Or like most things does it just go away on it’s own and have to run it’s course?
I believe it just has to run it’s course. I have tried many different way to prevent them or deter them, but they eventually have their way with me any way :smack:
You can relieve the symptoms and give your body rest and resources to fight off the virus. This will usually take about a week. Or you can take antibiotics, which will help build resistant bacteria, mess up your digestive system, and recover in only seven days.
You can’t.
Colds are caused by viruses. Antiobiotics don’t work against viruses, they work against bacteria. The only way you can cure a cold is to prevent it.
[ul]
[li] Avoid prolonged exposure to people with colds.[/li][li] Stay healthy.[/li][li] Get daily exercise.[/li][li] Take your vitamin C. It really does work. In fact, make sure you get plenty of vitamins.[/li][li] Eat healthy food.[/li][/ul]
Once you’ve got it, you’re done. The rest, and liquids, and stuff the doctors prescribe is just to give your body a chance to fight it off, which it will on its own.
They can’t “cure” the cold once you’ve gotten one for exactly the reason Anamika has said above. And while the flu is a virus as well, it’s usually a few strains that they identify on the other side of the planet, and then can work on creating “flu shots” to be ready by the time one of more of those strains get to the States. But once you get the the flu, a flu shot won’t help. The shots just alert your immune system in advance to particular strains of the virus.
They can’t do that for the cold because the strains mutate so much, and they can’t predict a single strain that will be the same in a few months. At least that’s my understanding.
Anaamika, you got a cite for that Vitamin C statement?
One thing people need to remember is that there are secondary bacterial infections that can very easily occur in people with other conditions or who have poor health due to age etc…
Doctors have had it so drilled into their skulls now not to give antibiotics that they won’t give a preventative course to elderly people like my mom who almost always get these secondary infections. Maybe there are other resaons for this but I just wanted to mention that there are legitimate reasons to prescribe antibiotics even if the infection is only viral (or at least there used to be legitimate reasons).
Anaamika, you missed the most important thing you can do to prevent colds: washing your hands! The cold virus is transmitted mainly from hand-to-nose.
And for you echinacea fans, a recent study claims to find no benefit, so don’t waste your time and money.
I thought zinc lozenges were proven to shorten the duration of the common cold. However, Cecil speaks somewhat less enthusiastically than I’d imagined about the remedy.
Zinc and Vitamin C have not been consistently shown to reduce the duration of colds. However, one man’s cold is another man’s “upper respiratory tract infection” and another man’s flu infection (I see people with pneumonia fairly commonly who think they have a cold and vice versa).
Antibiotics won’t help a viral infection without bacterial superinfection. There are some antiviral medicines that also do not work particularly well.
I remember reading, some time in the early 80s, that Russian researchers had discovered a “cure” for the cold: a saline-soaked tampon inserted into each nostril, through which a small electric current was passed for several hours. Apparently it drastically reduced the length and severity of symptoms in their test subjects.
Shortly afterwards, American researchers announced similar results could be achieved by simply holding the nose closed for a day with a small clip (I remember these being marketed as a cold cure for a while).
It seems the theory is that many of the symptoms of a cold are caused by your body’s defenses trying to kill off the virus, mainly by inflaming the mucus membranes, which raises the temperature in your sinuses to a level the virus doesn’t like. The idea is to help out by artificially raising the temperature in your sinuses quicker than your body can manage, killing the virus before it has a chance to get a hold.
The trouble is, you have to do it as soon as the very first symptoms show up – and they can be tricky to spot. Feeling a bit dry in the throat? Well, it could be the start of a cold… or it could be an allergy, or the air conditioning, or because you spent last night in a smokey bar. It’s difficult to decide you need to go through the discomfort and embarrassment of wearing a clip on your nose for 24 hours when it might not turn out to be a cold after all.
Wash your hands before touching any mucous membrane – e.g., rubbing your eyes or eating.
That sounds rather uncomfortable and maybe even painful. One could imagine that subjects would report that they feel better just to avoid another “treatment”, which explains why they got results. 
While we can’t do it now, there is, in principle, no reason it’s impossible. Except… there is no common cold. It’s a vast collection of similar viruses. Sure, we could immunize against one. But countless variants would need new keyed defenses.
Ok, went off to look it up, and this is what I found:
From Wikipedia:
There is also this PDF from the American Medical Assocation.
Way down on page 5 there is a small paragraph about colds & Vitamin C.
Paraphrased, it says in 1971 Luis Pauling published a report saying Vitamin C does help with colds. A 1975 review by Chalmers came to the opposite conclusion, and it’s been debated ever since. It goes on to say, however, that the “assessment of newer studies led one author to claim that C reduces the severity and duration of colds by 23 %.”
So apparently it is a hotly-debated topic. The last source I have to offer up is my doctor, who also says the same thing.
Now. Too much of everything is bad for you, but there is no denying on any of the sites I looked at that Vitamin C is an important part of a diet and prevents scurvy. The data should be studied more carefully than I can, but I still think you can take your daily vitamin pill with enough C in it.
In theory, perhaps. But the problem is that the IgE antibodies produced in mucous membranes only stick around long enough to confer immunity for a few months, at best. So not only would you have to immunize against dozens of viruses, but you’d have to do so several times a year.
I haven’t had a cold in years, but the last time I felt one coming on (I can always tell;I can feel it in my throat), I took in huge amounts of vitimin C. It was thousands of mgs., serveral times a day (the powdered form mixed in water). With it, I took safe amounts of vitimin E, and garlic capsules. I read about this treatment, and thought I’d try it.
Well, it worked. The cold backed down, and didn’t even become a full-fledge sore throat. I did it several times, and it always worked. Maybe it was just psychological, but who cares? There’s nothing like nipping a cold in the bud; saves a lot of down time.
The only problem was that all those vitimin C crystals mess with your intestinal system.
Okay, this really set my alarms off. The recommended daily allowance for Vitamin C is 60 mg. And they recommend 8 grams every half hour?!? If you do that for 8 hours, that would be 128 grams – more than 2000 times the RDA, and that strikes me as potentially dangerous. A quick Google search turned up this article, which says that a daily dosage in excess of 500 mg is considered an overdose. Among the dangers it cites are insulin spikes, liver damage, and lengthening the menstrual cycle. A Google search on “vitamin C overdose” turns up other similar warnings.
Pauling’s book suggested 10,000 milligrams a day (10 grams), which I think most of the medical community takes issue with. I think it’d be wise to consult a physician before you started the 8 grams per half hour regimen.
Sure, The cure takes a week to work, without it, you’ll be sick for a full 7 days! 