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Show Beware! It's Open Season for Colds i - By WILLIAM C. UTLEY Foil the love of Mike, button up that overcoat! And stay out of draughts! And don't get your feet wet ! The lipy-dpy period for the common com-mon cold is Just around the corner. For if there can he said to be one time of the year when more people catch cold than any other, statistics and health surveys Indicate that that period emhraces the latter half of January and the first half of February. Now Is the time to think of protecting pro-tecting yourself against the ever-present ever-present threat of the most common affliction of mankind the common cold, which, for its very commonness, common-ness, Is also perhaps mankind's most neglected affliction. How many, many of us, asked If we were not feeling a little upset, have tossed off the question with a sniffle and reply to the effect that "Oh, it's only a little cold. It'll pass away soon !" That Is perhaps excusable on the grounds that an ordinary cold Is not productive of terrible suffering, so long as It develops no complications. complica-tions. What we are probably most unwise In overlooking Is the frequency fre-quency with which such complications complica-tions occur. Here Is an Illustration : How Dangerous Colds Are. We read with horror of thousands who die in flood, tornadoes, fires, gun accidents, falls, asphyxiation and the dozens of other catastrophes catastro-phes which are classed as accidental. acciden-tal. Today the entire nation Is up In arms, so to speak, in a campaign to cut down' the alarming annual rF fnt'il mnfnr voliiplo HpnUls Yet there are in America more deaths every year from pneumonia than from all accidental causes combined. Pneumonia almost Invariably In-variably begins with an ordinary cold ! And we say, "Oh, it's only a little cold !" Colds cost the people of the Unlt-d Unlt-d States more than one and one-half- billion dollars a year, according accord-ing to the United States public health service. They are responsible for an average loss of two and one-half one-half days every year for every worker In the country. In surveys conducted In certain Industries it has been shown that over a period of ten years 39 per cent of all ob-sences ob-sences from work was due to colds, among men. Among women, 31 per cent of all absences from work was due to colds. The public health service also reveals that most Americans have two to three colds a year, and that, among workers, the average is from three to seven colds a year. Class groups 'differ In their susceptibility sus-ceptibility to colds. College stu- dents, for Instance, because they are as a rule young, carefree and . somewhat indifferent to slight indispositions, indis-positions, contract colds more often than the average person. The cold 1 , i ' - If ' W a i t """"v ' V X . . , ' i r : I V''. " " ' - - j K ' - " ; N ' J X ' : -X ' J ' k ... &JM'. . - ' ' 1 Be careful about this! George Olsen, genial bandmaster of the College Col-lege Inn in Chicago's Hotel Sherman, and Ethel Shutta, his beautiful songstress-wife, demonstrate a practice which probably spreads as many colds as any other this time of year, according to medical authorities. Oh, well! If you were George, wouldn't you take a chance? can point at a germ, a "bug," an organism or a micro-organism and say definitely, "That Is what causes colds." This Is apparent even from the definition of a cold, as given by Dr. Alphonse Raymond Dochez, one of America's foremost authorities. He says: "The common cold Is an acute catarrhal Inflammation of the upper respiratory tract, of undertermined etiology." Etiology Is the assignment assign-ment of cause. When We Are Susceptible. While science has not yet recognized recog-nized the actual causative agent of the common cold, It has learned from experience many of the things that cause us to become susceptible to colds. Not the least of these Is lowered resistance. We .are more likely to catch cold when we are tired or worried or nervous in other oth-er words when we are generally "run down." That is possibly the explanation of the fact that late January and early February are the periods of most common Infection. Infec-tion. By that time our resistance has been lowered by months of insufficient in-sufficient exercise, less consumption of the fresh outdoor air and more general confinement. Exposure and lack of rest often "lay us wide open" to attacks of 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 hH-bN. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 irn i COLD5 f MIAN TEMPERATURE V3 Oz;g Teg S T This chart, the result of a survey among the employees of a large insurance in-surance company, shows how colds increase as the temperature drops. rate for army officers and their families, fam-ilies, accustomed to more careful living habits, falls far below the average. Cost of Colds Is Enormous. American industry annually loses about i)O,(HK).000 days, at a cost of nearly half a billion dollars, because be-cause of colds. And the really startling star-tling thing is that the prevalence of colds docs not differ very much between be-tween different sections of the eoun-- eoun-- try. l'cople In the warmer climates surfer from colds Just as do people In the colder areas. As a matter of fact, the Eskimos In the Arctic regions never suffer colds, except for short periods after the visits of ships from other parts of the world, indicating that the germs (if, Indeed, In-deed, that Is what they are no one really knows) are brought into these frigid parts from lands where milder weather prevails. On Admiral Admir-al llyrd's first expedition to the Antarctic