Bottom Line Health
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| The average American gets more than 100 colds in his/her lifetime, and scientists have amassed a great deal of information about the common cold. But misinformation is still widely circulated as fact. Take the following quiz to see how much you really know about the common cold...
•True or False? Colds are mainly spread by coughs and sneezes.
False: The viruses that cause colds are usually spread by hand-to-hand, hand-to-nose or hand-to-object contact. The rhinovirus, the most common cold virus, flourishes in mucus membranes. |
Dr. Steve Blake
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 Vitamin C, Infections, and the Common Cold
The idea that vitamin C supplementation might be of benefit against colds achieved wide popularity in the 1970s when Linus Pauling wrote a best-selling book titled Vitamin C and the common cold. Linus Pauling was a prominent chemist who won two Nobel prizes. Whether or not vitamin C helps prevent or cure the common cold remains a matter of great controversy. While supplementary vitamin C has not been confirmed to lower the incidence of colds, vitamin C consumed in fruits and vegetables is correlated with a lower incidence of colds. |
Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea
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 We'll assess the worth of diagnostic and screening tests in a few pages; in chapter 5, we'll assess the efficacy of common prescription drugs
Of all maladies that bring patients to the office, the most common one is the common cold. Its treatment is where we begin.
THE COMMON COLD
In 1994, about one of every ten visits to a primary care physician was for treatment of this malady. In about half of these, the patient's principal symptom was "cough."7 Other common symptoms were sore throat and chest congestion. |
Bottom Line Health
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| Take the following quiz to see how much you really know about the common cold...
•True or False? Colds are mainly spread by coughs and sneezes.
False: The viruses that cause colds are usually spread by hand-to-hand, hand-to-nose or hand-to-object contact. The rhinovirus, the most common cold virus, flourishes in mucus membranes.
Someone who is infected with the virus rubs his nose or eyes, picking up the virus on his fingers. He then touches you or deposits the virus on a doorknob, telephone, etc. |
Charles Barber
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 He has studied risk factors of the common cold and has found that stressful personal relationships make a person significandy more likely to get a cold. Bad relationships are as much a causal factor for the common cold as vitamin C deficiency and poor sleep.32
There is also a convincing literature that psychotherapy, which managed-care companies in their penny-pinching myopia have been so loathe to pay for, saves a lot of money in the long run. |
Andreas Moritz
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 According to studies cited by the American magazine Newsweek, seven out of ten Americans who seek treatment for the common cold receive antibiotics - even though it is a fact that antibiotics are useless against viral infections such as colds or the flu. When these powerful yet ineffective drugs are administered to patients with such relatively mild illnesses, neither patient nor doctor seems to be aware of the chaos the drugs can create in the body of an infected person. |
| Accordingly, we spend billions of dollars on vitamin pills each year to fight off every kind of ill from the common cold to cancer.
Nowadays, artificial vitamins are added to almost every processed food—not because they are so good for you, but because foods that are "enriched" sell better. Cereals, bread, milk, yoghurt, boiled sweets (hard candy), even dog food with added vitamins leave the supermarket shelves much faster than foods without them. |
| In 1983, more than 32 million Americans visited a doctor for treatment of the common cold and 95 percent of them went home with a prescription drug. More than half of them were unnecessarily given a prescription for an antibiotic. Now 25 years later, this trend has nearly doubled.
Patients are rarely informed that even a single dose of a broad-spectrum antibiotic drug can severely damage the natural flora of the intestinal tract and the blood-forming red bone marrow for as many as four to five years. . |
Dr. Steve Blake
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| Preventing the common cold.
2. The cure for scurvy is:
(a) Citrus fruit.
(b) Vitamin C tablets.
(c) Fresh vegetables.
(d) All of the above.
3. Humans can synthesize vitamin C:
(a) In their livers.
(b) In the adrenal glands.
(c) From sunlight.
(d) None of the above.
4. Vitamin C is essential for the synthesis of:
(a) Carnitine.
(b) Proline.
(c) Lysine.
(d) Arginine.
5. The organ with the highest levels of vitamin C is:
(a) Heart.
(b) Adrenals.
(c) Pancreas.
(d) Bones.
6. Vitamin C:
(a) Raises blood cholesterol.
