They're called common colds for a reason
A reader has urged me to reveal the best ways of avoiding colds this winter. With a trembling heart, I promise to do my best. But I'm not sure I'll be much help at all.
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The bottom line is that flu vaccines will help prevent this year's predicted strains of influenza but won't prevent you from catching a cold. Flu is a much harsher illness with more widespread symptoms and a greater chance of complications.
The best way of not catching the common cold is to avoid other people who have it. The difficulty comes in knowing who to avoid as people can still pass on the infection when they are in the pre-symptomatic stage. Children in particular should be avoided, which is a little awkward if they are your own. The little ones tend to come home from school or nursery with snotty noses and new cold strains.
So if you're serious about avoiding all colds, you'd be better off never leaving the house and refusing to entertain visitors. Living like a hermit would help with cold prevention but wouldn't do much for your social life.
So, assuming you do have to interact with others, would vitamin C help? What could be nicer than a bag of satsumas or some orange tablets fizzing away merrily in a glass of water? Sadly they don't do much for colds. One of the internationally respected Cochrane healthcare reviews recently concluded that "the lack of effect of prophylactic vitamin C supplementation on the incidence of the common cold in normal populations throws doubt on the utility of this wide practice".
The review did note, however, that although the benefit was "questionable", high doses of vitamin C could still have a genuine effect especially for people working under demanding physical conditions.
What about echinacea, the much loved "alternative" remedy? Trials published in the New England Journal of Medicine recently showed that the herb didn't make a significant difference in treating colds.
You can try chicken soup, whisky toddies or enormous quantities of chocolate but there isn't any evidence they will do anything except make you feel a bit better, in your heart if not in your streaming red nose.
What of the new products on the market this winter? For example there's a nasal spray called Vicks First Defence. Procter & Gamble, the manufacturer, says it comprises a "revolutionary new micro gel that attacks the cold virus where they start . . . at the back of the nose before they can spread and develop". However, the website claims only that it "is most effective when used within 24 to 36 hours after the virus enters the body" and the television advertisements don't make a claim for preventing colds.
Clinical research on 400 people - performed by P&G and not yet published in a journal - seems to suggest that use of the spray reduced the duration of a cold to 6.1 days, whereas treatment with a placebo reduced it to 7.2 days. With no treatment, typical symptoms lasted 8.9 days. So there's a glimmer of hopebut not a dramatic one.
How about the new "anti-viral" tissues by Kleenex that promise tokill "99.9 per cent of cold and flu viruses within 15 minutes"? Kleenex also says it has "never claimed that they would stop the spread of colds". Which is good, since you're more likely to get a cold through a lack of handwashing and being within range of a sneeze or cough than from live viruses in dirty tissues.
The common cold has no cure and no fans. But there are positives if you look hard enough. First, the common cold is, at least in part, defeated by maturity. As you get older, you will have experienced more cold viruses and built up greater immunity to a wider variety of them.
Second, the common cold always has someone else to blame. Or, as the Common Cold Centre in Cardiff puts it: "When you catch a cold it is interesting to speculate: whose mucus has got up your nose?" Indeed.
Next, a study reported in the journal, Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, has shown that whenyoung children are exposed to lots of other toddlers at nursery schools, it results in a lower risk of certain cancers in young adulthood. This is thought to be because of the increased immunity caused by exposure to common infections.
I would dearly love to play my trump card and suggest that sex would be the best way to prevent catching a cold. Reader, I have left no stone unturned. Reports a few years ago suggested that people who reported having sex three times a week produced more immunoglobulin in saliva. This was, in turn, said to "prevent colds". As resident wet blanket, however, I must add a couple of dull provisos. The study didn't actually ask about colds and so the immunoglobulin level in saliva may have had no impact on the number of these at all. Second, having a cold might reduce immunoglobulin levels - but also your desire to have sex.
Ultimately the greatest virtue of any "remedy" for the common cold may be the distraction it provides until the ailment has run its course. However, readers wishing to know what the best form of distraction is should write to someone else.
