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anyone care to share their favorite cure for the common head cold?
Don't let yourself get exposed to the virus in the first place.
I didn't realize until earlier this year that colds are mostly spread by touch. I read a web site on the topic which unfortunately, I no longer have the link to, although google may help. The way it works is: Someone with a cold gets the virus on their hands, then you shake hands with them or they touch a surface that you touch shortly thereafter. Or they sneeze on a surface that you touch. Then you touch your nose, and the virus gets in that way. Telephones handsets and such are a great way to catch colds.
More rarely, a cold can be spread via airborne method: they sneeze near you, and a droplet of water floats in the air and gets in your nose. But this is a lot more rare than the touch method.
Anyway, the best defense against colds is to keep sick people away from you and your stuff, and wash your hands any time you've been near them or their stuff.
Our department manager was here with a cold a few months ago, and because I had a singing engagement the following week, it was critical that I not catch his cold. He kept coming by my office to discuss things and I made him stay at the doorway. I shook hands with him more than once during the period, but I would be careful not to touch anything (especially my face), and then wash my hands as soon as he was out of sight.
The idea that a cold is only contagious the first couple of days is a myth. He was subscribing to that myth, thinking it was OK for him to mingle with people. But that's not true-- if you're symptomatic, you're shedding the virus. That's what the symptoms are; that's how the virus spreads is via those symptoms.
Anyway, I'm the kind of person who picks up colds pretty easily, and making sure my hands stayed clean the whole time he was here kept me healthy.
The last time I caught a cold, I thought about all the people I'd been around and been in contact with, and I realized I could trace it back to a single touch of the hand from a single person. Argh.
Anyway, this season, I'll be the one in the hermetically-sealed room while all you sickos spread your favorite viruses amongst yourselves, thank you. Plus, it'll give me the time to work on my world domination plans and get started on my genetically engineered army.
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