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A Healthy You: Smooching safer than holding hands

By Dr. Randy Eichner

When it comes to the common cold, you must remember this, a kiss is just a kiss, as time goes by.

And as time goes by, we're into the cold season. Two of the season's maladies, cold and flu, are mixed in folk's minds. They are very different. For starters, flu can kill you but a head cold can't.

Flu hits hard and fast, with high fever, severe body aches, and soon a cough. You feel like you were hit by a truck. Antibiotics don't help, but new anti-flu medicines can shorten the illness a day or two.

It's not too late for the flu shot. Flu season can last until April. It takes but two weeks for the shot to produce some immunity. The shot can cut your chance of getting the flu by 70 to 90 percent.

"Stomach flu" is a myth. The influenza virus hits the lungs, not the intestines. Upset stomachs are caused by other germs and other things.

The common cold is more common than flu and a mighty source of myths. For example, colds are not caused by cold weather. You can't catch a cold by walking outside in the cold, or from a wet head or cold feet.

You catch a cold from other people, who cluster inside in winter and trade germs back and forth. Cold viruses are passed through contact.

Examples? Touching a computer keyboard, doorknob or telephone after a sick person has used it. Sitting near someone coughing and sniffling.

Or shaking hands with a cold victim, then touching your eyes or nose. All it takes is one or two cold viruses transferred from their hands to your nose and boom, nine times out of 10, you get a cold.

As time goes by, the world will always welcome lovers. So here's a romantic tip for cold season: Don't hold hands, but it's OK to kiss.

A cold researcher blindfolded 13 pairs of volunteers and walked them into a sterile room. One person in each pair had been infected with a cold virus; the other was vulnerable to that virus.

Each pair kissed for up to 90 seconds; being blindfolded piqued the passion. Just one smoocher caught a cold. The other 12 felt great.

Final tip today on dodging colds: Avoid children like the plague! Cold viruses love to lurk in the noses of children.

More soon on athletes with colds.

Dr. Eichner is a professor of medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

-- Anonymous, January 29, 2002