Ant-arctic not one of his men caught a COM. Idany colds can be prevented with little forethought, and so, of course, can their complications. Mighty serious these complications are. too, for pneumonia Is only one of them. Others are quinsy, bronchitis, bron-chitis, pleurisy and often tuberculosis. tuber-culosis. If the cold Is neglected long enough. l'erhaps one reason that we do not give colds the attention they deserve de-serve is that nobody actually knows what causes them. A regrettable fact, but none the less true. There are several theories that have been given prominence, but medical scientists scien-tists admit that there is do one who colds. Chills from getting wet, from draughts or from any other cause do the same. So does lack of sleep. But all these things merely lower resistance; re-sistance; they do not cause colds. By being more careful In our living liv-ing habits we can build up our resistance. re-sistance. One school of thought advances the theory that colds are the result of a general acid condition In the body, and there seems to be evidence evi-dence to pupKrt this contention In the fact that when we keep ourselves our-selves alkalized by means of citrous fruit Juices and other alkaline foods and drinks we catch fewer colds. Another school says colds result from lack of some of the vitamins, particularly vitamin A. and advises the use of certain fish oils which contain this vitamin as a means to building up resistance to colds. "Polluted Air" Theory. Still another Idea Is that colds are the result of breathing impure air, dust, dirt and germs which cause the inflammation. It is true that the identical condition can he effected by breathing certain powders pow-ders and gases, and that men who work in Industrial plants where such polluted air Is present often suffer from conditions that are. In every symptom. Identical with colds. The most generally accepted theory Is that the cold Is caused by a definite micro-organism or group of micro-organisms. No one has ever seen It. though. It may be too mal or it may burrow too deep, assuming that It exists at all. Nasal secret tions from cold-sufferers contnln streptococci, staphylococci, pneumo-coccl pneumo-coccl and other organisms. They are also present In the noses and throats of healthy persons, but usually us-ually to a lesser degree. These organisms may be seen under un-der the microscope. While science does not believe that they themselves them-selves cause cold, it holds that they may assist an organism which does. That such an organism does exist, but has not yet been Isolated or seen, Is Indicated in the fact, as reported by Doctor Dochez, that nasal secretions, apparently sterile, are sometimes found in cold victims, and that these secretions, transplanted trans-planted to a normal person, will often communicate the cold. The fact that ther can be an acute inflammation of mucous memhrane with no micro-organism in sight is one of the baffling mysteries the common cold has presented to science, sci-ence, according to Doctor Dochez. Organism May Burrow Deep. "If the disease in these instances Is due to ordinary bacteria we must assume that the organisms are In the early stages beneath the surface' sur-face' of the tissues," he has written. That presents the possibility that the organism may burrow down so deep into the tissues that it cannot be uncovered for examination by simply removing nasal secretions. There are two kinds of colds, the hporauiL, which la always uuning&i us somewhere, and the epidemic, the nature of which is apparent from Its name. Keep Up Your Resistance. Since people who are "run down" are most susceptible to colds, the smart thing is to keep yourself from getting that way. Keep your body as healthy as you can. Medical authorities agree that if you are to keep from catching colds, you should get as much sleep, sunshine sun-shine and fresh air as possible. You should eat plenty of nourishing food without overeating, for overeating over-eating lowers resistance. Dress so that you will keep comfortably com-fortably warm, without having too much clothing on In hot weather, or too little in cold. If yon get wet, change clothes as soon as you can. Avoid, If possible, going from a hot room to the cold out-of-doors. Never Nev-er stay In a draft. You should remember to get some sort of exercise without overdoing It, to breathe through your nose, not your mouth, to keep clean at all times, for dirty hands often carry infection, and to avoid constipation. consti-pation. Don't Mix With Sufferers. Above all, keep away from people who have colds, for the common cold Is one of the most contagious of all diseases. When there Is an epidemic epi-demic In your vicinity, you should keep away from all crowds, avoid strictly the use of common drinking drink-ing cups, telephones and the like. This goes even for members of your family and dear friends. P,y the same token, you should. If you have a cold, keep away from everybody; every-body; colds are most often spread hy kissing and breathing Into another's an-other's face. Cover up when you sneeze or cough. If you feel a cold coming on, go to bed. Drink plenty of water. Eat lightly, and take a mild laxative. If you feel sick, don't try to work. You may pass your cold to others, and your employer certainly would not thank yon for that. It won't hurt to repeat: See your doctor. It Is better not to attempt at-tempt to prescribe for yourself. That's your doctor's business. Let him do it. If yon find yon have a great many colds, ask him to make a thorough examination and tell you why. Finally, don't simply npglert your cold. The risk isn't worth It. Western Newira;r Union. |
