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Can Isolation Make Your Cold Worse?
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They say, “Smile and the world smiles with you; cry and you cry alone.” Researchers have found that people who are suffering from a cold feel worse when they are alone. It seems that the other saying, “Misery loves company” may also be true. It was determined that it didn’t matter if you had a lot of friends or not, if you were the only one coughing and sneezing you felt worse than if others had it as well.
When you don’t feel well it doesn’t matter if you handle being ill very well with hardly any complaints or if you are the biggest baby complaining about every little thing. As soon as you are asked how you feel, you begin the litany of how bad your cold is and how much everything hurts. This is why a research team put together a clinical trial to see exactly how people feel when they are ill, and if people who are lonely feel worse.
The study gathered together a group of 159 people who were between the ages of 18 to 55 years of age. The group was asked a number of questions about feeling alone as well as about the true size of their social networks.
The group was then given the virus that contained the common cold and were kept isolated for a period of 5 days. They stayed in a hotel room and every day they were asked about their symptoms. In the end, it was determined that the people who felt that they were the most alone felt like they had the worst symptoms. It all came down to how each person really felt about how lonely they were, rather than how lonely they really were which made the symptoms worse.
By the same token, it was acknowledged that when you have a cold, you feel and look worse than usual so you more than likely want to be left alone and not socialize with anyone. Being around a larger amount of people didn’t make you any more susceptible to become ill either.
How can you pull yourself out of this funk and feel better?
Okay, so you have a cold, you are feeling lonesome – no matter how many friends you have – and you’ve wallowed as long as you can take it. Now, you’ve decided that it’s really not any fun to be sick and alone and you need to get yourself well again. Here are 10 things you can do to get rid of your cold and get yourself back into the groove again.
1. Hydrate
Make sure you keep drinking as much fluids as you can so your body can get your immune system back to its healthy range again. Keep water, broth, juice and plenty of clear liquids close by so you are always able to sip on something to drink.
2. Loosen your congestion
If you find that you are all stuffed up try using a saline spray. Using a good spray will help to rinse out your sinuses and break up the mucus you may be building up.
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