From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Tue Nov 12 2002 - 20:36:50 MST
On Wed, 13 Nov 2002, Emlyn O'regan wrote:
> This leads me to ask a related question, about colds (ie: unidentified
> respiratory tract greeblies), and maybe more generally about infectious
> airborne diseases, which is this... how can I stop getting the damned
> things? This last 6 months I've more or less constantly been hopping from
> one "cold" to another, catching everything that goes around.
Unfortunately there are something like 90+ strains of rhinoviruses.
I went through the same thing when I started visting Russia. Visit
Russia -- catch a cold. Presumably because they were previously
unencountered strains. After you catch one strain you are immune
to it, but it obviously takes a lot of exposure to catch the most
common strains. I believe there are drugs in clinical trials that
may have some efficacy in blocking rhinoviruses, but the generic
cellular attachment they have is apparently very hard for an
immune system to develop a defense against (I think the receptor
attachment is in a pocket that antibodies cannot reach). So to
develop immunity you have to build up antibodies to non-specific
coat proteins that vary from strain to strain.
> I seem to catch these things more than most people, and I really can't
> afford to. Does anyone have any good ideas about how not to catch the latest
> sniffles?
John's suggestions are good. In addition you could consider wearing
a mask around the kids (or at least nixing mouth-to-mouth kissing).
Also, zinc is a very important element for gene regulation (immune response).
You should be supplementing this. I believe that it has also been shown
that sucking on zinc losenges can shorten colds by 1-2 days.
Finally, John is right about stress -- it *will* knock your immune
system down. Consider taking classes in either meditation or biofeedback.
Lacking those, perhaps Tai Chi or the Pilates exercise method (which
I believe is on tapes in the U.S. currently) might be things to consider.
Robert
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