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33

The Common Cold 

Lecture 9

The common cold has been with us, obviously, for a very long time. It 
was known to many of the ancient civilizations according to historical 
records. In fact, the Egyptians even had a hieroglyph for it.

T

he common cold is, well, common. We all get it, we want to prevent 
it, and we want to shorten its duration. Therefore, it’s no surprise that 
myths about the common cold are just as common as the cold itself. 

Probably the biggest myth is that cold weather causes the cold: You can’t 
get a cold from being exposed to cold weather or being wet or being out 
in the rain. You need to get exposed to a cold virus in order to catch the 
cold. However, there’s a separate question of whether being cold or 
wet makes you more susceptible to catching the virus if you are exposed 
to it. Largely speaking, the evidence for that is negative. But it’s still 
slightly controversial. 

It is generally recognized that the cold is more common in the winter. This 
is probably mostly due to the fact that in the winter months, kids are back 
at school. In essence, kids and their less than ideal hygiene make schools 
perfect breeding grounds for cold viruses. The viruses then spread to the rest 
of the population through multiple pathways. 

What about vitamin C? You may have heard for years that taking vitamin 
C can either treat or prevent the common cold. But it’s been researched for 
decades now and not shown much impact. Does it prevent you from catching 
the cold? The answer is very clearly no. What about decreasing the severity 
of the cold once you catch it? There, the answer is no as well. What about 
reducing the duration of the cold with vitamin C? Here the evidence is not 
as conclusively negative. It still is trending negative, but there is some weak 
evidence for a slight decrease in the duration of a cold by about a half a 
day—if you took vitamin C at the very beginning of the cold or were already 
taking it before you got the cold. 

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Lecture 9: The Common Cold

Herbal remedies have become popular for the common cold. A few years 
ago, Echinacea was the most common herbal remedy. But extensive 
clinical research in people with Echinacea clearly shows no bene

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 t  for 

either prevention or reduction of 
severity. What about other types 
of supplements—vitamins and 
minerals to help boost your immune 
system? One product in particular 
called Airborne is basically just 
a multivitamin. The notion of 
Airborne is that it will prevent you 
from catching a cold on an airplane. 
It turns out that there’s really no 

theoretical basis for the notion that taking a short-term supplement will 
improve or increase your immune activity and make it more robust or better 
able to 

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 ght off a cold. There is no evidence to show that taking Airborne or 

any other multivitamin or supplements reduces either the risk of developing 
a cold or its severity or duration. It’s also interesting to point out that 
Airborne has very high levels of vitamin A. If you take it as recommended, 
you actually will get what is considered to be an overdose of vitamin A.

Let’s talk a bit about preventing the common cold. The most effective 
measure for preventing a cold is to avoid getting exposed to the virus in 
the 

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 rst place. That means frequent hand washing with soap and water. That 

will clear the viruses or bacteria off your skin before you have a chance to 
infect yourself with them. You should also avoid exposure to people known 
to be sick, especially in the 

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 rst 3 days of their illness when they have a 

fever. When you are sick or when you are around other people who are sick, 
avoid touching your eyes and nose. You also may avoid crowds when you 
are sick. That way, you’ll do everyone a favor by not spreading the virus 
around. When you do have to sneeze or cough, do it into your elbow or a 
disposable tissue. 

Dry air can also dry out the nasal mucosa making it more vulnerable to 
viruses. Using a humidi

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 er—if the air in your environment or in your 

home is too dry—may actually reduce your risk of getting a cold in 
addition to making you more comfortable. Do not smoke: A history of 

You should also avoid 
exposure to people known to 
be sick, especially in the 

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 rst 3 

days of their illness when they 
have a fever. 

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smoking may increase the duration of a cold by an average of 3 days. 
Sleep deprivation generally runs down the body and makes you more 
susceptible to infections, 
including the cold. 
Finally, recent evidence 
suggests vitamin D may 
be helpful in preventing 
the cold. 

What are the symptoms 
of the common cold? 
Most of the symptoms of 
the cold are actually not 
caused by the virus itself; 
they are caused by your 
immune system 

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 ghting 

off the infection. Should 
you treat the symptoms of 
a cold, or by doing so, are you suppressing your immune system’s attempt to 

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 ght it off? If you reasonably treat your symptoms, your body can still 

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 ght 

off the infection without any problem. 

Are there any over-the-counter medications you should keep on hand for 
when you get a cold? Certainly, you can have acetaminophen or nonsteroidal 
anti-in

À

 ammatory drugs, which means aspirin, ibuprofen, or naproxen. They 

will treat a fever, if you’ve got one. They are also analgesics, so they can 
reduce sinus pain, general discomfort, or the pain of a sore throat. What 
about cough suppressants? Interestingly, a lot of common products will mix 
together a cough suppressant and an expectorant. That makes no sense when 
you think about it. If you are having a somewhat productive cough and you 
want to get the phlegm up, then take an expectorant. But over-the-counter 
cough suppressants are really not very effective in suppressing a cough. 

You can also adjust your behavior in order to reduce the symptoms of a cold. 
Drinking a lot of 

À

 uids will help prevent dehydration, including that of the 

mucous membranes. If you can eat, that will make you feel better as well. A 
good night’s rest is also important in 

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 ghting off the infection, but there’s no 

Contrary to myth, treating a fever with 
medicine will not interfere with your body’s 
immune response. 

© iStockphoto/Thinkstock.

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Lecture 9: The Common Cold

reason to stay bedridden. Finally, avoid smoking or exposure to smoke, as 
that can irritate and dry the membranes and extend the duration of symptoms 
in a cold. 

Ŷ

Eccles and Weber, 

Common Cold. 

Tyrrell and Fielder, 

Cold Wars.

1. 

Why is the common cold so common and yet so dif

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 cult  to  treat 

and prevent?

2. 

Is vitamin C, or any other food or supplement, effective in preventing 
the cold?

    Questions to Consider

    Suggested Reading

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Vaccination Bene

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 ts—How Well Vaccines Work 

Lecture 10

In 1796, British physician Edward Jenner coined the term “vaccination,” 
derived from the Latin word 

vacca

 for cow. This is because he was using 

the cowpox vaccine in order to prevent smallpox.

M

yths, misconceptions, and resistance to vaccines are as old as the 
modern vaccine program itself. In fact, myths and misinformation 
seem to be increasing today in our society. This is threatening the 

effectiveness of the vaccine program as a public health measure. It’s also 
making it dif

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 cult for individuals to make informed decisions for themselves 

and their families about vaccines. We explore how vaccines work and how 
effective they are.

Vaccines work by provoking a targeted immune response. A primary immune 
response—a response to something that your immune system is encountering 
for the 

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 rst time—peaks at about 5 to 10 days. That’s a long time for a virus 

or bacteria to be reproducing and spreading throughout your body. With a 
subsequent exposure, your immune system’s response will peak in only 1 to 
3 days. That means your body can 

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 ght off that infection much earlier and 

much more robustly. 

There are different kinds of vaccines; the technology has actually advanced 
quite a bit in the last 100 years or so. The most primitive type of vaccines, 
called inoculations, utilized living viruses or bacteria and were essentially 
just a controlled infection. There was always the risk that the inoculation 
could cause a serious infection. 

The next step was the development of the attenuated virus or bacteria. An 
attenuated vaccine uses the exact species or strain of virus that you’re trying 
to inoculate against, but the virus is attenuated. The process of attenuation 
essentially is to breed it in another species so that it will be less virulent 
in humans. Your body will have time to 

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 ght it off, but you will develop 

immunity. The disadvantage to the attenuated virus vaccine is that it may 
back mutate.