 | Blood Work And Common Cold
  When hygienic prevention efforts fail, as they sometimes must, the body itself takes over to protect against the consequences. A cold virus that finds its way into the vulnerable nose encounters various defenses in the body’s respiratory, blood and nervous systems, this is where blood work and common cold becomes important. Some of these defenses are mechanical, some chemical. Some of them work locally at the site of infection; some involve the body as a whole. Many overlap one another in the protection they give. Most of the time these loyal bodyguards function so quietly and anonymously that it is easy to forget their existence.
Yet, in their unspectacular ways, they work 24 hours a day repulsing or disarming the millions of persistent and extremely varied disease agents that invade the body. The stakes entrusted to these defenders are high—literally a matter of life or death in some cases. Even cold viruses might attack heart, lungs and brain if they were allowed to operate unopposed. This is key in dispelling the myths on fever.
On the front line of defense in the respiratory system are the coarse nostril hairs, several hundred of which stand at the entrance of the nose to screen out large airborne particles and droplets of moisture that may carry disease agents. Immediately beyond the hairs is the nasal mucous membrane. A sort of multilayered internal skin, the membrane contains blood vessels, nerves and mucous cells, the last secreting both the viscid, normally clear substance called mucus and a chemical activator, or enzyme, called lysozyme.
The mucus gathers up viruses, bacteria, dust, pollen and other irritants as they enter the nose and throat. If the intruders are bacteria, the mucus succeeds in destroying some on the spot through the action of the lysozyme. As for viruses and other irritants, the mucus simply wraps them in its enveloping blanket, suspending them away from the surface of the membrane so that they remain harmless. This boils down to possible laryngitis causes and remedy.. | Most Popular Common Cold And Flu ArticlesHow Does The Common Cold Affect Your Body Palpitations And Need To Cough Cough With Frothy White Sputum Types Of Rheumatic Heart Fever Pain Constant Low Grade Fever Nutritional Requirements Needed To Treat Fever Flu Symptoms With Neck And Back Pain And Muscle Aches Who Discovered Influenza Is Canada Ready For A Pandemic Influenza | |
| To clear the debris away, the top layer of cells of the mucous membrane in the nose and in some parts of the throat is equipped with many millions of filaments called cilia, invisible to the naked eye but looking something like a field of grain when they are observed under an electron microscope. The cilia move back and forth in sweeping waves, each sweep advancing the mucus blanket through the nasal passage ways toward the back of the mouth.
There, the mucus normally leaves the upper respiratory tract and enters the digestive tract, where it is eventually destroyed. The trachea and part of the larynx—the lower and upper parts of the air passage to the lungs—are also lined with cilia, but here the cilia push the mucus upward and away from the lung area to join the nasal discharge that flows into the digestive tract.
Researchers have found that the rate of ciliary motion, and thus the rate of mucus clearance, varies considerably from person to person. The sweeping action can also speed up or slow down in the same person as the result of changes in body chemistry, often induced by substances that are eaten, drunk or inhaled—tobacco and alcohol, for example, slow the waving cilia. Ten minutes from nostril to throat is about the average time needed to move out a particle, viruses included, in a healthy individual. In people with sluggish cilia, the trip may take longer than 30 minutes.
A direct relationship between the speed of clearance and a person’s resistance to disease remains to be proved, but slow clearance seems to increase the chance that a virus can penetrate the mucus and form an infectious attachment. Some specialists advise anyone plagued by recurrent colds to cut back on alcohol and tobacco for a few months to see if any improvement in resistance results, this can be shown in the blood work and common cold. | Twitter About The Common Cold Cure  | | Common Cold Tip Of The Day Colds are rather difficult to catch by way of the mouth. University of Wisconsin researchers tested couples, asking that in each couple, the cold-stricken partner kiss the unaffiliated one for 90 seconds. Only one caught cold. |
| |
