guest
Guest
- Messages
- 320
http://www.thewileyprotocol.com/com...e/63-articles/512-how-not-to-fight-colds.html
In early fall, a few weeks after the start of school, cold viruses
wing their way from one young nose to another and thence to families
and the workplace, infecting people at three to four times the rate at
other times of year. And so the cold season begins and, with it, the
relentless sneezing, coughing and sniffling that continue well into
winter.
Most of us come down with at least a couple of colds a year; children
get up to a dozen. But we all know people who seem never to catch one.
Whats their secret? Do they have extraordinarily robust immune
systems, and the rest of us, pathetically weak ones? You might think
this was key, given the number of nutritional supplements, cold
remedies and fortified cereals on the market that purport to augment
the immune system often with the help of vitamins, zinc or ginseng
and by so doing stave off colds.
But science and experience dont back this up. On the contrary, if
youre keen on tamping down your own cold, boosting your immunity
may be the last thing you want to do.
To understand why this is so requires a bit of knowledge about how
colds work. There are more than 200 cold viruses, the most common of
which are rhinoviruses (from the Greek rin-, for nose). When you
encounter a particular strain, your body eventually produces
antibodies to it, which remain on hand to quash that virus the next
time youre exposed. But with so many flavors of cold virus
circulating, theres always a new one to catch.
From the look of it, these ubiquitous cold bugs are mischief-makers in
our bodies. For decades, people thought this was the case that the
runny nose, sore throat and sneezing we experience with colds resulted
from the destructive effects of the virus itself on the innocent cells
of our noses and throats. After all, flu viruses work this way; they
destroy the cells of our respiratory tract, wreaking havoc in our
airways.
But, as medical science has realized over the past few decades, the
most prevalent cold viruses in fact do little direct harm to our
cells. In one experiment in 1984, researchers at the University of
Copenhagen performed biopsies on nasal tissue taken from people
suffering severe colds, then did the same after the subjects had
recovered. To the scientists surprise, none of the samples showed any
sign of damage to the nasal tissue. Further vindicating the viruses
themselves was another study around the same time showing that
rhinoviruses infect only a small number of cells lining the nasal
passages.
Here was a new insight in cold science: the symptoms are caused not by
the virus but by its host by the bodys inflammatory response.
Chemical agents manufactured by our immune system inflame our cells
and tissues, causing our nose to run and our throat to swell. The
enemy is us.
Indeed, its possible to create the full storm of cold symptoms with
no cold virus at all, but only a potent cocktail of the so-called
inflammatory mediators that the body makes itself among them,
cytokines, kinins, prostaglandins and interleukins, powerful little
chemical messengers that cause the blood vessels in the nose to dilate
and leak, stimulate the secretion of mucus, activate sneeze and cough
reflexes and set off pain in our nerve fibers.
So susceptibility to cold symptoms is not a sign of a weakened immune
system, but quite the opposite. And if youre looking to quell those
symptoms, strengthening your immune system may be counterproductive.
It could aggravate the symptoms by amplifying the very inflammatory
agents that cause them.
In any case, the supplements, remedies and cereals that claim to
strengthen immunity (and thereby protect you from colds) do no such
thing. It would be one thing if by some magic they made your body
produce antibodies to any particular virus. But they dont. And though
some of these products contain ingredients that have been shown in
studies to affect elements of the immune system, theres scant
evidence that they bolster protection against infection by cold
viruses. No one knows which immune agents other than antibodies
accomplish that.
Theres another intriguing paradox here. Studies suggest that about
one in four people who get infected with a cold virus dont get sick.
The virus gets into their bodies, and eventually they produce
antibodies to it, but they dont experience symptoms. It may be that
people like this are not making the normal amounts of inflammatory
agents.
It seems counterintuitive, but there it is: People with more active
immune systems may be especially prone to cold symptoms. So getting a
cold may be a positive sign that your biochemical defenses are working
normally a glass-half-full view of getting the sniffles.
In early fall, a few weeks after the start of school, cold viruses
wing their way from one young nose to another and thence to families
and the workplace, infecting people at three to four times the rate at
other times of year. And so the cold season begins and, with it, the
relentless sneezing, coughing and sniffling that continue well into
winter.
Most of us come down with at least a couple of colds a year; children
get up to a dozen. But we all know people who seem never to catch one.
Whats their secret? Do they have extraordinarily robust immune
systems, and the rest of us, pathetically weak ones? You might think
this was key, given the number of nutritional supplements, cold
remedies and fortified cereals on the market that purport to augment
the immune system often with the help of vitamins, zinc or ginseng
and by so doing stave off colds.
But science and experience dont back this up. On the contrary, if
youre keen on tamping down your own cold, boosting your immunity
may be the last thing you want to do.
To understand why this is so requires a bit of knowledge about how
colds work. There are more than 200 cold viruses, the most common of
which are rhinoviruses (from the Greek rin-, for nose). When you
encounter a particular strain, your body eventually produces
antibodies to it, which remain on hand to quash that virus the next
time youre exposed. But with so many flavors of cold virus
circulating, theres always a new one to catch.
From the look of it, these ubiquitous cold bugs are mischief-makers in
our bodies. For decades, people thought this was the case that the
runny nose, sore throat and sneezing we experience with colds resulted
from the destructive effects of the virus itself on the innocent cells
of our noses and throats. After all, flu viruses work this way; they
destroy the cells of our respiratory tract, wreaking havoc in our
airways.
But, as medical science has realized over the past few decades, the
most prevalent cold viruses in fact do little direct harm to our
cells. In one experiment in 1984, researchers at the University of
Copenhagen performed biopsies on nasal tissue taken from people
suffering severe colds, then did the same after the subjects had
recovered. To the scientists surprise, none of the samples showed any
sign of damage to the nasal tissue. Further vindicating the viruses
themselves was another study around the same time showing that
rhinoviruses infect only a small number of cells lining the nasal
passages.
Here was a new insight in cold science: the symptoms are caused not by
the virus but by its host by the bodys inflammatory response.
Chemical agents manufactured by our immune system inflame our cells
and tissues, causing our nose to run and our throat to swell. The
enemy is us.
Indeed, its possible to create the full storm of cold symptoms with
no cold virus at all, but only a potent cocktail of the so-called
inflammatory mediators that the body makes itself among them,
cytokines, kinins, prostaglandins and interleukins, powerful little
chemical messengers that cause the blood vessels in the nose to dilate
and leak, stimulate the secretion of mucus, activate sneeze and cough
reflexes and set off pain in our nerve fibers.
So susceptibility to cold symptoms is not a sign of a weakened immune
system, but quite the opposite. And if youre looking to quell those
symptoms, strengthening your immune system may be counterproductive.
It could aggravate the symptoms by amplifying the very inflammatory
agents that cause them.
In any case, the supplements, remedies and cereals that claim to
strengthen immunity (and thereby protect you from colds) do no such
thing. It would be one thing if by some magic they made your body
produce antibodies to any particular virus. But they dont. And though
some of these products contain ingredients that have been shown in
studies to affect elements of the immune system, theres scant
evidence that they bolster protection against infection by cold
viruses. No one knows which immune agents other than antibodies
accomplish that.
Theres another intriguing paradox here. Studies suggest that about
one in four people who get infected with a cold virus dont get sick.
The virus gets into their bodies, and eventually they produce
antibodies to it, but they dont experience symptoms. It may be that
people like this are not making the normal amounts of inflammatory
agents.
It seems counterintuitive, but there it is: People with more active
immune systems may be especially prone to cold symptoms. So getting a
cold may be a positive sign that your biochemical defenses are working
normally a glass-half-full view of getting the sniffles.
