Symptoms of cold

Everyone has suffered with a cold at some point in their lives. A cold will more often than not clear up all by itself. However it can have different levels of severity in each individual. A cold is a viral infection that affects a person’s upper respiratory tract.

The Upper Respiratory Tract

The upper respiratory tract has many parts including the nose, throat, sinuses which are the little spaces in the skull at the back of the eyes and the nose. There is also the trachea which can also be called the windpipe and this is the key airway that takes air to the lungs, larynx commonly known as the voice box, and lastly the bronchial tubes which are the airways located in the lungs.

Cold Symptoms

If you have a cold you may suffer with a couple of symptoms or a full blown range of them. They can include the nasal stuffiness, runny nose, sneezing, sore throat, and a cough.

Facts about Colds

Usually an adult will get a cold between two and four times each year. However, children are more susceptible and will unfortunately suffer with them up to eight times a year. This happens simply because a child’s immune system has not had the time to develop fully thus being more defenseless. It is a fact that women will suffer with colds more frequently than their male counterparts for the reason they are in contact with children more often. There are well over two hundred viruses that are responsible for the cold symptoms and it is wrong to believe a cold is caused by a singular virus thus the reason there is no cure available. The cold as most people know is contagious because it can live in the air for a little while. It can be contracted by being in direct contact with someone that has just sneezed or coughed because of the miniature droplets of liquid that have the cold virus go into the air and thus breathed in by you. It can also be passed on via indirect contact which means that if someone with a cold sneezes on a door handle and then you unsuspectingly touch that handle a short while later, you may potentially catch the cold virus if you then proceed to touch your nose or your mouth. The virus hits more people in the winter months for the reason that most people are inside because of the cold weather thus being in contact with each other more frequently.