How long does it take you to get over a cold?

[Young&sick]

I got a cold a few weeks ago, thought I was over it and so I tried to resume doing a little daily exercise. Sure enough however, either i have caught a second cold or the first one is somehow back. Ughh. I had a trip planned but i think that is down the tubes now.

So, for those of you who have had a cold during this illness we all share, how long did it take you to get over it? How much extra rest did you need, etc?

 

[John Mac]

7 - 10 days for me. It starts with a sore throat, ears buzzing and then all over aches with small incremental daily improvements. It doesn't seem to matter what I do, rest or try to keep active, I just have to wait.

 

[alex3619]

Cold, flu or similar illness such as an enteroviral infection? There are many different pathogens that can be involved, each with its own issues, and that's before even considering how the immune system responds. It can be fast, or you might never recover, but most healthy people require a week for recovery.

In general I seem to take a month to recover. However sometimes its more like 3 or 4 months before all the extra issues abate - that happened this year.

So there is no definitive answer. However I will leave you with a biochemist's joke I heard at university:

It takes seven days to recover from a flu.
If you take vitamin C and other supplements to accelerate this you recover in only one week.

 

[Valentijn]

I got a cold a few weeks ago, thought I was over it and so I tried to resume doing a little daily exercise. Sure enough however, either i have caught a second cold or the first one is somehow back.

Are you sure the "cold" isn't PEM, seeing as it followed exercise?

 

[Waverunner]

2-3 weeks at least. Can be 5-6 weeks as well. Small physical exercise will cause a cold relapse.

 

[Kati]

i haven't had a cold inwell over 5 years, before I got sick.

 

[SOC]

It took about 6 weeks to get completely over the cold I got this fall, and the one I had in the spring, for that matter. The initial cold only lasted about 5 days, then I felt better for a couple of days, then I got hit with a second wave with different symptoms -- more like severe bronchitis with some sinusitis. I wonder if the original cold didn't cause an inflammatory situation or activate/reactivate something else. I always need lots of extra rest during and for at least a month after an infection.

With ME/CFS, the exercise might aggravate the situation. I wouldn't try exercising during or shortly after an infection.

 

[rosie26]

Depends how nasty the strain of the cold is.
If it is scary nasty, I can be sick for a good 2-3 weeks. If it goes to my chest it can take longer.
There were some nasty strains going around in the last 3 years and I caught two of them and I honestly felt close to hospitalization with one of them. I was so worried I went to the doctor and he just patted me on the back and said "you'll be alright" ! I guess he was right in the end but it felt close.

I notice I get cold-like symptoms from PEM as well. I think I am coming down with a cold and it turns out to be a PEM flare up. Sinuses start aching and get infections. Feel feverish with chills.

 

[Hugocfs]

What cold? I've had only two in the last 4 years since I came down with this crap disease. Go figure.

 

[ukxmrv]

I get frequent colds now. The length of time depends on it turning into a sinus infection or not. It's unusual for it not to. I can get an entire winter of cold, then sinus infection, then okish for a while, then another cold etc. About 2-3 weeks now for a cold with no infection complications to settle down. Certainly couldn't exercise after.

Something I have noticed in the last 10 years is that I can get a cold but as the days go on my glands come up and I feel more "fluish". It's unusual for me to have a straightforward cold with no flu type symptoms setting in.

If we look at the work of Dr Klimas and the Lights then we see how the immune system changes with exercise. I get flu symptoms after exercise.

 

[SOC]

A bit of a digression -- I wonder if we had immune and pathogen tests to compare for those of us who constantly get colds from those of us who never do, could we distinguish the two groups by labs alone? I'd love to know the difference.

 

[Young&sick]

Are you sure the "cold" isn't PEM, seeing as it followed exercise?

Positive. My PEM symptoms and cold symptoms are very specific and different.

 

[Dmitri]

"Common cold" types can be a minimum of 3 days. Stronger ailments 1-2 weeks. Symptoms are generally a much higher intensity of every-day ones (extreme pounding headache, sore throat, etc.) My nasal mucus has a yellow tint when this occurs, becoming clear once the flu is over.

This consistently happens to me after periods of freezing, drafts, etc. despite the modern trope "Cold weather can't make you sick, that's an old wive's tale! It's just germs."

 

[rosie26]

I wonder if those who don't get colds have higher body temperatures inside there head, nasal passages as cold germs like cooler temperatures in the nose. ?

Do those who don't get colds have dryer membrane passages, so cold germs can't inbed as easily ?

 

[ukxmrv]

I didn't get any colds for the first 10 years of having ME and those were the years when my body temps were consistently lower every morning of every day. They were interspersed though by frequent viral type ME attacks with tonsillitis or bronchitis and high body temps.

My membrane passages were often dry as I was using antihistamines for hayfever type allergies a lot then.

I'll have a think about what was different from those first 10 or more years of no colds to now when I get a lot of colds.

 

[SickOfSickness]

It takes me only 1 day longer than a healthy person, if I rest more.

(Within energy envelope which shrunk due to the cold.)

2 or 3 days longer if I'm not careful.

No set amount for how much more I rest. Sometimes I only need a short nap or long nap a day. Sometimes I have to nap all day.

 

[Thinktank]

Strangely enough since i've not caught a cold in 3 years. I usually got the flu easily but after getting ill with CFIDS it's like i'm immune to the flu or common cold.

 

[SickOfSickness]

Strangely enough since i've not caught a cold in 3 years. I usually got the flu easily but after getting ill with CFIDS it's like i'm immune to the flu or common cold.

That seems common among ME/CFS patients.

It would be nice. I get colds more often than average healthy people.