If you often have a tickly and itchy nose, a cold may be on its way. If your throat then also starts to tickle, many people are sure they are coming down with something. The classic symptoms of a cold are rhinitis, cough, sore throat, headache and aching joints. Swallowing difficulties or a dry throat are among the most common signs of a cold. It is also increasingly difficult to take a deep breath and your nose burns, tickles or runs. Classically, the symptoms in the first stage of a cold also include shivering, sneezing attacks and pressure headaches.
In addition to rhinitis, those affected can also feel very weak and suffer from fatigue, headache and aching joints for several days. If a dry cough then develops into a productive cough with mucous, the cold is usually in an advanced stage. The cold and rhinitis should have resolved after about two weeks. The time a cold lasts varies greatly from one person to another, however. Some people may recover from a cold after only three days, while others take a week, and some even 14 days to fully recover.
We have long known that a flu virus is passed on by droplets, for example when we cough, sneeze or kiss. A research group in the USA has, however, discovered another way the infection can be passed on: in the air we breathe – and that is a hard one to avoid. Dr Jing Yan from the University of Maryland tested the breath of young adults aged 19 - 21 years suffering from influenza. Of 355 students with an acute infection of the airways, 142 were carrying the flu virus. The study that has now been published in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) [1] concludes that infection can occur by normal breathing. Another study has discovered that inhaling nebulised saline solution with a PARI LC Plus Nebuliser (in healthy individuals who exhale many more particles than other individuals and therefore potentially pathogens), diminishes the number of exhaled particles by 70 percent for up to six hours [2]. The authors therefore concluded that saline inhalation can help to reduce the spread of infections in the exhaled air.
Source:
1. Yan J et al., PNAS 2018; 115 (5): 1081-1086)
2. Edwards D.A. et al., PNAS 2004; 101(50):17383
We are specialists in effective inhalation. With our tried and tested devices, inhalation solutions and other airway products, we would like to help you prevent colds and rhinitis and – if you already have an infection – ease the symptoms.
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