Catch your Cold!

Common cold

Geeta Sharma has been catching cold very  often. She had tried all remedies but nothing really worked. Every visit to the family doctor turned futile.

It was then an old familly friend of hers whom she met after nearly 15 years and coincidentally is also a practicing general practitioner had suggested her to write down the days when she catches a cold or has sneezing bouts.

Geeta religiously noted down in her dairy the days when she encountered the cold and sneezing bouts for nearly one month. She took the dairy to her doctor friend, who took a serious analysis of the problem

The doctor friend found out that:

• Geeta caught a cold at the onset of weather change.
• When she shifted the temperature of the water from warm  to cold in summers as she used to have a bath in warm water.
• Cold drinks filled with ice cubes.
• Allergy to dust.
• Not allowing the body to adjust to 2 extreme temperatures – from hot to cold and vice versa.
• Tends to catch a cold early morning and after an afternoon nap.

 Suggestions made by her friend:

• During weather change maintain body temperature- eg: during winter cover your body with warm clothes.
• Throughout the year maintain water temperature while having a bath as well as while having cold drinks.
• Undergo an allergy test to narrow down the causes of your allergy to cold.
• Allow the body to settle down to two extreme temperatures.

Other reasons that may lead to catching a cold.

1. Taking a Long Airplane or Jet Flight to a Foreign Country
If you travel to a foreign country, your body can be exposed to a host of different viruses you haven’t built up an immunity against. Not only that, but being stuck inside an airplane or jet with hundreds of other passengers, some who are infected a cold, greatly increases your chances of catching a Cold.

2. Staying in Air Conditioned Places for Long Periods of Time I

It’s not the coldness of air conditioning that can make you get the cold virus. Rather, it’s that air conditioning removes the humidity from the air you breathe. This can allow  to infect your nose and make you sick with a cold.

3. Schools Are in Session
Because of their weaker and underdeveloped immunity systems, children are at a higher risk of contracting short-term illnesses such as colds. That’s one reason why colds are passed around among school children so much.

4. Heating the Air Means Low Humidity
Just like air conditioning in the warm weather dries out the air you breathe, so does heating the air during the winter months. The protective lining of your nose becomes dried out, and this allows you catch a cold.

About Common Colds in General
One thing is certain- no matter whether you catch a cold in Summer or in Winter, the symptoms are basically the same. Your nose begins to run, you sneeze and cough, your throat feels scratchy or sore, and you start to feel under the weather. As the cold progresses, additional symptoms such as a stuffy nose, a hoarse voice, headache, joint and muscle aches, low-grade fever and fatigue usually occur.

 Home remedies for the common cold:

• Turmeric & Honey
• Tulsi & Ginger with Honey
• Turmeric & salt warm water gargle
• Steam

Most people recover from a cold in about a week or two. If symptoms don’t improve, see your doctor.