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You’re on the Verge of Getting a Cold: Can You Stop It in Its Tracks?
What to do when you feel that first throat tingle
Getting those first signs of a cold? You’re probably wondering if it might be worth taking some form of vitamin C, or trusting a handful of other remedies touted as helping to nip a cold in the bud, such as working up a big sweat at the gym or taking steam. But do any of these approaches actually help?
The myths
According to studies, “sweating out” a cold right at its start (or later) isn’t likely to do anything to reduce its impact, no matter how you do it — via exercise, steam, or sitting in a hot, dry sauna. Many people in the studies swore they felt a little better, at least temporarily, but by all objective measures, there wasn’t any improvement in their colds.
And then there’s nasal washing or irrigation, which involves spraying or otherwise propelling water up through your nose into your nasal passages via a “neti pot” or other implements in the theory that it washes out mucus harboring the cold virus. Those, too, have been found ineffective against curtailing colds (and can cause infections if you use tap water instead of bottled saline solution).