(b) Has no effect on blood cholesterol. |
| Studies with human subjects have found decreased vitamin C levels in plasma, leukocytes, and urine during various infections including the common cold. This may indicate that more vitamin C is needed during infections. The vitamin C levels inside leukocytes can be reduced to half during a cold, but the level returns to the original level about a week after the episode. Vitamin C supplementation in high doses of six grams daily has been found to greatly reduce the decline of vitamin C in leukocytes caused by colds. Vitamin C levels are also depleted by stress, smoking, and alcoholism. |
| Whether or not vitamin C helps prevent or cure the common cold remains a matter of great controversy. While supplementary vitamin C has not been confirmed to lower the incidence of colds, vitamin C consumed in fruits and vegetables is correlated with a lower incidence of colds. There are many other excellent nutrients in fresh produce that may contribute to fewer colds. Vitamin C taken as a supplement in doses totaling one gram or more daily has been correlated with lessened severity and slightly shorter duration of colds in some studies. |
Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea
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| For the most part, antibiotics do not work. The common cold and flu are typically caused by viruses, which cannot be treated with antibiotics. An editorial in the American Family Physician recommended "restraint" in prescribing antibiotics for a variety of conditions and began its official guidelines with this explicit admonition: "Do not prescribe antibiotics for colds. "8 The guidelines then urged physicians to "develop an awareness of resistance trends in their community."
"That seems clear enough to me," said Fran.
"So why," I asked, "do they continue to prescribe them? |
| Sufferers from the common cold would need to recover without their physician's help. There would be no blood transfusions or organ transplants, nor would there be emergency or critical care of any sort. Pharmaceutical companies would be gone, as would the drugs they manufacture—as would the placebo effects from those drugs!
Perhaps it was the wine—a favorite bottle from the Rhone Valley— that stimulated my question. Or maybe it was the spring air. Fran and I were just finishing a lovely pasta and homemade pesto dinner on our deck, our table framed by pots of bright red geraniums. |
Dr. Sharon Moalem
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 Why does malaria want us in bed but the common cold want us at work?
Why do we have so much DNA that doesn't seem to do anything?
The second question, of course, is, "What can we do with that?"
What can we do with the idea that hemochromatosis protected people from the plague?
What can we do with the possibility that diabetes was an adaptation to the last ice age?
What does it mean for me to understand that malaria wants me laid up and the cold wants me on the move to help them each spread? |
Dr. Abram Hoffer, MD, FRCP (C) and Dr. Harold D. Foster, PhD
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 Orthomolecular Medicine
Since Hoffer's pioneering work with large doses of niacin for treating high cholesterol and schizophrenia, others have taken up the torch, showing the efficacy of niacin and other vitamins in treating a wide variety of diseases and disorders, none more notably than Dr Linus Pauling in his highly influential books Vitamin C and the common cold and Cancer and Vitamin C (co-authored with Dr Ewan Cameron).
Pauling coined the term 'orthomolecular' to describe the use of nutrients in large doses (megadoses) to treat specific conditions, including psychiatric conditions. |
Bottom Line Health
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| The rhinovirus, the most common cold virus, flourishes in mucus membranes.
Someone who is infected with the virus rubs his nose or eyes, picking up the virus on his fingers. He then touches you or deposits the virus on a doorknob, telephone, etc. The virus can survive for 24 to 48 hours, so it can easily be picked up by the next person who comes along.
•True or False? People who have colds are highly contagious before they experience symptoms.
True: You're most contagious in the 24 hours before symptoms start. You may feel healthy, but the virus is incubating—and spreading. |
| Elevated body temperature also occurs during a number of viral illnesses, such as influenza, gastroenteritis (stomach flu)—even the common cold.
However, a fever can also signal an allergic reaction. . .dehydration.. .inflammation.. .a hormone disorder, such as hyperthyroidism.. .or an autoimmune disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis. Medications, such as antibiotics, narcotics, barbiturates and antihistamines, can trigger a fever as well. Cancer, especially leukemia or lymphoma, can cause a persistent fever of 100°F to 101°F.
Myth 3: Fever should always be treated. |
Marshall Editions
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 It is often the most obvious symptom of infections such as the common cold and pneumonia, or of allergies such as allergic rhinitis and hay fever. Some people are troubled by persistent bouts of sneezing and it is helpful to try to locate the cause.
SYMPTOMS
TREATMENT GOAL
• Itchy nasal passages
• Repeated sneezing
To isolate the cause of the sneezing and treat the condition accordingly.
<
CO o
CO DC <
T
Sneezing is not a medical disease, but a symptom of nasal congestion and a reflexive attempt to clear the nasal passages. Generally it indicates an infection such as a cold (see p. |
| Sneezing
• Running watery eyes
• Difficulty breathing
• Tickly cough from mucus running down the throat
• Congestion and popping in the ears
• Slight fever
• Lack of appetite
• Tiredness and irritability
SYMPTOMS
TREATMENT GOAL
• Feeling under the weather
• Aching joints and feeling shivery
• Sore throat and swollen glands
• Runny nose
• Stuffed-up nose
There is no cure for the common cold. Antibiotics are of no use in treatment, nor are there any effective antiviral drugs available yet. Treatment aims to alleviate the symptoms. |
| Acute sinus congestion is most often caused by the common cold. Chronic sinus congestion often results from environmental irritants such as pollen, mold, dust mites, trees, or animal dander. Exposure to various chemicals in the home or workplace may also contribute to nasal congestion, and indoor and outdoor air pollution can be a factor for those who are already susceptible. Smoking and passive smoking have been implicated in chronic nasal congestion and the prevalence of chronic rhinitis among men has been shown to increase with cigarette consumption. |
| Can Mao Lin: This Chinese patent herbal pill will help deal with the common cold. Take 3-4 pills three times a day.
