Winter brings with it a prime opportunity to catch a cold. “People with asthma tend to experience more asthma symptoms when they have a cold,” says Wesley Burks, MD, professor of pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at Duke University Medical Center. And, if you have asthma, a cold is more than a minor inconvenience. “Colds are viral infections and these viral infections cause inflammation in the airways. This causes problems for people with asthma, because the infection leads to greater airway inflammation and then constriction.”
The stuffy or runny nose you experience when you have a cold is the cold virus triggering your mucous membranes in their effort to fight the virus. “While most people recover from a cold in a matter of days,” explains Dr. Burks, “for someone with asthma, the inflammation can persist weeks after the viral infection, continuing to cause asthma flare-ups even after the cold virus is gone.”
Is it really a cold?
We tend to name any winter illness that involves a runny nose and sore throat a cold. Cold symptoms also include a stuffy nose, coughing, sneezing, and headache. A low fever is often associated with a cold. A severe cold is sometimes mistaken for a mild case of the flu, but since both are viral infections, the treatment is very similar.
Catching a cold
If your sore throat is from a cold, your doctor most likely won't prescribe an antibiotic, because colds are caused by viruses and antibiotics are only effective against bacteria.
While we tend to think of winter months as the cold season, rainy, snowy, cold weather does not cause colds, viruses do. There are about 200 viruses that trigger cold symptoms, including rhinoviruses, corona viruses, and parainfluenza viruses. However, there are a number of reasons why colds are more prevalent in the winter. First, people are indoors more; breathing in the recirculated air of tightly sealed buildings that facilitates the spread of viruses from person to person. Also, the lower humidity of centrally-heated buildings is a good environment for fostering viruses, which seem to survive longer in drier conditions. School and work environments bring a lot of people in close contact with one another, creating opportunities for viruses to spread. While wintry raindrops won't give you a cold, a much smaller and almost invisible droplet may.
Colds are mainly spread person to person through inhaling droplets of secretions from infected people. When an ill person coughs or sneezes, he or she is likely to transmit thousands of virus-laden droplets. Cold viruses can survive for up to 2 hours on a given surface. When a surface is contaminated by a cough or sneeze, you may catch a cold just by touching the surface and then touching your eyes, mouth, or nose. Within 2 to 3 days of infection, symptoms begin. Voila, you've caught a cold.
Some figures estimate that Americans will catch nearly a billion colds each year. Given these figures, you may likely become infected yourself. Once you have a cold, what should you do?
Treating the cold
While there is no cure for a viral infection, there are several things you can do to possibly shorten the length of your illness. Several controlled clinical studies have shown that taking zinc acetate or zinc gluconate lozenges at the first sign of infection may reduce the duration of cold symptoms. At least one study has shown that daily use of zinc lozenges can reduce the number of colds contracted by 68%. (Am J Therapeutics, 2002:9(6);472-475)
Be a Considerate Cold Sufferer.
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Cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing
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Cough or sneeze into a tissue, and then throw it away. Cover your cough or sneeze if you do not have a tissue. Then, wash your hands, and do so every time you cough or sneeze.
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When soap and water are not available, alcohol-based disposable hand wipes or gel sanitizers may be used. You can find them in most supermarkets and drugstores. If using gel, rub your hands until the gel is dry. The gel doesn't need water to work—the alcohol in it kills the germs on your hands.
—From the Food Safety A to Z Reference Guide (U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, September 2001).
Regular doses of vitamin C have been shown to have some effect in reducing the duration of symptoms if taken at the first sign of cold symptoms. (Cochrane Review 2000;(2): CD000980). Some studies have shown that vitamin C does boost the immune system. When considering a high-dose vitamin C regimen, be sure to first consult your doctor.
The most important part of treating a cold is to treat the individual cold symptoms as they present themselves, thus keeping the person as comfortable as possible throughout the illness. This means plenty of liquids, rest, and aspirin or acetaminophen to relieve fever and headache.
