Can you prevent colds?

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robfosters

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Is it possible to prevent or boost your immunity to colds or is there no way at all and all simply luck of the draw?

Not a medical thread as I'm not ill and not asking for diagnosis or cure.
 
Enough sleep, no stress, balanced diet with all your needed vitamins and minerals, and being fit & healthy will all bolster your immune system.

This will not prevent colds, but would reduce the number of infections, and shorten your recovery time.

I make it a point to wash my hands frequently, not touch stuff on public transport, and gargle with TCP whenever I feel a vaguely scratchy throat, seems to help.

EDIT - and this is somewhat interesting.
 
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Pretty sure that the cold and flu virus are constantly mutating to create new strains which no one has immunity to. Once you catch a certain strain you gain immunity after it is gone.
 
krooton said:
Enough sleep, no stress, balanced diet with all your needed vitamins and minerals, and being fit & healthy will all bolster your immune system.

This will not prevent colds, but would reduce the number of infections, and shorten your recovery time.

I make it a point to wash my hands frequently, not touch stuff on public transport, and gargle with TCP whenever I feel a vaguely scratchy throat, seems to help.

EDIT - and this is somewhat interesting.
Click to expand...

^

/thread
 
I've had a flu jab and a pneumonia jab in the last month, take a daily Berocca and Echinacea in the winter and I'm about to call an ambulance as I have man flu, I can barely type this however thought my words of wisdom would be more appreciated here than at work where no one cares.............................
 
No.

And anyone that says you can "boost" your immune system in any way that is beneficial is just talking rubbish.

This from a recent article at Harvard

" For now, there are no scientifically proven direct links between lifestyle and enhanced immune function."

Firstly, we still don't even understand the basics of the immune system. We can't even accurately measure it's function or how well it is performing at keeping us well. The only way you can prevent/reduce the likelihood of getting an infection is to already have been exposed to it.

And here's some more bumph from the article....

"Many products on store shelves claim to boost or support immunity. But the concept of boosting immunity actually makes little sense scientifically. In fact, boosting the number of cells in your body — immune cells or others — is not necessarily a good thing. For example, athletes who engage in “blood doping” — pumping blood into their systems to boost their number of blood cells and enhance their performance — run the risk of strokes.

Attempting to boost the cells of the immune system is especially complicated because there are so many different kinds of cells in the immune system that respond to so many different microbes in so many ways. Which cells should you boost, and to what number? So far, scientists do not know the answer. What is known is that the body is continually generating immune cells. Certainly it produces many more lymphocytes than it can possibly use. The extra cells remove themselves through a natural process of cell death called apoptosis — some before they see any action, some after the battle is won. No one knows how many cells or what kinds of cells the immune system needs to function at its optimum level."
 
krooton said:
Enough sleep, no stress, balanced diet with all your needed vitamins and minerals, and being fit & healthy will all bolster your immune system.

This will not prevent colds, but would reduce the number of infections, and shorten your recovery time.

I make it a point to wash my hands frequently, not touch stuff on public transport, and gargle with TCP whenever I feel a vaguely scratchy throat, seems to help.

EDIT - and this is somewhat interesting.
Click to expand...

+1
Pretty much this.
 
Make sure you do plenty of exercise, eat plenty of fruit and veg. If you do happen to start with a bit of a sniffle for heavens sake don't buy any over-the-counter cold remedies - they'll just make it worse in the long run. Take the maximum dose of paracetamol for the pain and just power on through.
 
scorza said:
Make sure you do plenty of exercise, eat plenty of fruit and veg. If you do happen to start with a bit of a sniffle for heavens sake don't buy any over-the-counter cold remedies - they'll just make it worse in the long run. Take the maximum dose of paracetamol for the pain and just power on through.
Click to expand...

I was just about to say this.

The reason the "western" world has so much trouble with colds is down to over the counter medications.... nothing else. In fact Paracetamol alone is the main cause of keeping colds spreading.

People take it like it's a sweet. Which in turn prolongs the cold/Flu (enabling the person to carry the virus around for days while they go about their business infecting everyone else with it) - rather than it burning out in 24 hours with the bodies own heating/sweating defence mechanism (which is extremely efficient in getting rid of the invader naturally)
 
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Heliospherez said:
I was just about to say this.

The reason the "western" world has so much trouble with colds is down to over the counter medications.... nothing else. In fact Paracetamol alone is the main cause of keeping colds spreading.

People take it like it's a sweet. Which in turn prolongs the cold/Flu (enabling the person to carry the virus around for days while they go about their business infecting everyone else with it) - rather than it burning out in 24 hours with the bodies own heating/sweating defence mechanism (which is extremely efficient in getting rid of the invader naturally)
Click to expand...
Colds take the same amount of time to go regardless, and to be honest, the cold medicine barely helps, just stops me needing to blow my nose every 2 minutes, more like ever 10 instead.

I take a tonne of cold medicine so I can carry on working through it, usually a load of brandy and a few oranges chucked in for good measure.

I get one cold every year, it lasts a few days, work through it, jobs a goodun.
 
Heliospherez said:
I was just about to say this.

The reason the "western" world has so much trouble with colds is down to over the counter medications.... nothing else. In fact Paracetamol alone is the main cause of keeping colds spreading.

People take it like it's a sweet. Which in turn prolongs the cold/Flu (enabling the person to carry the virus around for days while they go about their business infecting everyone else with it) - rather than it burning out in 24 hours with the bodies own heating/sweating defence mechanism (which is extremely efficient in getting rid of the invader naturally)
Click to expand...

Interesting that you agree with me then say completely the opposite of what I said :)

My view, which has nothing to do with actual science, is that paracetamol is fine because it only kills the pain and allows you to carry on almost normally. The problem is all these decongestants and cough medicines that interfere with the body's immune response.

One last piece of advice if you're ill with a cold. Make sure you go into work and let everyone know what a martyr you are. Then when someone else gets your cold and takes the day off, mention how strange it is that you were able to come in while this other person is lounging in bed all day.
 
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