Tag Archive for 'Cold'

Is it O.K. to run if your nose is running?

Published
by
Jana
on March 24, 2009
in Health and Wellness
. 0 Comments

Shazia Khan, an assistant professor at Loyola University Health System, says yes, you can work out moderately as long as you do not have a fever and all your symptoms are above your neck, such as a sore throat or sinus infection. She says “It’s important to stick to your regular exercise routine if you’re feeling energetic enough.” This said, you shouldn’t push yourself too much and make sure you get plenty of fluids.

Common sense should tell you that it is not a good idea to go exercising if you are achy, have diarrhea or are vomiting. If you are bent on going to the gym with a cold, please clean the equipment that you use and stay out of the pool. Dr. Harley Rotbart, the author of Germ Proof Your Kids” (ASM Press, $29.95) says that if your mucus comes into contact with other swimmers, it could give them a cold as well. A sneeze can cause droplets to travel up to 3 feet. On the brighter side, Dr. Rotbart says that although hands are the main offender when it comes to spreading the cold virus, it is unlikely that they will have enough virus on them to inoculate into the nose or mouth when they are underwater.

Don’t forget that over-training can cause one to feel run down and have cold-like symptoms. If you usually love working out and you suddenly don’t want to go to the gym, you are probably over-trained. Just take a day off and you’ll be ready to hit the gym again soon.

Get plenty of sleep to avoid colds

Published
by
Jana
on January 13, 2009
in Health and Wellness
. 0 Comments

sleepSimilar to what your grandmother may have said, getting plenty of sleep may prevent one from getting a cold.

Healthy adults were paid $800 each from researchers to have cold viruses sprayed in their noses. They then waited five days in a hotel while they waited to see if they would get sick. Sleepers that were used to getting eight-hours of sleep at night were shown to be less prone to get sick than those who got less than seven hours or who didn’t sleep well.

Lead author Sheldon Cohen, who studies the health effects of stress at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University, says that the more sleep you get, the better and the less prone you are to get colds.

Past research has indicated that sleep improves immunity at the cell level. This new research is the first to reveal little interruptions raise the threat of getting sick, according to Dr. Michael Irwin, who studies immune response at the University of California, Los Angeles but was not connected with the study.

This study, featured in the Archives of Internal Medicine, exposed test subjects to the rhinovirus, which is a common cold virus. It was found that people in the study that slept less than several hours a night during the weeks prior to being exposed were three times more prone to getting a cold than those who slept for eight or more hours.

In the study, 78 men and 75 women who were of ages 21 to 55 were chosen by researchers. For two weeks, they kept specific tabs on them. Then they moved the participants to a hotel where they ejected the virus into their noses. Five days later, the virus had infected 135 out of the 153 people in the study. This said, only 54 became sick.

It was found that not sleeping well was connected to making the participants more at risk for getting a cold. Those who slept spasmodically more than 8 percent of the time were five times more prone to get sick than those who were not sleeping 2 percent of the time. 

Unexpectedly, feeling rested was not connected to staying healthy.

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