• Herbal decoction: To treat a severe cold, combine 12 g of Ban La Gen, 12 g of Lian Qiao (forsythia fruit), 12 g of Niu Bang Zi (great burdock fruit),
8 g of Bo He (field mint), 10 g of Huang Qin (baical skullcap root), and 6 g of Gan Cao (licorice) in a ceramic pot. Add 3^i cups of water, place on the stove, and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and let the mixture simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the liquid and let it cool. |
Dr. Abram Hoffer, MD, FRCP (C) and Dr. Harold D. Foster, PhD
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| Dr Linus Pauling, in his fundamental study of "orthomolecular" nutrition and in his celebrated book Vitamin C and the common cold, showed how the human body lost its ability during evolution to make certain nutrients, including vitamin C. Other primates, the guinea pig, and an Indian fruit-eating bat also lost their ability to make this vitamin.
Similarly, man is going through the process right now of losing the ability to make vitamin B-3 from tryptophan, as Dr Pauling and Dr Hoffer have suggested in their book Healing Cancer and as is documented in this book. |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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 Garlic can even help fight the common cold. In one study published in Advances in Natural Therapy, a group of seventy patients was given a high-quality standardized garlic supplement for twelve weeks while another group of seventy-two patients was given a placebo. The garlic group had only twenty-four colds over the course of the study, compared to sixty-five for the placebo group. What's more, the average duration of symptoms was less than half for those taking the garlic. A number of studies have shown that garlic exerts antimicrobial activity against bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. |
Dr. Sharon Moalem
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| The range of virulence found in pathogens that infect humans is enormous—from all-but-harmless (pinworms) to unpleasant but hardly dangerous (the common cold) to rapidly, horribly fatal (Ebola). So why does one microbe evolve toward massive virulence while another is content to leave you up and running? Ewald believes the key factor that determines virulence is how a given parasite gets from host to host.
When you remember that every infectious agent has the same goal—to survive and reproduce by infecting new hosts—that starts to make a lot of sense. |
Mark Sircus
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 Then he found the same good results in: pharyngitis, tonsillitis, hoarseness, common cold, influenza, asthma, bronchitis, broncho-pneumonia, pulmonary emphysema, "childhood diseases" (i.e., whooping-cough, measles, rubella, mumps, scarlet fever...), alimentary and professional poisonings, gastroenteritis, boils, abscesses, erysipelas, whitlow, septic pricks (wounds), puerperal fever and osteomyelitis.
But the indications for magnesium chloride therapy don't end here. |
Anne Harrington
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 Emotional stress," he explained, plays a role in all illnesses, "from the common cold to cancer."39 Once these truths were recognized, he concluded again and again, all such problems could be countered with positive thinking, the great secret of psychology and the Gospels alike:
[S]ome people who firmly believe that Jesus Christ healed the sick in the First Century find it difficult to believe that this same power operates today and especially for them. The age of miracles is past, they say sadly. Healing is now done through scientific medical means . . . |
Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D.
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 There's often more than one way to administer a drug; even if it could cure the common cold, I doubt you'd want to inject yourself with chicken soup.
NCCAM and Clinical Research
More research is seldom a bad idea, which is why I'm happy that our government is using taxpayer money to fund NCCAM, whose mission is to support research on using alternative and complementary approaches to develop new treatments for disease. The institute was headed until recently by a smart clinical researcher who was heavily involved in CFS research prior to taking charge of this new institute. |
| As I was writing this chapter, newspapers were reporting negative results from a large trial of the nutraceutical echinacea for the prevention or treatment of the common cold. I'll give you another example that pertains to fatigue in the next section of this chapter.
The problem with any negative study, on the other hand, is that it cannot absolutely prove the negative. One can always say that if the study had been done differently, a different (and more positive) outcome might have occurred. |
| We still can't cure viruses that range from the common cold to the ones causing SARS or HIV. But while most medicines are not curative, they certainly can help the patient, either by beating back the cause of the disease or by reducing symptoms. The new medicines for HIV disease are illustrative. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). If this virus is left untreated, more than 90 percent of the people it infects will die. |
Joan Liebmann-Smith, Ph. D., and Jacqueline Nardi Egan
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 SIGNING OFF
Primary care physicians—family physicians and internal medicine specialists—can diagnose and treat many nasal problems, from the common cold to allergies. But many nose problems are related to other medical conditions that require special training to evaluate and manage. Keep in mind that if you have nasal pain or excessive bleeding, you should call your doctor right away.
So, who knows the most about noses? |
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