C-Force: The Common Cold Comes Without a Cure

Over the last century or so, we have been able to develop countless breakthrough medical treatments, many proving to be lifesaving. Thankfully, this pattern of medical advancement continues as a major part of modern medicine. But my question is: Why haven't we found a cure for the common cold? While lots of folks have adopted cold remedies that they swear by -- from chicken soup to consuming citrus fruits and vitamin C to weird remedies like greasing one's throat with lard or chicken fat and placing dirty socks around it -- none of these approaches measure up to being a cure.

This whole question comes to mind because the cold and flu season is now upon us. For starters, we shouldn't confuse the two. As pointed out by Johns Hopkins Medicine, a cold is caused by "any one of more than 200 different viruses. ... A cold and the flu (influenza) are two different illnesses. A cold is relatively harmless and usually clears up by itself, although sometimes it may lead to a secondary infection." While a cold and the flu are contagious respiratory illnesses, in general, the flu is considered worse than the common cold. The flu can lead to serious associated complications, and there are four antiviral drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration and recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to treat it.

According to the CDC, colds generally do not result in serious health problems, though everyone is at risk of contracting one. Says the Johns Hopkins Medicine report, "the common cold leads to more healthcare provider visits and absences from school and work than any other illness each year."

A 2018 Scientific American report states that the inability to find a cure for the common cold is not due to a lack of trying. "The hunt for a cure for the common cold began in the 1950s," the report reads, "shortly after scientists discovered the primary group of pathogens -- known as rhinoviruses - behind the sniffles." Peter Barlow, an immunologist at Edinburgh Napier University, is among those working on a cure for the cold. "'The main challenge with rhinovirus is the number of circulating strains,' he says. ... Cracking the cold isn't so much looking for one solution to one problem as it is trying to design a master key to open hundreds of different locks at once." Researchers are dealing with more than 160 different strains of rhinovirus.

"Even if we find a cure for the cold, it probably won't be made available to healthy people who shrug the cold off in three to four days," says Barlow. "A cure might not even be that useful, because most people are already recovering by the time they're able to see a doctor," the Scientific American report reads. The idea of letting a cold "improve on its own," as suggested by the CDC, seems to be a prevailing attitude. "Currently, there is no medicine available to cure or shorten the duration of the common cold," according to the Johns Hopkins report, which also recommends "getting rest and drinking plenty of fluids" to reduce symptoms, as "treatment with antibiotics won't work. The best prevention for the common cold is frequent hand washing and avoiding close contact with people who have colds."

Not that there is any shortage of other ideas for heading off a cold.

As recently reported by Jamie Ducharme of Time magazine, "research suggests that zinc may stop the cold virus from binding to cells in the body and copying itself, potentially shortening the length of an illness." Ducharme adds that "adults who start taking roughly 80 mg of zinc per day within 24 hours of getting a cold feel better faster than those who don't use zinc. ... A recent Cochrane review article affirmed that finding, based on an analysis of 34 previously published studies on zinc and colds. The authors didn't find evidence that taking zinc proactively can prevent a cold, but they did find some proof that taking it while sick speeds up recovery by about two days." Says Daryl Nault, an assistant professor at the Maryland University of Integrative Health, "At best, we saw that it is possible that it could reduce the average duration of a cold by a couple days."

But Dr. Katharine DeGeorge, a family-medicine physician at the University of Virginia, says, according to Time, "not everyone benefits from taking zinc, and it frequently causes side effects such as an upset stomach, headaches, and a bad aftertaste."

"People who take very high doses of zinc for a prolonged period of time can also experience a range of complications -- including neurological issues and, ironically, getting sick more often," the Time report continues.

Dr. Roy Gulick, chief of infectious disease at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian, "doesn't routinely recommend (zinc) to his patients," according to Time, but suggests that "people who want to ease their symptoms are probably better off with over-the-counter drugs such as decongestants and sore-throat lozenges.

"DeGeorge also says she typically recommends that people save their money and avoid zinc side effects by focusing on the fundamentals: staying home, getting plenty of rest, and drinking lots of fluids. A cold 'is going to go away on its own no matter what you do,' she says."

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Follow Chuck Norris through his official social media sites, on Twitter @chucknorris and Facebook's "Official Chuck Norris Page." He blogs at http://chucknorrisnews.blogspot.com. To find out more about Chuck Norris and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.