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by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.
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Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Catching Colds

Tuesday December 12, 2000

Wellness is a positive approach, focused on satisfactions and advanced states of well-being, not disease avoidance. Yet, avoiding or minimizing illness is a fortunate side affect of being a consumer who takes charge. Besides, medical self-care and self-awareness are important underlying elements of wellness.

Even folks who seek to practice self-management as a lifestyle art form can and occasionally will get a cold. It's a fact that colds strike the responsible and sensible as well as reckless, utter lowlifes. Thus, a bit of knowledge about how to minimize your exposure to colds as well as how to care for yourself and recover as quickly as possible when you get one are useful bits of medical self-awareness.

Did you know there are at least 100 types of rhinoviruses? There are, and there are almost as many ideas in play about how to avoid having an unpleasant encounter with one or more of them. Surely you have been admonished to wash your hands frequently, especially after contact with surfaces that could be contaminated. In addition, we all know not to pick our noses, stick a finger in our eyes or put a thumb or other digit in our mouths. If for some reason you do one or more of these things anyway, wash your hands afterwards!

Of course, you can only do so much to protect yourself these days, given the risks of cold transmission in airline and other travel, the inevitability of working around others whose whereabouts and companions are suspect or been exposed to people who may be suffering cold symptoms.

Therefore, it makes sense to follow the basic safeguards. Protect others when you have a cold. Remember that your associates at the company and fellow citizens of the world, amazingly enough, can survive without a sick person in their midst for a few days. Use medications but do so knowledgeably and cautiously. Skip the herbal, New Age elixirs if there is no objective, third-party evidence that they are effective, and there rarely is. The most likely impact of these snake oils will be on your pocketbook. Take lots of Vitamin C, preferably from fruits and juices. Yes, chicken soup or any soup may help a little and get plenty of sleep and rest!

Stay focused on a wellness lifestyle. There is nothing quite so good to have next time as the strongest possible immune system. Do you agree? Any other advice? Comments?

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