By: Justin Perrin

Getting a cold is not a good feeling; you have to walk around with a box of tissues the whole day or you just sit at your house and watch Netflix all day. Either way, you are sick all day because of the cold weather or disgusting bacteria that can give you a runny nose. In this review, I’m going to give you some tips on how to prevent getting a cold and how to fight off a cold, because nobody likes being sick, ever.

It isn’t always the bacteria that can get you sick, though, it could possibly be allergies, and it is hard to tell whether it is bacteria or just their allergies. The number one cause of a cold is a “Rhinovirus,” and there are more than 100 different varieties of the rhinovirus. Either way, here is some advice to get rid of those nasty germs. First, it is helpful to identify some symptoms of a cold, which are a sore throat, coughing, runny nose, sneezing and watery eyes. Other more severe colds can have symptoms such as a mild fever and or some aching joints.

A cold can stay in your body up to 7-10 days, but, depending on the severity of the cold, it could stay in your body longer than usual. Colds can stay in an adult’s system for about 18 days, until they’re fully recovered; yet, children have to wait roughly three weeks until they’re completely clean of the virus. Colds stay in children’s system’s longer because they’re more reactive to heat and cold stress.

Most ways to treat a cold are just basic allergy or cold medicine to help alieviate the symptoms because antibiotics do not work when trying to treat a cold. The antibiotic does not fight the bacteria of a cold. Colds are a virus, which means that antibiotics fight bacterial infections, not viral. There are different treatments for different parts of the cold. For example, for a sore throat or headache, Tylenol would work well to fight that.  You can also take cough drops for a sore throat that you have. It will numb the back of your throat and they will help you so you can swallow much easier instead of having a dry throat that hurts to swallow.

So, this winter, try to prevent the common cold by stocking up on vitamins.  If you’re unforuntate enough to get a cold, try some of the over the counter treatments to make it a little more manageable.