We believe something as a common sense, but it is sometimes an old information and is different from the information recognized as a common sense at present. The same can be said of a cold. The situations discussed below are in Japan, so please adopt the information useful for your life style.
At home in the morning Q1. When you have a cold, it is better to force yourself to eat breakfast even if you don’t have appetite. True or False? A1. True. To fight against viruses by raising the body temperature by eating food. How not to make a cold worse is raising the body temperature. The immune system fighting against viruses becomes stronger by raising the body temperature. When you are in good shape, you can burn fat to raise the body temperature, but when you are not in good shape, you can’t burn fat. That is why it is better to eat breakfast to raise the body temperature except you really can’t eat anything. The beginning of a cold is a condition that there is virus infection but there is no sweat. When you don’t have sweat, if you sweat comfortably, you can recover from a cold. If you can’t sweat comfortably, a cold lasts long. So it is important to raise the body temperature properly and sweat comfortably. According to the research of Yale University, cold virus dies at 37 degrees C (98.6 degrees F). cold virus dies and doesn’t increase at 37 degrees C, but cold virus quickly increases at 33 degrees C. Q2. When you have a cold, it is better to eat bread rather than rice. True or False? A2. False. Because eating rice warms the abdomen, but eating bread doesn’t. if you want to raise the body temperature instantly, it is better to eat porridge. Warm food is better like warm vegetables instead of salad. Q3. It is better to put leaves of Daikon radish in a miso soup to prevent cold. True or False? A3. True. It is good to use the leaves of Daikon radish because they contain more vitamin C than the root, which can be expected to prevent cold. Q4. The material for porridge which is expected to alleviate the inflammation of the throat is not egg but salt kelp. True or False? A4. False. The white of egg contains Lysozyme which is expected as anti-inflammatory effect. Q5. It is better to replace toothbrush which was used when you had a cold. True or False? A5. False. You can wash away viruses with water. Q6. The effect of the medicine is the same even if it is taken with hot tea. True or False? A6. True. Since you need to raise your body temperature, it is okay to take medicine for a cold with hot tea. In earlier times, the substance contained in green tea, tannin was said to obstruct the absorption of some substances in the medicine, but now it rarely happens because the medicine has been improved. It is better to avoid taking medicine with grapefruits juice because they obstruct enzyme to breakdown medicine, sometimes making the effect of the medicine too strong. Q7. Kakkonto (Kudzu-based Chinese herb for cold symptoms) which is instructed to drink before a meal can be drunken after a meal. True or False? A7. True. Basically Chinese herbs should be taken before a meal and western-style medicine should be taken after a meal. Western-style medicine damages the stomach if it is taken before a meal. Chinese herbs can be less effective if taken after a meal because they are kinds of foods. However, Kakkonto has you sweat comfortably and recover from a cold, so it is better to drink it as soon as possible instead of waiting for the instructed time to take.
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- Tooth Brushing -The key word is Flu.
There is close relationship between tooth brushing and flu. Wrong way of teeth brushing on a winter morning: Before you go out, you brush your teeth quickly. Why is this wrong? If you don’t brush your teeth properly, the chance of getting flu increases rapidly. If you keep the timing to brush your teeth, you can make the change of getting flu one tenth. Why does brushing teeth prevent flu? The best way of brushing teeth in winter morning: Timing is important. When you wake up, bush your teeth first in the morning. Why? Because there are a lot of flu supporting enzymes called protease in the mouth. Protease is an enzyme caused by bacteria in the mouth. The mucus membrane of the throat plays a role of preventing virus infection. Protease destroys the wall of the mucus membrane and makes it easy to infect flu viruses. Therefore, protease is a bad guy who supports the infection of flu viruses. (Fig. 1 & 2) When you are up, bacteria are suppressed by saliva. On the other hand, while you are sleeping, the secretion of saliva is not much and dry, increasing bacteria in the mouth. If you eat something without tooth brushing, protease go into your body with food. Protease destroy the protein wall of the mucus membrane in the throat and supports the invasion of flu viruses. A flu virus attached on the throat invades the body in 20 minutes. So please brush your teeth first in the morning. Q11. How often do you have to gurgle to expect the effect of the prevention?
