The most common contagious disease in the world is the common cold. Colds are actually infections of the mucous membranes of your nose and throat, but sometimes they spread to your air passages and lungs.
The cold germs, or viruses, that cause these infections and make you cough or sneeze travel through the outside air inside tiny droplets of moisture. Doctors believe that you can “catch” a cold if you breathe in these virus droplets expelled by someone who is already sick.
The strange thing about these viruses is that they are probably in your throat most of the time. However, they simply do not attack your body until your resistance is lowered by being chilled, overheated, or extremely tired.
A cold takes from one to three days to develop and it does so in three stages. The first is the “dry” stage, during which your nose feels dry and swollen, your throat may tickle, and your eyes may water. In the second stage, your nose begins to run. And finally, in the third stage, you may develop a fever and a cough.
There are more than 200 different viruses that can cause colds!
Related Posts
-
Why Are You More Likely To Catch a Cold In Winter Indoors, or When It’s Cold Out, and Why Do You Catch a Chill?
There is no connection between being cold and catching a cold. The erroneous association developed for several reasons. The viruses that cause colds spread faster in the winter because people spend more time…
-
What does the expression “catch as catch can” mean and Where does it come from?
The expression "catch as catch can" is what we say these days when we mean to catch in any manner that one can devise, by hook or by crook. But six hundred years…
-
Why Does Soup Taste Bland When It’s Cold and Why Does Hot Food Taste Better Than Cold Food?
With cold soup, the fault may not be in the salt but in the absence of heat to volatilize the other flavorings so they ascend to the nose. Flavor is both taste and…
-
How Cold Is the Planet Uranus and What Effects Does Uranus’s Cold Temperature Have On Its Atmosphere?
Voyager 2 registered a nearly consistent temperature of –155°F (-221°C) on Uranus. Strong winds, up to 180 miles (288 km) per hour, that blow in the same direction as Uranus rotates keep the…
-
Where does the expression “to get cold feet” come from and What does “Cold Feet” mean?
The expression "to get cold feet" was by the editors of A Dictionary of Americanisms (1951). But Kenneth McKenzie, professor emeritus of Italian at Princeton, has found a much older instance of its…
-
How Does a Cold Pack Work and What is Inside a Cold Pack?
The cold pack contains ammonium nitrate crystals and a thin, breakable pouch of water. When the pack is squeezed, the water pouch breaks and, with a little shaking, the ammonium nitrate dissolves in…