防治感冒的新招
一
位读者力劝我写一写今冬避免感冒的最佳方法。我战战兢兢地保证一定尽力做到。其实，我的建议是否有用，我自己也没把握。
总的来说，流感疫苗将有助于预防今冬预告的流感病毒，但并不能保证你不感冒。流感是更令人头疼的一种疾病，更容易传染，也更容易出现并发症。
若不想患上通常所说的感冒，最佳方法是避开其他的感冒患者。其中的困难在于弄明白应该离谁远一点，因为这种传染病在人们出现症状之前就可以传播。尤其要离小孩子远一点，不过如果是您自己的孩子，这可有点难办。小孩子往往会拖着鼻涕、带着新的感冒病毒从学校或幼儿园回家来。
所以，如果你当真要避免所有类型的感冒，最好不要离开屋子，同时拒绝招待来访者。像隐士一样生活有助于预防感冒，但对你的社交生活可没什么助益。
那么，假设你一定得和别人打交道，那么维生素C会有用吗？有什么能比一袋无核小蜜橘或者一些在水里兴奋地冒着气泡的橙色药片更好呢？不过遗憾的是，它们对感冒没什么作用。最近，享有国际声誉的Cochrane保健评论有一篇文章称：“预防性补充维生素C对常规人群避免感染感冒见效甚微，导致这种广为使用的方法受到质疑。”
不过，这篇评论指出，尽管维生素C对预防感冒的效用“尚有疑问”，但大剂量的维生素C还是确实有效的，特别是对那些重体力工作者而言。
作为深受人们喜爱的“替代性”药物，紫锥菊的疗效如何呢？最近刊登在《新英格兰医学杂志》(New England Journal of Medicine)上的试验结果显示，这种药草在治疗感冒方面也没有明显作用。
你可以试试鸡汤、威士忌棕榈酒或者大量巧克力。但是，也没有任何证据表明它们会起什么作用，无非能让你感觉好一点――是心里感觉好一点，而不是你那流着鼻涕的红鼻子。
那么今冬市场上的新产品怎么样呢？例如，有一种叫“维克斯第一防线(Vicks First Defence)”的鼻腔喷剂，其生产商宝洁公司(Procter & Gamble)声称，这种喷剂包含一种“全新微型凝胶，能在感冒病毒刚出现时在鼻腔后部展开攻势……在病毒扩散发展之前控制住病毒”。但其网站指出，这种喷剂“在病毒侵入体内的24至36小时之内使用最为有效”，而电视广告也没有声明这种喷剂可以预防感冒。
宝洁对400人的临床研究（尚未在期刊上发表）似乎显示，使用这种喷剂可使感冒患病期缩短至6.1天，而安慰剂疗法则可将患病期缩短至7.2天。如果不作任何治疗，感冒的典型症状会持续8.9天。因此，（治愈感冒）尚存一线希望，但不会产生奇迹。
那么， Kleenex公司生产的新型“抗病毒纸巾”效果又如何呢？这种纸巾承诺能 “在15分钟内杀灭99.9%的感冒与流感病毒”。Kleenex自己也表示，“从未宣称它们能阻止感冒传播”。它说得对：与感染脏纸巾上的活体细菌相比，因为没洗手、接触打喷嚏或咳嗽者而患上感冒的可能性显然更大。
感冒没有治疗良策，也没有爱患感冒的人。但如果你观察够仔细，还是可以看到一些积极因素的。首先，年龄较大至少可以击退部分感冒。随着年龄增长，你将接触到更多感冒病毒，你也将对更多类型的感冒形成更强免疫力。
其次，感冒的病因总是可以归咎于他人。正如加的夫感冒中心(Common Cold Centre)所称：“如果你患上感冒，可以进行这样一个有趣的推测：你的鼻子招惹了谁的鼻涕？”事实确实如此。
再次，《肿瘤流行病学：生物标记和预防》(Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention) 期刊登载的一份研究表明，如果小孩子在幼儿园接触到许多其他学童，即可降低青少年时期患上某些癌症的风险。人们认为这是由于接触了常见传染病，造成免疫力增强。
最后，我非常乐意亮出我的王牌：性爱可能是预防感冒的最佳方式。读者朋友，我已经坦诚交底了。几年前的报告显示，每周做爱三次的人，唾液中会产生更多免疫球蛋白，据说这反过来可以“预防感冒”。不过，作为一个常常扫别人雅兴的人，我必须补充一些乏味的保留意见。首先，这项研究实质上与感冒没关系，因此唾液中的免疫球蛋白水平可能对感冒根本没影响。第二，感冒可能会减少人体内免疫球蛋白的水平，但也能降低性欲。
从根本上讲，各种感冒“疗法”的最大好处，或许是能够在感冒症状完全消失之前分散患者的注意力。不过，如果读者朋友想知道什么是分散感冒患者注意力的最好办法，你们应该给其他人写信。
玛格丽特?麦卡特尼(Margaret McCartney)是英国格拉斯哥的一位家庭保健医生。