A11. Every 20 minutes. Flu viruses go into the body about 20 minutes after they attach to the mucus membrane and increase, so it is necessary to gurgle every 20 minutes. But that is not practical. There are 2 infection routes. One is droplet infection such as cough or sneezing. Another is contagion (contact infection) that is infected by touching something viruses are attached. To prevent flu infection, washing hands frequently is more practical. Brushing your teeth first in the morning is also effective. Q12. Why does mouth breathing raise the risk of having flu? A12. If you do mouth breathing, dry and cold air goes into the lung directly, causing that the body temperature goes down, the activity of internal organs is decreased and immune strength is weakened. On the other hand, if you do nose breathing, the air is humidified and warmed because the inside of the nose is complicated like a maze. Q13. Why gum is good to prevent flu infection? A13. You can get more saliva if chewing gums a lot. Saliva contains substances which have sterilizing and antibacterial functions. So saliva keeps your mouth clean. Of course, when you eat meals, chewing well is also effective. Q14. Which food is expected to suppress the increase of flu viruses? (A) Lemon (B) Umeboshi (Pickled plum) (C) Parsley A14. (B) Umeboshi (pickled plum) According to a research, when Umeboshi was put into flu viruses, the viruses didn’t increase very much compared to the one that Umeboshi was not added. Plum vinegar polyphenol which is produced when Umeboshi is made has the function to suppress the increase of viruses and the strength of infection. Eating Umeboshi every day is expected to prevent flu infection. Putting Umeboshi into a cup of green tea is more effective due to addition of catechin in green tea. Q5. Why do children more easily have flu than adults?
A5. Because children don’t have immunity to flu since they have not experienced flu. Immunity lasts long so if you experienced flu when you were a child, the immune is memorized until age of 80 or 90. If so, why do we catch flu every year? Because flu viruses change their forms so it often happens that the memorized immunity is not useful to the flu viruses. Q6. What is the reason that it is better to take a flu vaccination? A6. (This is just information and I'm not recommending to take a vaccination.) After you have flu, the vaccination prevents the severe condition. Severe condition is that if viruses increase too much in the body, that sometimes leads to pneumonia or brain fever (encephalopathy). Vaccination injects dead viruses. The white blood cells eat them, analyze the information of viruses, bring back to their base which is lymph nodes and hold a strategy meeting to produce the antibody. The produced antibodies flow in the blood vessels patrolling the whole body and beat the found viruses to prevent the increase of the viruses. The antibodies sometimes can’t reach the viruses but prevent the severe condition. Q7. When you may get flu, why is it better to go see a doctor within 48 hours? A7. Because the medicine becomes less effective if you take it after 48 hours. The purpose of the medicine is suppressing the increase of viruses. The viruses are the most numerous in 48 to 72 hours. So if the medicine is taken before viruses increase too much, the duration of fever becomes short. How does the medicine suppress the increase of flu viruses? The medicine for flu prevents the viruses from moving to the other cells and increasing. The infected cells die and are eaten by a macrophage which is a kind of white blood cells, and new cells are produced where the infected cells are eaten. Q8. Why is it dangerous that elderly people have flu? A8. Because elderly people sometimes don’t have fever due to the weakness of the immune system. They don’t have fever sometimes so they don’t notice that they got flu, resulting in severe condition. When flu is going around in winter, if they have symptoms such as joint pain in the whole body with feeling heavy or sore throat, it is possible that they have flu. Q9. How many days should you stay home after your fever went down? A9. 2 days after fever went down. Even after the temperature goes down, there are viruses left so it is possible to infect flu to the other people through sneeze or cough. Q10. How far does sneezing splash a droplet? (A) Within 6.5 feet (2 m) (B) Within 10 yard (10 m) A10. (A) Within 6.5 feet. Q1. What is the difference between flu and a common cold?
A1. In the case of flu, high fever occurs suddenly compared to a common cold. The reason that high fever occurs suddenly is because the speed that viruses increase in the body is very fast. The speed is one virus becomes one million in a day. So the body tries to protect itself increasing the temperature of the body. Too much increase of virus prolongs the symptoms such as high fever or joint pain, and in the worst case it leads to a complication like pneumonia. Q2. Where do flu viruses easily increase the most? A2. The upper respiratory tract which is from the nose to the throat. The most suitable temperature that viruses increase is about 91.4 degree F (33 degree C) and the upper respiratory tract becomes this temperature inhaling cold air in winter. Q3. What are the reasons that flu go around in winter? (1) Dryness of the air (2) Suitable temperature for viruses to increase (3) ? A3. Because the days are short. Exposure to the sun produces the substance which prevent the infection to the flu. The substance is vitamin D that is mostly produced through exposure to the sun. When vitamin D is activated by the exposure to the sun, cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide which beats the viruses is created in the immune cells. Q4. To prevent the flu, how long should we be exposed to the sun a day? (A) 20 minutes (B) 2 hours A. (A) 20 minutes. Proper exposure to the sun activates vitamin D. exposing only hands to the sun is still effective. Food containing plenty of vitamin D is Shiitake mushroom so it is good to go outside at least 20 minutes, eating Shiitake mushroom. Q15. In an emergency, where is the effective area to cool down your body when you want to lower the body temperature? A15. Around the Neck, In the Armpits, On the Navel, In the Groin The above four has something in common. That is they are the area where thick blood vessels run on. Cooling the thick blood vessels lowers the body temperature. So at the time of emergency, it is good to cool the thick blood vessels directly, especially around the navel is effective because the thickest blood vessel runs around the navel. Why do we cool the forehead when we have fever? In an emergency, if the body temperature rises, the temperature of the brain also rises. It looks like cooling the forehead, but actually it cools the skull. It is necessary to cool the skull to lower the temperature of the brain. Q16. When you are about to recover from a cold, it is good to sleep wearing thick cloths to sweat a lot. True or False? A16. False When you are about to recover from a cold, you are exhausted and also dehydrated. If you sweat a lot, you will become the condition of heat stroke. So it is important to hydrate frequently. Q17. Which food should you avoid when you are coming down with a cold, A. Pasta, B. Beef or C. Clementine? A17. C. Clementine.
