Now that winter is upon us, it’s the time of the year when people start coming down with colds and the flu. Although there are steps that you can take to protect yourself from getting sick, there are a lot of myths floating around about these annoying ailments. Below are four things that people sometimes wrongly believe about how to protect yourself from coming down with a cold or the flu:
Sanitizing Hand Gels Will Protect You
Nowadays, it seems that everywhere you turn, people are using hand sanitizing gels to protect themselves from bacteria and diseases. While these anti-microbial agents are good at stopping a lot of microscopic infectious agents, they don’t do very much at preventing someone getting a cold or the flu.
The CDC guidelines, as well as World Health Organization’s regulations for cold and flu protection emphasize that sanitizing gels are not nearly as effective as thoroughly washing your hands with soap and water. Sanitizing gels must be at least 60% alcohol to be properly effective, and running water and soap is far more effective at both cleaning your hands as well as removing microscopic traces of the cold and flu viruses.
You’ll Catch a Cold if Someone Sneezes on You
It’s certainly true that both the cold and flu viruses are transmitted via airborne particles, so someone sneezing on you carries a higher risk of transmission. But these viruses can also be transmitted by ordinary activities like talking, coughing, and normal breathing.
Furthermore, direct physical contact with a sick person can transmit these illnesses. That is why colds and the flu tend to infect entire families. Your best protection against getting a cold or the flu from a loved one or colleague is to regularly wash your hands with soap and water.
Flying on a Plane Increases Your Chance of Getting Sick
No one is quite sure where this myth started, but it sounds logical at face value. After all, the air on an airplane is being recirculated, meaning that a single infected passenger is transmitting airborne particles throughout the cabin. Combined with low cabin pressure, and being in close proximity to coughing and sneezing people, it’s no wonder that many people suspect that air travel makes them particularly susceptible to coming down with a cold or the flu.
Nonetheless, careful scientific research has shown that air travel is no more or no less risky than other forms of transportation when it comes to contracting one of these sicknesses. You are just as likely to catch a cold from your work colleagues, fellow students, family members, or other holiday shoppers at the mall.
Chicken Soup Doesn’t Work
Everyone seems to know that a hot bowl of homemade chicken soup is a wonderful remedy for the common cold. Other people believe in different home remedies, ranging from consuming lots of Vitamin C, ginseng, echinacea, or zinc supplements. For every “guaranteed” home remedy that works for one person, it seems not to have much success for another person.
Nonetheless, a scientific study undertaken at the University of Nebraska conclusively proved that homemade chicken soup DOES have measurable benefits in treating the common cold. While researchers aren’t quite sure which component is critical, it has been shown that the ingredients themselves have anti-inflammatory properties, critical to helping the immune system fight off colds and other infections.