Posted by admin
Through a few simple precautions, we can reduce risk of catching a cold or flu by approximately 80 per cent.
Most colds are caught by hand contact by first touching the hand or face of a person who has a cold or flu and then touching your own face, nose, mouth or eyes.
To minimize risk of catching a viral infection, avoid shaking hands or kissing anyone who has a cold or flu. Avoid using a phone if an infected person has just used it. The same applies to handling any object that may have just been touched by a cold or flu sufferer.
Above all, keep your fingers away from your face, nose, eyes and mouth. Even if you have just shaken hands with a cold sufferer, unless your hand actually touches your face you are unlikely to catch a cold.
Whenever you have any contact with a cold or flu sufferer, the best precaution is to wash your hands with hot rail seconds. Then wipe your hands with disposable paper tissue. Few viruses should remain on your hands after that.
The precaution is recommended after you have been with anyone who has a cold or flu, even if you didn’t actually touch them.
However, cold or flu viruses may also be transmitted through air. Hence it’s wisest to avoid contact with sneezers and coughers in crowded places. The most likely locales for catching airborne viruses are where you come into close contact with people, especially in elevators, trains, buses, planes, theaters, restaurants, schools, homes and offices.
Try to limit contact with sneezers and coughers in crowded places. Walk or drive to work if you can rather than go by bus or train. If you find yourself next to a sniffler on an elevator, consider getting off and taking die next elevator. If a friend or relative has a cold or flu, phone them rather than calling in person.
Should you be sneezed or coughed at from close quarters, blow your nose gently but steadily as soon as you can. Take care not to touch your face or nose with your hands. Five minutes later, blow your nose again. Always use throw-away tissues rather than handkerchiefs.
*222\30\4*
Posted by admin
Every single study to emerge from modem nutritional science has strongly indicated that our bodies rebel when we eat a diet high in fats, refined carbohydrates and animal protein. Our immune systems, and all other body systems and organs, fare best when we eat a vegetarian diet of complex carbohydrates augmented, if desired, by small amounts of fish, chicken or turkey without the skin, or by low-fat, unflavored yogurt or cottage cheese.
We should also aim to eat as many foods as possible in their primary state, meaning exactly as they exist in nature. Although grains, legumes and tubers may require light cooking, the closer they are to their original natural state, the more they contribute to our being disease-free.
While it helps to eat the 80-10-10 way during an infection, for maximum benefit we should try to follow this way of eating all of the time. Although no controlled study has been made to show that vegetarians have fewer colds, a number of carefully planned studies—including the Framingham study—have clearly demonstrated that vegetarians have a much lower incidence of heart disease, stroke, cancer, hypertension, diabetes, kidney disease, osteoporosis, gallstones and kidney stones, and infectious diseases than do men and women who eat refined carbohydrates and foods of animal origin. It would seem safe, therefore, to extend this list to include the common cold and influenza.
*198\30\4*
Posted by admin
A deficiency of B-complex components, especially Bl, B5, B6, B12, folic acid and PABA, have been clearly linked to impairment of the immune system in many animal species. Particularly when Bl, B5 and B6 are low in the bloodstream, immunocompetence has been found to fall off. A lack of vitamin Bl (thiamine) can also cause mild depression which has a detrimental effect on immunity. Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) has helped relieve many severe cases of hayfever; for this purpose, you should begin taking it one month before the hayfever season begins. And PABA is a B-complex component which acts as an anti-inflammatory agent.
It is not necessary to take large amounts of any single B vitamin. However, when intake of any single B vitamin is increased, the entire spectrum of the B complex should be increased proportionately. Hence B-vitamins are best taken in the form of a timed-release B-complex supplement containing the entire range of B-components.
*170\30\4*
Posted by admin
Because the respiratory tract is a series of cavities (sinuses, lungs etc.), connected by air passages, viruses can spread from the nose to the sinuses and throat and into the middle ear trachea, larynx, bronchial tubes and lungs. Secondary infections spreading to these locations can cause complications, some quite serious.
Laryngitis is a bacterial or viral infection of the larynx or voice box located at the top of the trachea (windpipe). The common cold virus is often the culprit, in which case medical treatment may be of little help. The infection causes inflammation of the mucous membranes of the larynx and vocal cords. Laryngitis is a common occurrence toward the end of a cold. Although fever and other flu-like symptoms may occur, the characteristic symptom is hoarseness which may be followed by loss of voice. When due to a viral infection, the voice returns as soon as the cold or flu ends. If voicelessness persists, a doctor should be consulted to determine the possible existence of a bacterial infection. Self-treatment includes staying at home and resting if possible, and bolstering immunocompetence by practicing the same therapies recommended for a cold.
Pneumonia is an umbrella term used to describe a variety of forms of inflammation of the lungs, ranging from a mild complication following an upper respiratory tract infection to a life-threatening disease. In all cases, the alveoli or gas exchange cells lining the lungs become infected, either by a virus or bacteria. Bacterial pneumonia is fairly easy to cure with antibiotics, bed rest and soothing cough medicines but recovery from viral pneumonia can take weeks and may require breathing oxygen.
It is interesting to note that most cases of pneumonia occur in people with low immunocompetence.
Symptoms of pneumonia include a fever which may rise to 105°F with abrupt chills and sweating, a painful cough, a sharp chest pain while breathing, breathing difficulty while resting, blood in the sputum, and a bluish tinge to the skin.
Pneumonia is a common complication following a bout with cold or flu but in persons with low immunocompetence it can be precipitated by a variety of causes ranging from physical accident and trauma to emotional stress resulting from divorce or loss of a loved one.
*146\30\4*
Posted by admin
Five hundred million colds beset Americans annually, causing a loss of 46 million workdays, and each winter week 13 percent of the population catches a fresh cold.
Yet the message of this book is that you can easily eliminate 80 percent of the risk that you will catch a cold this winter. And if you do catch cold, chances are good that you can recover completely not later than the evening of the second day.
Credence for these claims comes from the breathtaking succession of discoveries through which science has already unlocked the secrets of the common cold.
We have already learned the structure and design of cold and flu viruses and the entire process by which viruses enter the nasal passages and replicate themselves in cells lining the mucous membranes.
Because the common cold may be caused by one of over 200 different strains of rhinovirus, or similar virus, science has been unable to produce vaccine. A new form of alpha interferon spray, which may prevent up to forty percent of colds if used correctly, may soon be approved by the FDA. But despite some pioneering success with monoclonal antibodies and with a drug called WIN 51,711, medical science can still do little more than soothe the symptoms of the common cold.
Much of the newly discovered information about the common cold and flu has emerged as a by-product of cancer research. And most cancer research today is centered on immunology—the study of white blood cells (soldier cells) charged with defending the body against infection and disease.
Both the common cold and flu are caused by viruses which are recognized as foreign invaders and are identified as non-self by the body’s white blood cells. Cancer occurs when a body cell’s genes go berserk and become so genetically different that the cell, too, is identified as non-self by white blood cells.
Thus both cancer cells, and cold or flu viruses, invoke a similar response by the immune system.
Whether white blood cells can overcome and destroy a cancer cell depends on the overall competence of the body’s immune system. When immunocompetence is high, white blood cells are able to destroy each individual cancer cell that appears in the body before it can begin to clone into a tumor. When immunocompetence is low, a cancer cell may survive undetected and divide and grow into a tumor.
*122\30\4*