Win the war against your cold

By many accounts, the US prevailed over the Soviet Union by seeking impregnability against attack. It’s a strategy you can use in your own war against winter bugs.

“There are a thousand treatments, but there’s still no cure for the common cold,” says clinical nutritionist Jim LaValle, the author of Cracking the Metabolic Code: 9 Keys to Optimal Health.

With prevention your best bet, it’s time to memorise (and then destroy) your five-point plan for escaping the colder months unscathed. Good luck, soldier.

BUNKER DOWN
Like a lot of military operations, your preemptive strike against colds begins under the cover of night.

Recent US research out of Carnegie Mellon University found that people who slept for fewer than seven hours a night were three times more likely to come down with colds than those who got eight hours plus.

Slumber quality is also vital: illness risk rises steeply for those who spend more than eight per cent of their mattress time tossing and turning. “Your body needs sleep to repair itself and keep your immune system strong,”says LaValle.

STAY CALM UNDER FIRE
Prolonged stress raises your cortisol levels, which, in turn, overactivates your allergic response as well as any eczema tendencies you harbour. Too much cortisol also slows the production of prostaglandins, cellular messengers that support immune function. Without enough of these in the field, your immune defences are down and you’re wide open to attack. The result: higher likelihood of becoming a cold casualty. The answer: find ways to chill.

AVOID CIVILIAN CROWDS
It’s not the low temperatures that make winter the season for colds; it’s the fact it drives you inside, where you mingle with disease-carrying fellow humans.

“There’s really only one surefire way to escape cold bugs altogether – become a hermit,” says Jennifer Ackerman, the author of Ah-choo! – The Uncommon Life of the Common Cold.

Failing that, limit the amount of time you spend in packed lifts, train carriages and strip clubs . . . whoa, make that night clubs.

TACKLE GERM WARFARE
You’re better off pashing someone with a cold than shaking their hand. That’s because more cold microbes live on hands than in saliva.

“When a sick person shakes your hand and you touch your nose or eyes, the virus makes its happy leap,” says Ackerman. To protect yourself, wash your mitts several times a day, scrubbing with moderate vigour to dislodge the microbes. The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention rate handwashing the single most effective method of preventing the spread of colds.

BOLSTER YOUR FORCES
“It’s naïve to think you don’t need supplements to ward off colds,” says LaValle. Think of them as your SAS. His pick: Kyolic aged garlic extract (Nutra-Life Kyolic Aged Garlic Extract; nutritionwarehouse.com.au).

Another defence option: olive leaf extract (Blackmores Olive Leaf Extract; blackmores.com.au). “It provides potent antioxidant properties and is one of nature’s best answers to cold and flu assistance,” says Adelaide-based anti-ageing physician Dr Stephen Hadges.