MNHQ needs your avoiding/surviving winter sniffles advice and tips.

Hi sally what's with the namechange?
I'm well thanks-hope you and sis had a great Xmas
Will look out for your new name now I know it!off to bed as I'm up at 6 tomorrow-nightmare but have to drop dh to airport. Let's have a natter soon
Nighty night

Eat lots of garlic
Eat lots of Ginger
Burn all used tissues
Open the windows for 10 minutes every day
Wash hands a lot or use anti bac gel particularly after handling cash( filthy)
Clean got phone and computer mouse&keyboard with anti bac.
Get outside for a while every day and breath some fresh air
Rest

wmmc, "Face the fact that it will all be over in five days and retire to bed with paracetamol/ibuprofen/tissues/fluids."

It bloody won't, you know - there's a 3-weeker (non-vomiting) around atm

Man Flu

• treat with all available drugs on the market, a bottle of Lucozade (- like there mum used too!), cans of tomato soup some crackers and most importantly -

And there I was thinking that was the reason I'd not seen you around lately. Bad, girl, bad girl!

Well I've managed to extend my working day to 11.30pm by spending more time on mumsnet than actually trying to earn a living, so I can hardly talk . I think I must've left my i-discipline-pod in the washing machine...it's not working any more!

tax return??? oh, ahh, yes, I'm supposed to be doing that, aren't I...

not too well, you might say!

Hahaha! Well, they don't give birth so tough! If they need to sacrifice a bit of zinc for the sake of our health, I say do it!

(missed you! How've you been? And how's the dreaded tax return?)

As you can see I'm experimenting with my identity...don't think it'll last much longer, though. I quite like Merry.

Stay warm - not hot, keep nose, neck and chest warm - when they are cold the bloods not pumping the antibodies there so effectively so you are more susceptible to 'catching' a cold.

Eat fresh fruit and vegetables or top up you vits ( B,C and Zinc)
Try blueberries cooked in with your porriage - Delicious exploding pops of sweet goodness - house favourite here!

Nip a sniffle in the bud with some echinacea.

Don't get run down (if at all possible - including don't get a hangover!!! ) ...sleep lots

Generally drink lots of water - try splashing some hot from the kettle to make a glass of cold water easier to drink.

If you do get a cold - Manuca Honey, Ginger and Lemon with warm not boiling water.

Brush your teeth - hot lemon and honey - not good for teeth at all

Clean your piano keyboard with methylated spirit.

might be good for the girls, MrsGMMH (good name btw!) but less so for the boys - they lose a fair bit of zinc with every ejaculation and zinc is necessary for healthy immune systems!

That was an interesting post, Franny.

Food for thought, as they say

I'm sure I heard somewhere that sex is good for the immune system...

Manuka honey! Apparently it can even kill off MRSA. Nectar of the gods.

Starlight, Habbibu, you are both needy quite lovely

I did Starlight.

bit theoretical but...

"Can a chill cause a cold?

Folklore indicates that chilling such as getting your feet wet in winter and going out with wet hair may cause a common cold but until recently there has been no scientific research to support this idea. Recent research has demonstrated that chilling may cause the onset of common cold symptoms5. A study at the Common Cold Centre in Cardiff UK in 2005 took 90 students and chilled their feet in cold water for 20 minutes and showed that the chilled group had twice as many colds over the next 5 days as a control group of 90 students whose feet were not chilled. The authors propose that when colds are circulating in the community some persons carry the virus without symptoms and that chilling the feet causes a constriction of blood vessels in the nose and this inhibits the immune response and defences in the nose and allows the virus to replicate and cause cold symptoms. The chilled person believes they have caught a cold but in fact the virus was already present in the nose but not causing symptoms.

Why more colds when its cold?

Colds and flu are definitely seasonal, with more colds in the colder weather but there is no real agreement as to why colds are seasonal. Most textbooks state that there are more colds in cold weather because we tend to crowd indoors in poorly ventilated rooms. This crowding theory has been around for over a hundred years but it does not really make sense, as our cities are just as crowded in summer as winter. A new theory that has been put forward to explain the seasonality of colds and flu, and this theory puts forward the idea that our noses are colder in winter than summer and that cooling of the nose lowers resistance to infection. If the weather is freezing outside we wrap up in winter clothes but we still leave our nose exposed to the freezing air. Every time we breathe in we cool the nasal lining and weaken our local defences against infection. If this theory is correct then covering our nose with a scarf in cold weather could help prevent colds6."

Starlight (a). Would rather one person off briefly than 7 people sneezing and groaning all round me because of the extra infection.

Work at home, I say!!!

Desi, if it got you arrested and put in a holding pen a la The Shield, you could catch anything...

i think it does lower your resistance to infection actually desi