Causes of the Common Cold

Series Summary

It's inevitable, at some point in your life you will get the common cold. The sneezing, sniffling, runny nose, scratchy throat, coughing, phlegmy-headed mess of an illness will strike you down and leave you in a curled up, snotty mess on the living room couch. Also known as an upper respiratory tract infection, colds are the most common of all human diseases and can be transmitted through the air from coughs and sneezes, or from contact with the saliva or nasal secretions of an infected person through contaminated surfaces. Unfortunately, there is no cure for the common cold, and your best bet will always be prevention.

In this free video series, our expert will give you the information you need to know to prevent the common cold. Learning how to avoid potentially exposed surfaces, and building your immune system with lots of sleep, exercise and stress reducing tips, could help you prevent colds this next cold season. Our expert will give you tips on what to eat to help your immune system, and what to do when you feel a cold symptoms coming on. These free health tips are great for anyone prone to common colds, or for people who have a lot of contact with the public, like teachers and sales people.

Video Transcript

"Hi! This is David Jackel on behalf of Expert Village and I'm here to talk to you about what causes a cold. There are many, many viruses that cause the symptoms that we call the common cold, which is why it's so hard to fight the cold. Because there are so many different viruses, it's so hard to come up with a vaccine. So what causes us to catch this virus? Two things; weaken immune system and exposure to the germs. Your immune system can be compromised by various factors, including stress when you're so worked up that your body can't performance normal functions. Having a lack of exercise, having a poor diet, which is why these are so important and also allergic diseases. To actually catch a cold virus though, you have to be exposed to it, which means it's going to happen through close contact with other people who might have the virus, it's going to happen through not very sanitary conditions where you are touching things that have germs on them, stuff like that. So the two major factors that are going to cause you to have a cold; are having a weak immune system and then with that weak immune system, being exposed to germs. So in order to prevent a cold, what you have to do is boast your immune system and reduce your exposure to germs."