Reader’s Digest Australia & New Zealand – May 2019

90 | May• 2019

H E ALTH

ILLUSTRATION:

SERGE

BLOCH

13

Things You Didn’t

Kn ow About the

Common

Cold

BY BRANDON SPECKTOR

1 Theterm‘commoncold’isa bitof

a misnomer.‘Common’impliesthat

there’sa singleordinarypathogento

blameforyourrunnynose,coughing

andmildfatigue.Actually,there’sa

hugearrayofviruses–morethan 200

ofthem– thatinducecolds,eachwith

itsownmeansofevadingyourbody’s

defences. For this reason alone, it’s

unlikelythata catchall‘cureforthe

commoncold’willeverbefound.

2 Asforthe‘cold’part,well,it’s

complicated.Scientistsdon’tknow

forsurewhetherlowtemperatures

affectavirus’spathogenicity,but

theydobelievethatcoldsaremore

prevalent in winter in part because