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IN early fall, a few weeks after the start of school, cold viruses wing their way from one young nose to another and thence to families and the workplace, infecting people at three to four times the rate at other times of year. And so the cold season begins and, with it, the relentless sneezing, coughing and sniffling that continue well into winter.
Most of us come down with at least a couple of colds a year; children get up to a dozen. But we all know people who seem never to catch one. What's their secret? Do they have extraordinarily robust immune systems, and the rest of us, pathetically weak ones? You might think this was key, given the number of nutritional supplements, cold remedies and fortified cereals on the market that purport to augment the immune system — often with the help of vitamins, zinc or ginseng — and by so doing stave off colds.
But science and experience don't back this up. On the contrary, if you're keen on tamping down your own cold, "boosting" your immunity may be the last thing you want to do.
Op-Ed Contributor - How Not to Fight Colds - NYTimes.com
Article Source: The New York Times- Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.
- Public Discussion (5)
I thought this was an interesting perspective. I take a multi-vitamin, I don't tend to focus on one herb or vitamin, but when I have a cold I do dose with a little honey/vinegar "tea" and increase intestinal flora, which I suppose I perceive as something of an "immune booster". I'd be interested in what other people do, as well as thoughts on the seeded article.
- 1 vote
#1 - Tue Oct 5, 2010 3:27 PM EDTI have often wondered about this myself. I have an auto-immune disease (Sarcoidosis) that makes my immune system hyper-vigilant. I almost never get colds. I am 60ish and have had maybe 5 bad colds or less in my life. One of our adopted daughters who we have had since birth also never got colds until she was in her late 20s. She got other weird stuff. Periocarditis at age 5. She gat appendicitis at 8. Terrible chicken pox, migraines, BUT NO COLDS EVER until late 20s.What changed? A lot more sunny days is the only thing I can think of
She skied all winter as a kid, was a ski racer in HS, and trained skiing all summer at Mt Hood, so she was in cold weather much of the time, yet in really close quarters with other kids who did get sick. She raced in college as well, so same thing, Really cold weather, really close quarters. When she graduated and moved to Colorado , from NY and VT, she started getting colds. She lives at high altitude there, but it is definitely cold and her work requires close contact with many people. Now she gets awful colds.
Our other adopted kid, didn't get colds either. She got strep. And and strep over and over.Most people get primary herpes simplex (not the STD, the cold sore) as infants when they are teething and it goes unnoticed. She got it at 12 and had to be hospitalized. So her immune system was on full throttle I guess except for the strep ( which I always felt came from exhaustion as she is ADHD (really and has fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and rarely slept-still doesn't at mid 20s) She also snowboarded a lot in winter and lived in northern latittudes
My husband always got colds which he called grippe, but we never got it from him. We have always had tons of indoor pets. We also take every kind of supplement, emergen-C, and vitamin C and always ate as much food coop and home canned and home frozen organic food as possible--even our junk food was organic) We also ate at Micky Ds and such on the road, ordered Pizza for parties, and one kid ate more candy that a halloween junkie, but overall we ate organic. We always had a protien, a vegetable, and a fruit at every meal , We always drank filtered water and took a mineral supplement.
I often wondered if it was light and lack of it that caused my auto immune. The people who get sarcoid most oftern are far northern european and African Americans--not Africans. If you think about it far northern people get a ton of melatonin all winter and then bang, summer comes and they get almost none. Africans would get alot too. Then in the US, not so much. Also Far Northern Europe tends to be really cold compared with the rest of the world where people live. So I wonder if their immune systems are different?
I don't know, but I have always found it puzzling. The few times I have had colds, I use this homeopathic stuff that I used to feed to the kids with colds on the ski teams B&T cough and bronchial syrup. IT was the only thing that ever worked. It is homeopathic, so that is sort of like voodoo and sort of like a vaccination. So, I don't know. My husband always says it is the alcohol content that cured them. I dunno.
Cool article.
#2 - Tue Oct 5, 2010 5:21 PM EDTSometimes it seems so random, especially with immune disorder diseases. My spouse has osteoarthritis and borderline lupus. I've had lifelong hay fever and a few other allergies. I don't know whether it's the food, the water, the air, the packaging, or just random bad luck.
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