FACTS ABOUT THE COMMON COLD (OR IS IT THE FLU?)
-There are over one billion colds in the US each year.
-It is a respiratory disease caused by a virus.
-Over 200 viruses can cause the common cold.
-A virus is a disease-producing agent so small that it goes right through very fine filters that stop bacteria
-Kids average six colds a year; adult with kids also get about six, while the rest of us just two or three -- ha!
-Airborne doesn't always prevent them
-The sufferer is most contagious a few days before symptoms appear, and a few days after.
-It usually goes away after seven days.
-Apparently it's easier to catch it via getting sneezed on, not so easy via kissing.
-Complications from the common cold can include bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infection, sinusitis and the infamous cold sore.
-Even people who have a good diet, exercise regularly, get enough sleep and generally lead a healthy lifestyle can catch a nasty-ass cold.
-It is easier to get a substitute teacher / cancel a yoga lesson when the sufferer sounds as sick as they actually feel.
-On Sunday night the sufferer will call a trio of subs for her Monday morning Mysore class. One will say no, and two will not pick up the phone or return her call. The next day one of them will come and take (not take over) the class, leaving said sufferer mildly dumbfounded.
-By the end of the two-hour Mysore class, after taxing herself silly, the sufferer will have learnt that it's easier to teach by giving verbal adjustments while sitting on a fully-inflated exercise ball.
-If the sufferer teaches a class before the symptoms disappear, she will become even sicker and be forced to get subs for her next several classes -- and lose mucho dinero.
-The cat eats more when the owner is home all day and night. It also bites more.
-Tissues treated with lotion are de rigeur
-So are humidifiers
-And fancy, vitamin C-infused juice. And miso soup.
-Cable is a good thing when you're sick. A very good thing indeed.
-While ill the sufferer will watch What Alice Found (awesome), American History X (why is Ed Norton not getting Jude Law's roles?), School of Rock (perfectly mindless), the Hindi classic Sholay (overrated), Emily's Reasons Why Not (an overrated ripoff of the sufferer's own co-script), Jake in Progress (Blackie's getting old), Now Voyager (the story of the sufferer's life with her stepmotha), and Of Human Bondage (the book is better).... not to mention numerous episodes of CSI (yawn) and Law & Order (a good time to nap) -- and be delighted to learn that the caustic writer Fran Lebowitz now guest stars as an arraignment judge on the latter.
-The migraine won't kick in until midway through Sunset Boulevard.
Above image is by quilt artist Pam Rubert
All you need is "Jewish penicillin"
ReplyDeleteChicken soup is a soup (Liquid food especially of meat or fish or vegetable stock often containing pieces of solid food) made of chicken broth, typically with chunks of chicken (A domestic fowl bred for flesh or eggs; believed to have been developed from the red jungle fowl) , potatoes, carrots, green peas, onions and other vegetables. Chicken soup is traditionally used in the United States as a folk-remedy for colds (A mild viral infection involving the nose and respiratory passages (but not the lungs)) and flus (An acute febrile highly contagious viral disease) , and fondly nicknamed "Jewish penicillin (Any of various antibiotics obtained from penicillium molds (or produced synthetically) and used in the treatment of various infections and diseases) ", as this tradition seems to have its origins with European Jews.
Research conducted by Dr. Stephen Rennard, professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and his colleagues at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, has shown that there might be some scientific basis for this folk belief, as the particular blend of nutrients and vitamins in traditional chicken soup can slow the activity of certain white blood cells. This may have an anti-inflamamatory effect that could hypothetically lead to temporary ease from symptoms of illness. Their research was published in 2000 in the scientific journal Chest (volume 118, pages 1150-1157: "Chicken Soup Inhibits Neutrophil Chemotaxis In Vitro"). This was not, however, a controlled test, and did not demonstrate that chicken soup was the best foodstuff for this purpose.
Whether or not this is true, chicken soup is easy to prepare, relatively cheap, nutritious, and easy on the digestive system, making it a good food for winter invalids. Probably more significantly, sipping warm soup can clear nasal passages which also relieves symptoms.