|  | Conditions Treatments | Cold Flu

What Are the Causes of Common Cold?

Did your mother ever say, "Button up, you'll catch your death of cold"? Moms give excellent advice, but this is actually a cold myth. There is no evidence that someone gets a cold from being chilled, or from its sister, getting overheated.

  1. What a Cold Is

    • Referred to as a "common" cold, (which doesn't feel that way when you have one,) this phrase actually means that you or your child can get colds more than any other type of illness. A cold is a viral upper respiratory tract infection and is generally "self-limited," which means your immune system limits the illness by fighting it. The other reasons something is self-limiting could be because it will be resolved within a specific time; or, because it requires no treatment; or because there is no treatment.

    Viral Causes

    • There are more than 200 viruses responsible for instigating colds. "Virus" is a Latin word that translates to toxin or poison. A virus is a living organism comprised of genetic material, protein, fat, and something called a glycoprotein coat. Viruses infect and reproduce with the help of a host cell. After it's infected, the cell continues to reproduce more viral components instead of genetic material.

    Types of Virus

    • The viruses bent on creating colds are: rhinoviruses, coronaviruses, or a respiratory model called the syncytial virus. The majority of colds are caused by the rhinovirus. Since there are so many different types, no one person can build up an immunity to all of them. That's why a preschool or elementary school child can get up to 12 colds a year, but they more typically get six to 10 colds. The United States Centers for Disease Control estimates that 22 million school days per year are lost to colds.

    Virus Specifics

    • Rhinoviruses---the root word "rhin" is Greek for nose---are aptly named because rhinoviruses grow well in the nose. They are responsible for up to 40 percent of all colds and there are over 110 known rhinovirus types. They can even be active in the summer, as they cultivate best at 91 degrees.

      Coronaviruses
      Active in adults mainly in the winter and spring, three or four types of coronaviruses infect humans. They don't cultivate well in the laboratory however, so little is know about them.

    Other Beasties

    • The last group are the respiratory syncytial (sink-TEE-ahl) virus or the parainfluenza. These create mild colds for adults but severe lower respiratory tract infections in children---and they may lead to pneumonia. Last, there are unknown viruses; unknown because the symptoms are ambiguous and research on them is impossible.

    Contributing Factors

    • With children, the incidence of colds is increased by going to school because they get sick and play with each other. This provides a pathway for the viruses to be transferred.

      There is some discussion as to whether humidity might increase the frequency of colds. Low humidity and drier noses seem to make people more vulnerable during the colder months.

      What you eat, whether you exercise, and other factors like keeping your tonsils, are not proven to affect the common cold. Stress or allergies however, may influence your chances of getting a cold virus.

Cold Flu - Related Articles