Cold symptoms (useless or not?)

So I guess you guys have heard the story. I am not entirely sure if this belongs in GQ or not, but maybe there are multiple truth values that can be stated without being a debate.

I’ve heard that a lot of times people will get a cold without feeling it. Their body will fight it or whatever it does and they’ll get over it. The other times are the times that we feel it. The feeling bad part of a cold has to do with our body’s immune response to it. There’s loads of areas where our immune responses make us feel bad, and I certainly believe that this could be one of those areas.

So, isn’t it really a question of which type of cold triggers an immune response from who? Maybe it’s like allergies? This is my idea of colds. I could easily be wrong here and please tell me if I am, but are the symptoms of a cold even useful in the actual killing of viruses? That’s all done by the white blood cells as far as I know. The sneezing and such is only just a mechanical way of making things work.

Secondly, another question about colds. If I have a runny nose, and I sniff so hard that I get mucus in my lungs, have I infected my lungs? Or would that have happened anyway. What if I blow my nose too hard so that it forces mucus into my eustacian tubes. Is that the reason why my ears always clog when I get sick?

I’m on the upside of recovering from the cold here, so I’m in good spirits. Yesterday and the day before, however were bad. Here’s how it started though. I was hung-over from the night before on Tuesday. I had class on Wednesday late from 6 to 9 pm. This class is like getting your brain splattered across the room. It is ridiculously hard and most people don’t get it. Very stressful. Plus we had a quiz at the end of class. I was in no state to deal with this. When I got home (after a tortuous commute) I was very hungry but had very little to eat.

Now, in similar situations as this, I will sometimes notice that I get a runny nose. No big deal, I’ve learned to deal with this by getting some food and getting some sleep. Works every time. This time I did neither, and got sick. Is it possible that those previous times I’ve been averting possible illnesses? Or am I just cutting it off before the virus gets to the point of scaring my hypochondriac immune system?

Could the fact that I get sick more often mean that my immune system is working harder than most? It’s really working hard to keep me alive?

I have so many quesitons here, so I hope you guys can get the gist of what I’m getting at.

That’s incorrect simply because it’s meaningless. A “cold” is a collection of symptoms including a runny nose, lethargy, coughing and so forth. To say that you can get a cold and not notice it is meaningless.

Certainly you can become exposed to a rhinovirus and manage to destroy the virus before it becomes established, probably happens once a day on average. That is not the same as having a cold without noticing it.

Not really accurate. It is certainly true to come degree but the inability to breathe and the constant coughing is not due to an immune repsonse. Tjose things are due to the virus destroying the cells lining your airways. Some of the mucous buildup is a immune reposnse, but it’s perfectly sensible and necessary repsonse to your mucous membranes being destroyed from the inside.

The rhinoviruses certainly use the body’s reponses to aid their own spread, but they are also doing real pohysical harm to the cells of your airways. A cold will actually kill a person from anaive population that has never been exposed. It’s not just a case of an overactive immune reposnse, there is real damage being done.

Yes. The virus can only spread by rupturing the host cell and then moving to an adjacent cell. By filling the lungs full of non-living mucous and coughing it out reguarly you limit the ability of the viruses to find new hosts. The mucous also serves to protect the membranes that have been exposed by cell death from the environment. With the surface cells infected and ruptured the membrane has lost its main defence from other pathogens. That’s why secondary bacterial infections such as strep throat so commonly accompany severe colds. By coating the iritated area with mucous you minimse direct exposure to those pathogens.

No, if the virus is established on your nose then it will already be in your lungs. Billions of viruses are aerosolised and sucke dinto you lungs with every breath.

Your ears normally clog for the same reaosn your lunsg do: the eustachian tubes fill with mucus.

Yes, yur immune system can easily be depressed by lack of sleep and incorrect diet.

Naturally if you are getting sick a lot your immune system is being asked to work harder. What you ideally want is to have your immune system functioning well enough that it manages to pre-empt pathogens before the illness develops. That way it doesn’t have to work so hard and you don’t feel sick at all.