Win the colds war

Colds suck. The drippy nose, fuzzy mind and scary cough... Worse still, you catch them even though you wash your hands, take vitamins and rug up. Perhaps it’s time to ditch conventional wisdom in favour of these new strategies.

INSTEAD OF spitting out mucus
DO THIS Swallow it
It’s gross, but yes, really. Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy, from the Faculty of Health at University of Newcastle, NSW, and co-founder of Hunter Immunology, researches mucosal immunology, and this is news just in: “We’ve been able to show that the normal way in which the lung protects itself is by swallowing sputum [what you cough up],” he says. In short: protective cells produced in the mucosal lining of your gut travel through your bloodstream to your lungs. If you cough that up and end up with sputum in your mouth, you should swallow it. “[This way] you’re giving your body the best chance of developing the best type of protection.” An intriguing side point: “Based on this unusual protective mechanism, we’ve developed a vaccine for those with emphysema and chronic lung disease,” says Prof. Clancy.

INSTEAD OF cranking up the heat
DO THIS Put on some woollies
Turning down the heater will reduce your energy bill and your likelihood of catching the flu. The virus thrives in dry air, and the hot air from your heater saps moisture. “An arid environment can also dry out your mucous membranes, which need to be lubricated to block invading viruses and function properly,” says Dr Philip Tierno, author of The Secret Life of Germs. Avoid setting your heater above 21 degrees, and use a humidifier if the air feels dry.

INSTEAD OF Avoiding sick people
DO THIS Look at them
A study by Canada’s University of British Columbia found seeing sick people boosts your ability to fight colds. Subjects’ immunity was boosted by watching a film of people coughing, sneezing and blowing their noses.

INSTEAD OF using soap and water
DO THIS Use a hand sanitiser gel
People who keep those little sanitiser bottles on their desks might not be so neurotic after all. A study in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy found soap and water killed 31 per cent of rhinovirus (the cause of up to 35 per cent of colds), but ethanol-based sanitiser removed 80 per cent – and reduced revival of the virus for up to four hours.

INSTEAD OF cutting out dairy
DO THIS Eat plenty of yoghurt
We think dairy products amp up congestion, but research by the University of California at Davis, US, shows eating yoghurt triggers your body to produce up to four times as much of a key immune receptor. “Yoghurt with live cultures improves the health of your digestive tract, making your immune system more effective,” says study author Dr Georges Halpern. Choose a yoghurt fortified with vitamin D, like Jalna Vitalize Vitamins+, since there’s mounting evidence that D – not C – is the cold-thwarting vitamin.

WINTER MYTH BUSTER:

Antibiotics fix colds and flus
No, they can’t, as flu and colds are caused by viruses. But it’s no wonder many think otherwise – research by Columbia University, US, found that 345 tweets between March and July last year mentioned antibiotics in relation to the “flu” and 302 in relation to “colds”. The tweets reached more than one million followers.