Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Winter's Here
It must be, because I've got my first cold of the season.
I've always found it odd that, although being otherwise disgustingly healthy, I seem to catch every cold on the go, and sometimes twice on the rebound. It's not like I eat particularly unhealthily - I get through plenty of orange juice and my fair share of fruit and veg each day. At the moment, I've got this one because I'm feeling generally run-down, but this has dogged me for years, even at school.
I remember reading a long time ago that there were only about 100 or so permutations of the cold virus (although a longer-than-expected Google - search for influenza - suggests I might be out a bit), so at my usual rate of between 5 and 10 colds per year, I can look forward to being cold-free from ... anywhere between 10 years ago and 2015. Roll on that day!
I read a poor short story which has stuck with me for longer than it really deserved to (anyone recognise this?) - the basic idea was that someone discovered a cure for colds, but a few days after administering it, the recipient would be afflicted by an enormous improvement in their sense of smell, to the level of dogs, and in the end the cure was worse than the problem. The story ends with the same scientist having found a "cure" for the cure - a permanent runny nose and sneezing. One of the ideas this touched off is that my propensity for catching colds could therefore be linked to my appalling sense of smell. Well, appalling except when garlic's involved.
I've always found it odd that, although being otherwise disgustingly healthy, I seem to catch every cold on the go, and sometimes twice on the rebound. It's not like I eat particularly unhealthily - I get through plenty of orange juice and my fair share of fruit and veg each day. At the moment, I've got this one because I'm feeling generally run-down, but this has dogged me for years, even at school.
I remember reading a long time ago that there were only about 100 or so permutations of the cold virus (although a longer-than-expected Google - search for influenza - suggests I might be out a bit), so at my usual rate of between 5 and 10 colds per year, I can look forward to being cold-free from ... anywhere between 10 years ago and 2015. Roll on that day!
I read a poor short story which has stuck with me for longer than it really deserved to (anyone recognise this?) - the basic idea was that someone discovered a cure for colds, but a few days after administering it, the recipient would be afflicted by an enormous improvement in their sense of smell, to the level of dogs, and in the end the cure was worse than the problem. The story ends with the same scientist having found a "cure" for the cure - a permanent runny nose and sneezing. One of the ideas this touched off is that my propensity for catching colds could therefore be linked to my appalling sense of smell. Well, appalling except when garlic's involved.
posted by Chip : 20:42
2 comments
Comments:
I seem to remember reading somewhere that the common cold was incredibly mutatable (I suspect they said "infinitely" but I'll avoid using this hyperbole since, obviously, it can't be true) and that was why it was very difficult to find a cure - basically it's a moving target, and an evasive one at that.
... I hope that didn't put any more of a damper on your day than I managed at work.
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... I hope that didn't put any more of a damper on your day than I managed at work.
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