Talk:Common cold

Contradiction?

Second sentence in the first paragraph in the section "Signs and symptoms" states that "Fever is often present", however the first sentence in the next paragraph states the complete opposite, "the cold is not generally accompanied by fever". They both refer to the same source which is an article in the Lancet. However somehow this doesn't add up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.228.198.76 (talk) 20:13, 20 March 2010 (UTC)

Epidemiology

The article attributes the increased rate of incidence during the fall and winter to indoor crowding and cites http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/commonCold/overview.htm. Since that reference says, "Seasonal changes in relative humidity also may affect the prevalence of colds. The most common cold-causing viruses survive better when humidity is low—the colder months of the year. Cold weather also may make the inside lining of your nose drier and more vulnerable to viral infection," and that a related study about influenza published in PLoS Pathogens in October, 2007, shows that the influenza virus spreads more easily at a lower temperature and humidity, I think that these potential causes should be added to the epidemiology section of the article. (Yes, I do know that the flu isn't the cold, but since I have not seen nor heard of any studies that support the indoor crowding hypothesis, I don't see why the cold & dry hypothesis shouldn't be mentioned in the article.) I couldn't find a link to the influenza study, so I'm posting this Popular Science article which briefly summarizes the study. http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-03/science-confirms-obvious-2008 --Humanist Geek (talk) 01:00, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Various Comments

1. Introduction suggests that recommend treatments are "drinking plenty of warm fluids, keeping warm, etc." - I can't find any reliable sources to support "keeping warm". Also recommendation is absent on NIAID page: http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/commonCold/treatment.htm.
2. "Often, influenza and the common cold are mistaken for each other" suggests that Influenza and Common Cold don't overlap although later there is a statement "5-15% are caused by influenza viruses". This seems to be inconsistency
3. Sleep/common cold link refers to a weak study without randomization. All it shows is that the same group of people had sleeping issues and got sick more often; could be causality, could be another common cause. Needs to be replaced with stronger study.
4. Humidity/common cold spread link claim is backed by reference to the study which talks exclusively about Influenza and doesn't mention common cold. Although this may be ok if the two indeed overlap

Audrius (talk) 03:44, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

References

We need to make sure we used peer reviewed source. see WP:MEDRS Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 18:35, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

Your being overzealous with the refrencing, under prognosis i mentioned that in conjunction with other chronic or acute conditions death rates are higher with people with the cold. For everyone that is common knowledge and needs no refrence, i also gave the case of AIDs as an example of this. Your moderations need to be at least sensible —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.10.65.114 (talk) 10:37, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

This addition was not [1] was really understandable and as it was unref I was unable to verify it. A good place to find high quality references is [2] You can than take the PMID number and place it into this tool [3]. The result that is generated can then be cut and pasted to support the statement added. If you have any questions feel free to drop me a note. CheersDoc James (talk · contribs · email) 14:57, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Cause of a common cold?

Is it really true that you get a cold just by exposing to a cold weather? My parents always tells me that this is true, but more i read about it on the internet, it is more likely false. But i still have some confusion on this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.220.226.219 (talk) 18:55, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

No, one needs to be infected by a virus in order to have a cold. However, this virus is more likely to "survive" long enough to infect a host in colder, dryer weather. In addition, colder temperatures probably weaken one's immune system to some degree, which increases one's risk of infection even more. --Humanist Geek (talk) 01:10, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Your blood from the extremitys is restricted to lessen heat loss, thus the number of available immune response is dimished somewhat, pnumonia is a case of this —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.10.65.114 (talk) 10:39, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Prevention

This line "Probiotics in children 3 – 5 years old were found effective in decreases cold symptoms when taken over 6 months.[29]" and its reference are dubious but are presented too bluntly as fact.

The study has had limited critism but as with any study with almost perfect results that hasn't been reproduced elsewhere, this statement should be qualified with may. The sample size of 300 children is also too small to be able to state this so unequivocally. Further there is no data on eligibility criteria and the results were by parental reporting which is known to be affected by many confounding factors.

A more accurate assessment would be:

"An initial study of 300 children aged 3-5 years has indicated that probiotic consumption may have an effect on the incidence of cold and influenza-like symptoms when taken for prolonged periods (6 months). However, these results have yet to be reproduced elsewhere and should be treated with caution as the mechanism by which probiotics work to give the observed effect is unclear."