Clementine contains a lot of potassium which cool your body so it is better to avoid when you are coming down with a cold. On the contrary, potassium has an effect to encourage urination which helps lowering the body temperature, so it is good to take potassium when you are recovering from a cold. Q12. What is the effective gargling for the prevention of a cold? A12.
Q13. How long can a common cold virus live on the hand? A 1 day B 1 week A13. According to a recent research, a common cold virus can live on the hand for 1 week, so it is important to wash hands. When you wash hands, please pay attention to the following 3 parts:
Q14. Which food is good to eat for breakfast to prevent a cold, A Soft food or B Hard food?
A14. B Hard food. It is good to eat hard food for breakfast because when you eat hard food, you have to chew well and at that time a lot of saliva is secreted. Saliva moistens the throat and also has the effect of sterilization. If you eat a bead for breakfast, it is a good idea to choose a French bread which is hard and you need to chew well. Q10. In winter, ventilating a room frequently by opening windows is effective in the prevention of catching a cold. True or False? A10. False. If humidity of the room becomes less than 40%, viruses float in the room for more than 30 minutes. In winter, air outside is very dry so if you ventilate a room frequently, the humidity of the room becomes less than 40%, causing viruses to float in the room for a long time. If the humidity is more than 40%, viruses floating in the air fall down to the floor. On the other hand, if you open the window and the humidity becomes less than 40%, viruses on the floor go up into the air again. So it is better to decrease the number of ventilation in winter. But in the following cases, it is better to ventilate a room:
Q11. Which is more effective at prevention of catching a cold to place a humidifier at home, A on the floor or B on the shelf? A11. B on the shelf To keep the humidity high around your nose and mouth, it is better to place the humidifier at the level of your face. If you place the humidifier on the floor, it is possibly dry at the level of your face. Other important points about a humidifier are:
Q9. Less than 6 hours sleep increases the risk to catch a cold. True or False? A9. In the newest research, people who sleep less than 6 hours caught a cold about 4 times as many as people who sleep more than 7 hours. In the non-REM sleep state, which is a state of complete rest, growth hormone is secreted and the immune system that is tired from a fight against viruses is repaired. That means sleeping makes the immune system more powerful. But too much sleep doesn't help the immune system because even if you sleep longer, your non-REM sleep doesn't get longer. In the research, 7 to 8 hours sleep was the best to boost up immune system.
Q7. Why do we get fever when we catch a cold? A7. To boost up immune system. If common cold viruses invade into the body, they multiply in the cells of the throat. White blood cells eat the viruses and analyze the information of the virus and inform it to the brain through cytokine. The brain orders to raise the body temperature. If the body temperature raises, the immune becomes more powerful. If the body temperature becomes over 40 degree C (104 degree F), viruses die. So how does our body raise the temperature? To prevent heat going our from the skin, blood vessels under the skin becomes narrow, leading to less blood flow, and sweat glands becomes narrow, leading to less sweating. Another way to raise the temperature is shaking the muscles. That is the same as when it is cold, our body naturally moves the muscles to raise the body temperature. After defeating the viruses, we sweat to lower the body temperature. That means sweating is a sign of recovering from a cold. Q8. Why do we feel sluggish when we catch a cold?
A8. To make immune system concentrate on a fight against viruses. Our body uses all the energy for immune system to fight against viruses. Sluggish feeling or general fatigue is a sign not to use the energy for moving the body. That means our body requires rest. |
IchiroThis Blog is for a memo of my clinical realizations, information about health I have learned recently and update information. Archives
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