Why old wives never get colds

“If they can send a man to the moon, why can’t they cure the common cold?”

These days, of course, we can’t even send a man to the moon, but never mind that. The main reason there’s no cure for the common cold is that the common cold can be caused by any one of more than 100 viruses (that we know of). It’s not a single disease, but a whole raft of them.

But even if (or perhaps because) science doesn’t have a sure-fire remedy to suggest, it seems everyone else you meet does.

Writing in the London Daily Mail, Angela Epstein recently took the time to go through a long list of these remedies. I don’t have room to mention all of them, so I’m going to focus on what she calls “old wives’ tales” beginning the best-known of all: “Wrap up warm!”

For years, in my professional capacity as annoying know-it-all, I have been telling people that research has shown no connection between being cold and catching a cold. But new research may have made me a liar (not for the first time).

Researchers at Cardiff University’s Common Cold Centre had 90 volunteers sit with their bare feet in icy water for 20 minutes. A third of them developed colds during the following five days, compared to just nine percent of a control group that did not get their feet wet—in other words, cold feet tripled the risk of developing cold symptoms. It could be, the researchers speculate, that colds are more common in cold weather because the additional chilling allows viruses that are normally present but dormant to take hold.

It’s also possible, the researchers say, that one of the major factors in seasonal colds is cold noses. “Cooling of the nose slows down clearance of viruses from the nose and slows down the white cells that fight infection,” says Professor Ron Eccles, who led the Cardiff research.

There are, of course, centuries of folklore about “catching your death of cold” by getting chilled. The connection between the two may have fallen into doubt simply because it’s generally easier for us to get warm after we’ve been cold than it used to be.

There is also plenty of folklore about chicken soup as a cold remedy. In the 12th century, the famed physician Maimonides extolled the virtues of chicken broth for treating respiratory ailments. (Although it should be pointed out he also extolled its virtue as a treatment for hemorrhoids, constipation and leprosy.)

About five years ago Dr. Stephen Rennard, a pulmonary specialist at the University of Nebraska’s Medical Centre, who studied inflammation of the airways, added chicken soup to a culture of white blood cells of the sort (called neutrophils) that cause a buildup of fluid in the chest when they rush there to attack invading viruses. He wanted to see if the soup would inhibit their movement.

Dr. Rennard tested his wife’s homemade chicken soup and 13 store-bought soups. He found that his wife’s soup did indeed slow the neutrophils—and a third of the store-bought soups slowed them even more. He doesn’t know why.

Of course, it’s a long way from slowing white cells in the lab by adding chicken soup to a culture to slowing them in the body by eating chicken soup, so this isn’t exactly proof of anything. But it is interesting, and it’s also true that the amino acid cysteine, which is released from chicken during cooking, can thin mucus–cnd capsaicin, found in pepper, can ease congestion.

Chicken soup can’t hurt, anyway. (Unless you spill it on your lap while trying to eat it in bed, of course.)

The other old wives’ tales Epstein looked at were “Starve a Fever, Feed a Cold” (Dutch scientists found that eating helps the body destroy cold viruses, while fasting helps the body handle the bacteria that cause fevers), “A Little of What You Fancy Does You Good” (regular sexual activity boosts the immune system, U.S. researchers found), “Guzzle Garlic” (allicin in the garlic encourages white blood cells to reproduce, but the garlic needs to be eaten raw or taken in tablets), and “Keep Happy” (a U.S. study found that happy people are three times less likely to get a cold.)

All of which means that if you see a warmly-wrapped smiling man who smells strongly of garlic guzzling chicken soup while looking romantically into the eyes of his wife…that would be me.

Hey, you can’t be too careful.