THE COMMON COLD
The average American gets at least two common colds each year. Children in day school may get as many as ten or twelve colds a year. These colds are caused by viruses. They begin with infection in the back of your nose. This is perceived as a sore throat. As a sore throat resolves, you become aware of nasal congestion. At first you have clear secretions and then as they become infected by bacteria, the secretions turn green or yellow and are blown out the front of your nose or drip down the back of your nose and throat.
Medicine has no treatment for the common cold and because there are so many different kinds of viruses, vaccines are not generally available. The cold is transmitted from person to person, either by direct contact with infected mucus or by viral practicles breathed out of the sick individual and breathed in by the soon to be sick individual. Proper hand washing and avoidance of placing one's fingers in one's eyes, nose and mouth are the best prophylaxis. Unfortunately, most people with a cold are contagious long before they are symptomatic. Antibiotics are prescribed for the common cold way too often. They do nothing to treat the cold. They do reduce the bacterial supra-infection and they may make you a bit more comfortable particularly at the tail end of the cold.
There are risks to antibiotics. First and foremost, you may develop a reaction to the antibiotic, and in some cases these reactions are so severe they will kill you. You may also develop a less severe allergic reaction and as a result will not be able to take this or similar antibiotics in the future. When you and everyone else take antibiotics, the bacteria are continuously exposed to these antibiotics. Slowly but surely the bacteria develop resistance to the antibiotics. Soon the antibiotics will no longer be effective for you or anyone. If you take antibiotics for every cold you may not have an antibiotic to use when a more serious infection develops.
Lastly, antibiotics are expensive and if we all use them for every cold, we either increase the cost of medical care or we decrease the availability of medical care for more serious conditions.
There are hundreds of home remedies; few have been scientifically substantiated. Somewhere there is a scientific paper that alleges benefit to chicken soup. That only works if you like chicken soup. There are some suggestions that vitamin C may be useful. Aspirin and Motrin reduce the symptoms of being sick but may reduce your own immune system's ability to fight the cold. The best defense system you have is your own immune system. Your immune system does not work when you are tired or stressed. In fact, when you have the first signs of a cold you would be well advised to go home, curl up in bed, drink lots of water and try to sleep and relax. To whatever degree you are successful, the intensity and duration of the cold will be reduced.
If your nose becomes horribly stuffed, decongestants such as SudafedR are available. I am opposed to nose drops such as Afrin and NeosynephrineR, for they are addictive. Antihistamines are recommended by some. Certainly, if an individual has allergic rhinitis and that is making the cold even worse, the antihistamines may be useful.
Unfortunately, antihistamines thicken your secretions and therefore impair the mucociliary transport system and so they are potentially harmful in treating the common cold. For those who are not allergic, antihistamines can only thicken secretions and will probably do little to benefit you.
Nasal irrigation is very useful for the common cold. You can keep the bowl filled and whenever your nose becomes impossibly congested, irrigate both sides to wash out the thick secretions. This will provide you relief and improvement for an hour or two. This may have to be repeated four to ten times a day. You will have to make your own adjustments for salt concentration, temperature and volume. Please remember that the common cold is highly contagious and if the irrigator is being shared for nasal or dental purposes, be careful not to contaminate or use others' irrigating handles.