10 myths about the common cold
A runny nose is a familiar phenomenon, and almost everyone believes they have enough knowledge and experience to heal. However, most people make mistakes when trying to get rid of rhinitis and share many misconceptions about it.
Let's consider the most common myths about this ailment.
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A runny nose is a slight malaise, not dangerous for the body
Rhinitis, as a rule, is not an independent disease: more often it is just a symptom common to many pathologies. It can be allergic, bacterial, viral. In any case, a person suffers from nasal congestion, difficulty breathing and a feeling of fatigue, sleep is disturbed, and appetite decreases. All this is unpleasant, but not too dangerous.
The real problems begin if the patient treats the treatment for the common cold without due seriousness. In the absence of treatment, complications such as sinusitis and sinusitis often develop. With further spread, the inflammatory process can affect not only the respiratory tract, but also the hearing organs and even the meninges, which is really life-threatening.
A runny nose occurs due to hypothermia
A common misconception: if you wet your feet, you will catch a cold. In fact, the development of rhinitis is not directly related to hypothermia. A common cold, a symptom of which is a runny nose, is of a viral nature, and susceptibility to pathogenic microorganisms depends on the immune system. Therefore, a small draft is enough for one to "get filled up", while the other remains healthy even in severe frost.
Infection occurs by airborne droplets, so a person with weakened immunity during the period of seasonal colds should avoid crowded places (shopping centers, crowded public transport, etc.).
With a cold, you need to take immunomodulators
If a runny nose breaks out, taking drugs that activate the body's defenses is not only useless, but also dangerous - because the increased secretion of mucus from the nose itself is a consequence of the immune system's reaction to pathogenic microflora. Artificially spurring this process, you can aggravate the problem and instead of a cold, get a serious disorder of the immune system. Fortunately, most immunomodulators are drugs with unproven (that is, in no way detectable) action.
Green discharge from the nose is a sign of a bacterial infection
This is not always true. The thick green mucus that comes out of the nose with rhinitis is a sign of a successful immune system. As the disease progresses, the color and consistency of the discharge change: at the beginning of the disease, they are transparent and liquid, then they become white-yellow or greenish and thicken. This is due to an increase in the number of white blood cells fighting pathogens.
For a runny nose to go away faster, you need to blow your nose often
With a runny nose, the nose seems to be full of secretions, and the patient tries to bring them out to make breathing easier. But the unpleasant sensation is not associated with an excess of fluid (mucus), but with severe swelling of the mucous membrane. Attempts to blow your nose sharply and strongly are unsafe: while part of the mucus is pushed deep into the sinuses and even into the auditory canals, infecting them and thereby provoking the development of sinusitis, sinusitis and otitis media. It is necessary to cleanse the nose from discharge very carefully, avoiding sudden pushing movements, each nostril separately.
All drops from a cold are safe
Especially persistent myths are associated with drugs for the common cold. Most people, feeling a stuffy nose, immediately start using vasoconstrictor drops. They do provide temporary relief, but are addictive with frequent use.
Nasal drops should be injected by tilting the head back slightly and turning it towards the nostril into which the drug enters. It is not necessary to bury the medicine lying on your back - otherwise the solution does not linger in the nasal cavity, but immediately flows down the throat.
Vasoconstrictor drugs should not be used for more than three days. Safer herbal products containing oils (for example, "Pinosol"), and solutions for rinsing the nose based on sea water (for example, "Aqua Maris").
Runny nose can be cured by warming the nose
Traditional medicine recommends two types of heat treatment that help cure rhinitis: dry heating (for example, using a linen bag with heated salt or sand attached to the nose bridge) and hot steam inhalation.
Dry heating is useful only at the very beginning of the disease, as long as the nasal discharge is watery. A hot dry compress helps to reduce the swelling of the mucous membranes and thus make breathing easier. If the runny nose has passed to the next stage, it is impossible to apply warming, otherwise the vital activity of pathogens is even more activated.
Inhalation with a common cold is dangerous by creating a warm and humid environment in which bacteria feel especially comfortable. In addition, inhalation of hot steam is fraught with increased edema of the mucous membrane and even its burns.
Attention! Any thermal procedures are contraindicated at an elevated temperature in the patient and a serious deterioration in the general condition.
It is useful to bury garlic or onion juice in the nose
Quite a cruel and ineffective procedure. With a runny nose, the nasal mucosa is already irritated, and the acrid juice injures it even more.
It is much more reasonable to gradually introduce these vegetables into the patient's diet, and also place them in a cut form in his room so that the released phytoncides disinfect the air.
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A chronic runny nose indicates an allergy, and an episodic runny nose indicates a cold
This is not true. Chronic rhinitis can be a sign of an upper respiratory infection (eg, sinusitis). The feeling of nasal congestion haunts those who in the past have incorrectly used vasoconstrictor drops and have become addicted to them.
An allergic rhinitis can disappear without a trace in a couple of days, if contact with an allergen is excluded.
With age, people suffer from a runny nose more often
As we age, the human body builds up antibodies that help ward off attacks from pathogenic microorganisms. Therefore, children and adolescents catch colds and suffer from rhinitis much more often than people who have crossed the fifty-year mark.
A runny nose is not as harmless as it seems. It is not just unpleasant, but can indicate serious illness or cause dangerous complications. Therefore, do not self-medicate. If the runny nose persists within 3-4 days, you should see a doctor.
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Maria Kulkes Medical journalist About the author
Education: First Moscow State Medical University named after I. M. Sechenov, specialty "General Medicine".
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