Sore throat, cough and runny nose: Cold viruses are in high season in winter. Our immune system usually copes with the infection easily, but the symptoms are just totally annoying.
Especially if you go through the whole thing regularly: adults get a cold an average of four times a year – children even get it up to ten times.
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Anyone who has a cold naturally wants to get rid of the illness as quickly as possible. That’s why there are tons of tips for a quick cure.
But not all of them are really any good – these five pieces of advice, for example, are true cold myths that you can quickly forget.
1. Misconception: You can get rid of a cold with exercise
Sport is generally considered healthy. But if you already have a cold, rest and plenty of sleep are the only right thing to do. This is the only way to strengthen the immune system in order to fight the viruses quickly.
Otherwise, two stress factors have an impact on the body that put a strain on the immune system – the pathogens in the body and the physical exertion.
“Both cause stress hormones to be released. These in turn suppress the immune responses that the body needs to fight viruses or bacteria,” explains Dr. Axel Preßler, senior physician at the Center for Preventive and Rehabilitative Sports Medicine at the Technical University of Munich.
Exercise also weakens the immune system in the event of illness and therefore has a counterproductive effect. In the event of a cold, you should “go to bed” instead of “go to the sports field”.
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Misconception 2: A cold can develop into the flu
That’s not true either, as the pathogens that cause a cold and the flu are significantly different. The culprits of the flu are the so-called influenza viruses, while a cold is caused by a variety of different cold viruses.
A cold cannot become the flu. However, someone with a cold can also become infected with flu viruses.
To tell the two apart, you can use the following principle as a guide: With the flu, the symptoms appear suddenly, whereas a cold develops slowly and often begins with headaches, malaise, fatigue or chills.
If you have the flu, you will feel fatigue and tiredness much more clearly than with a simple cold. Severe headaches, body aches and fever are also more likely to indicate flu.
Image gallery: 25 tips against colds
3. Misconception: Blowing your nose is better than raising your nose
On the contrary. The secretion reaches the throat when pulled up and is then swallowed. The stomach acid takes care of the rest and renders the pathogens harmless. Violent blowing of the nose, on the other hand, can push nasal secretions into the sinuses, where they can cause inflammation.
A good alternative to tissues are Nasal showerssays ear, nose and throat doctor Jörg Lindemann to ‘Apotheken Umschau’: “The nasal rinse washes away bacteria and viruses, and the mucus is also removed,” said the expert.
4. Misconception: Lots of vitamin C helps prevent colds
Not true. It is true that vitamin C is a vital vitamin, also for our immune system. However, it is also water soluble.
This means that we excrete anything that we have ingested in excess through our urine. So it remains ineffective. There is currently no scientific proof of protection for high doses of vitamin C.
5. Misconception: If you are coughed on, you automatically become ill
This assumption only applies if the organism is already weak and the immune system cannot fight off the invading pathogens. The greater danger lies in indirect transmission (smear infection) via handshakes or towels, doorknobs and other materials on which viruses survive.
That’s why it’s especially important to wash your hands regularly and thoroughly during cold season – and to take more time than usual.
According to the Robert Koch Institute, you should rub the soap between your fingers for a full 20 to 30 seconds and make sure that the entire hand is soaped and that the soap foam gets into the spaces between the fingers and under the fingernails.
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