It turns out that pretty much everything we know about catching a virus are old wives' tales. My mom has an entire arsenal of Do's and Don'ts about colds, but none of them are scientifically proven. According to infectious disease specialist Dr. Stephen Morse, the only way to catch a virus is when the infected person sneezes or coughs directly on your face and the droplets enters your nose. It's always important to wash our hands because sick and healthy people touch the same things and the virus can live on the surface for hours.
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There are over 200 different viruses that cause colds and we only have a vaccine for one of them. Unlike what you may believe, we get the flu from children and not from the cold temperatures. Because children's immune system in not completely developed to fight viruses, they get sick easily. Dr. Morse says that running noses and snot are the enemies and we should stay away from it. If our child is sick, every member of the family should wash their hands more often and not let the sick child to touch anything. In a nutshell, you are not going to catch a cold if you:
- Sleep with wet hair.
- Don't wear a coat during the winter or catch a chill.
- You play in the rain and stay with wet clothes and feet.
- Open the fridge after doing heavy physical activity while dripping sweat.
- You kiss a sick person in the mouth.
- Have sex with someone with a cold.
- You drink from the same glass of a sick person.
- Go from one extreme temperature to the other, from direct sun exposure to a cool house.
- Eat the leftovers from a sick person.
- Sleep with a fan blowing on your face.
As long as you wash your hands and don't touch your nose or your eyes you should be fine. Picking your nose with dirty hands is a big no-no because we develop a cold when the virus enters and grows in the nose. Dr. Morse advises to drink a lot of water to stay hydrated, sleep well and eat a balanced meal to strengthen the immune system and prevent colds this season.
Image via Corbis
