 3 – 5 years old were found effective in decreases cold symptoms when taken over 6 months.[29]" and its reference are dubious but are presented too bluntly as fact.

The study has had limited critism but as with any study which reports almost perfect results that haven't been reproduced, caution should be used when referencing it. The sample size of 300 children is also too small to be able to state this so unequivocally. Further there is no data on eligibility criteria and the results were by parental reporting which is known to be affected by many confounding factors.

A more accurate assessment would be:

"An initial study of 300 children aged 3-5 years has indicated that probiotic consumption may have an effect on the incidence of cold and influenza-like symptoms when taken for prolonged periods (6 months). However, these results have yet to be reproduced elsewhere and should be treated with caution as the mechanism by which probiotics work to give the observed effect is unclear." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.44.40.236 (talk) 14:42, 1 April 2010 (UTC)

Agree Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 20:30, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

symptoms...

Could swollen tonsils, swollen neck lymph glands and ear ache also qualify for symptoms. I know that these symptoms are not very common but some people are more prone to these symptoms than others (i for one suffer these symptoms along with a cold despite my colds clearing up much faster than average). Could someone please find out and reference this for inclusion? I am feeling a little to run-down to care. Wuku (talk) 09:30, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Immunity from any given virus?

I perused the article looking for answer to whether one obtains immunity from any given virus after having had a cold caused by it. Perhaps I missed it, but it would be good for a knowledgeable person to address this in the article itself. Casey (talk) 12:52, 30 September 2010 (UTC)

Yes, usually, but it is not necessarily lifelong. WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:41, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

minor change of wording

Does anybody object to changing "average two to four infections a year in individual adults and up to 6–12 in individual children" to "average two to four infections a year in adults and up to 6–12 in children"? I cannot see that the word "individual" creates/denotes any meaningful distinction or clarification. Bj norge (talk) 19:11, 16 October 2010 (UTC) I made the change. Bj norge (talk) 14:27, 21 October 2010 (UTC)

humidity and temperature

My Understanding is humidity drops when temperatures get close to or below freezing. Even if it's not causing water vapor to freeze, it causes it to condense on surfaces that present a gradient. This leaches much of the effective moisture out of the air around us, even if there is high humidity at higher altitudes in snow clouds. Probably explains why people get colds more often in winter, besides being in close proximity to others. Also, the immune system of the upper respiratory system likely does not work as well when it's very cold. -Reticuli 66.178.144.59 (talk) 19:17, 24 November 2010 (UTC)