Women Health and Environment

Zinc lozenges zap symptoms. People who took the over-the-counter zinc remedy Cold-Eeze recovered completely more than three days faster on average than people who received a placebo. In addition, Cold-Eeze takers had three fewer days of runny noses, 2.5 fewer days of coughing, two fewer days of both nasal congestion and sore throat and one less day of both headache and hoarseness.

Feed a cold, starve a fever? To find out whether there’s truth to that old adage, Dutch researchers had healthy people fast overnight, then measured their infection-fighting white blood cell counts after a 1,200-calorie liquid meal and after an equal amount of water. After only water was consumed, people’s levels of interleukin-4 (a chemical that fights fever-causing bacterial infections like strep throat) were four times higher. After the liquid meal, a chemical called gamma interferon that tackles viral infections such as colds and flu predominated. Until more is known, people with colds shouldn’t change their eating habits based on this small study.

Stressed? Popular? A study of 114 college students found that those who had the largest social circle, including friends and family, and the highest stress levels caught the most colds, while those with a lot of social interactions but lower stress levels had the fewest. To catch a cold, you must be exposed to the virus, and your ability to fight it must be down.