10 myths about common cold

from ChaCha

coldThere is no connection between eating less and recovering from a fever, so make sure to drink plenty of fluids and continue eating healthy meals!

1. You’ll Catch a Cold if You Go Outside in Cold Weather with Wet Hair

Cold and flu viruses are more common during the colder months, but there is absolutely no correlation between going outside with wet hair and catching a cold.

2. You Can Sweat Out a Cold

Many people are under the impression that covering up in layers of blankets or holding your head over a bowl of hot water will help push a cold out of your system, due to “sweating it out.” This is false. It may make you feel better in the meantime, but it has no effect on the cold itself or how quickly it leaves your system.

3. Kissing Spreads Colds

If you have been avoiding kissing your significant other because one of you has a cold, it’s time to put your fears to rest! It is very unlikely that kissing someone with a cold will make you sick. The mouth and lips only contain tiny amounts of the virus, and it takes a lot more than that for a cold to spread. Now you know!

4. Starve a Fever, Feed a Cold

While making sure to get enough calories when you’re sick with a cold is beneficial, you shouldn’t avoid food if you have a fever. There is no connection between eating less and recovering from a fever, so make sure to drink plenty of fluids and continue eating healthy meals!

5. Vitamin C Prevents Colds

There is no conclusive evidence to support the idea that getting plenty of vitamin C will prevent a cold. Getting too much of the vitamin, though, can be hazardous to your health; it can cause severe diarrhea, especially in children or the elderly.

6. Treating Symptoms Makes a Cold Last Longer

If someone has ever told you that treating your symptoms is a bad idea or makes you recover more slowly, don’t believe them! Finding a way to treat your symptoms is actually beneficial in two ways:

  1. You will feel better!
  2. You will be less likely to spread the virus to others.

7. Antibiotics are the Cure

This one couldn’t be less true! Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections, and the common cold is cause by a virus. Antibiotics are only helpful against further complications from colds, such as sinusitis.

8. You’ll Catch a Cold If You Don’t Wear a Coat

If you want to run outside during the colder months without a coat, but a well-meaning friend or family member warned that you’ll catch a cold, you can disregard their advice!

Though many people believe going outside in the winter without a coat will make you sick, it isn’t true. As was said earlier, colds are caused by a virus, not the weather.

9. You Can Get the Flu from a Flu Shot

You can’t get the flu from a flu shot. Some people believe that you can, because the vaccine contains elements of the flu virus, but here’s why it doesn’t work that way:

  • The flu virus in the vaccine is dead.
  • The shot only contains parts of the virus, not the whole thing.

Rest assured: your flu shot won’t cause you to have the flu!

10. You Shouldn’t Drink Milk When You Have a Cold

Drinking milk is rumored to increase mucus in your system when you have a cold, but it actually doesn’t. It may feel like you’re producing more mucus, but it isn’t actually causing any increased production. If you have a cold and want to have a glass of milk, feel free to do so!

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Read this article on ChaCha

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

One comment

  1. it waz never a coincidence dah we are great pipo of 9ja,,d forebears who livd priviously has made it easier 4 us to mesmerize any kinda tin datz attachd to us@tunez kollinz

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