(Note: Aspirin use in children has been linked to Reye's syndrome, so non-aspirin pain relievers such as acetaminophen, are recommended.)
For treating specific cold symptoms, most people turn to over-the-counter cold remedies, such as decongestants and cough medicines. Be aware that these medicines only treat the symptoms to make the sufferer more comfortable and have not shown any benefit in shortening the duration of the cold. Given this, you may want to take as little of these medicines as required to keep symptoms at bay. Also, be careful to read labels, as many of these contain the same active ingredients, increasing the risk of overdosing. And while these cold remedies do not require a prescription, keep in mind that they are drugs and may have side effects.
When a cold triggers asthma
For the person with asthma, tracking the asthma condition using a peak flow meter through the duration of the cold is important. “As symptoms increase, a patient with mild intermittent asthma may see the need to increase use of a bronchodilator,” says Burks. “For someone with mild to moderate persistent asthma, he or she may need extra doses of the bronchodilator, or even oral corticosteroids. This is where knowing the patient's history is important, as well as tracking peak flows. As part of an asthma management plan, the doctor should have indicated what actions to take as increased symptoms appear and peak flows fall into the yellow range.”(Peak flow readings are divided into green, yellow and red zones. The yellow zone is typically between 50 and 80 percent of the individuals best score when no symptoms are present and most often means the person should be increasing medications.)
How to avoid catching a cold
To avoid the discomfort, complications, and, for people with asthma, the breathing difficulties a cold can cause, the best offense is a good defense. That means avoiding exposure to the virus in the first place. Most cold-avoidance techniques are simply common sense.
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Wash your hands frequently—especially if you are living or working with someone with cold symptoms. (See sidebar on hand washing.)
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Make it a habit to avoid touching your eyes, nose, or mouth. Many people unconsciously rub their eyes or nose throughout the day. Try to become mindful of this and break the habit—not only in the winter, but at all times.
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To the greatest extent possible, avoid people with cold symptoms. Don't use their phone. Wash your hands after leaving their company. Change seats on the bus or in the waiting room if your neighbor is visibly ill.
Then there are other less obvious ways to reduce your likelihood of contracting a cold.
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Get plenty of sleep. Studies have shown a clear link between immune system suppression and lack of sleep. Your body requires rest to maintain health. Chronic lack of sleep leads to increased infection rates.
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Eat a healthy diet. A healthy diet will provide your body with the vitamins and minerals it needs to function well and ward off infection.
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Avoid stress, and learn to better manage stress. Stressed-out college students are sicker during finals week than are students who do not consider themselves stressed out. Stress has a negative effect on the immune system. Finding ways to reduce stress may lead to better health. And while not all stress can be avoided, it is possible to learn how to handle it in constructive ways.
What is the Correct way to Wash your Hands?
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First, wet your hands and apply liquid or clean bar soap. Place the bar soap on a rack, and allow it to drain.
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Next, rub your hands vigorously together and scrub all surfaces.
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Continue for 10-15 seconds, or about the length of a little tune. (Singing the Happy Birthday song twice gives you about the right amount of time to scrub thoroughly.) It is the soap combined with the scrubbing action that helps dislodge and remove germs.
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Rinse well and dry your hands.
—From the Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Get your vaccinations
There is no cure for the common cold. There isn't even a vaccine—although scientists are working in this direction. However, there are vaccines for other infections that can cause problems for people with asthma.
While influenza (the flu) is caused by a different set of viruses from the ones that cause the common cold, yearly vaccination with the flu vaccine is a good idea for someone with chronic asthma.
One type of bacterial pneumonia can also be prevented with a vaccination. Ask your doctor if you are a likely candidate for a flu or pneumonia vaccination.
Despite all your best efforts, you may still end up with a cold this winter. This may worsen your asthma, but you should be able to manage if you are well prepared. “Typically, a person with asthma experiences more asthma symptoms during the infection,” says Dr. Burks. “But with preparedness and an asthma management plan to address the increased symptoms appropriately, you'll make it through the cold just fine.”