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Can you prevent a cold?

White blood cells vs common cold | Awkward yeti, Nerd humor ...

The "common cold" - a mishmash of viruses that have been around forever and usually pop up in the fall/winter leading to some combination of runny nose, sneezing, sore throat, cough, low-grade fevers, headache and fatigue.  As I've just gotten over my first one of the season, it's a reminder that it's time to start doing everything I can to prevent it from happening again.

But what can we actually do?  As a contagious disease, the main ways to prevent or limit a cold's effect on you is to keep it from getting into your body and preparing your body to fight it off if it does pop up.

Far and away the most effective preventive measure is hand hygiene.  The means either soap and water (washing for at least 20 seconds) or my preference, the liquid hand sanitizer with a little bit of aloe in it.  The basic rule is you don't want your hands to touch anything on your face unless they're clean.  That's easier said than done with all the nervous tics and itches we all get but this is far and away the safest and most effective means of prevention ESPECIALLY if you're around kids.

Keeping your body in shape is important as well so as per usual that means healthy food, aiming for 6-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep at night, and shooting for 20-30 minutes a day of moderate or rigorous exercise.

One small study in Japan showed that gargling with water three times daily had about half of the colds as people who did nothing.  Small studies aren't anything to hang your hat on, but this is basically free and harmless.

Supplements?  The jury is still out on most of them as evidence is relatively poor.  The ones that are pretty harmless and may help a little bit are probiotics (with lactobacillus and bifidobacterium) and zinc (just not the nasal sprays because they can cause irreversible loss of smell).  These seem to reduce the risk of a cold by about half and might shorten the duration if you get them, but you have to take them for 5-6 months to get all the benefit.

Everyone has their opinion on something else that helps out and nobody knows for sure so this is just my two cents based off the available literature so far.  I wouldn't be on the lookout for any miracle cures so just putting your stock in

- Keep your hands clean
- Don't touch your face
- Usual good care of yourself
- Maybe gargle
- Maybe probiotics and/or zinc

Good luck to everybody - Winter Is Coming!  But I guess Fall is coming first
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