Make love, not colds

Science discovers fun new ways to fight sniffles.

By Patty Rhule

Make love weekly, sniff chocolate and make new friends.

As cold and flu season worsens, those are some of more enjoyable theories on how to build resistance and remain healthy.

In spite of disagreement among experts, two things are clear: Young children get more colds than any other age group, averaging five to 12 a year, and those runny-nosed virus spreaders are the population to avoid if you are trying to stay sniffle-free.

Good luck with your attempt. Statistics run against success: Each year, at least 90% of Americans catch at least one cold. And the last few months of 2001 will see 16% to 20% more people sick from colds than in the same months last year, estimates Surveillance Data Inc., which tracks illness patterns worldwide.

Since Sept. 11, the country's cumulative stress level has risen, and "people under stress are more likely to get sick," says Carnegie Mellon University psychologist Sheldon Cohen, who studies how stress affects immunity, particularly the development of colds. "The kind of stressors that put people at greatest risk [are] the things you can't do much about: marital conflicts, conflicts with friends, being unemployed or underemployed."

Global conflict and bioterrorism don't help matters. Today, "we're all more vulnerable," says Michael F. Roizen, M.D., the author of the best seller RealAge: Are You as Young as You Can Be? and founder of the Web site realage.com.

Having a diverse network of friends seems to protect people from colds, Cohen says. Unless, of course, those friends are coughing and sneezing.

Smelling or eating chocolate, having sex once or twice a week, listening to music and stroking a pet all boost the release of immunity-enhancing chemicals in the body, says Carl Charnetski, a professor of psychology at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania and the author of Feeling Good Is Good for You: How Pleasure Can Boost Your Immune System and Lengthen Your Life (Rodale, $21.95). People who had sex once or twice a week had 30% more of a key immunity-boosting chemical than those who had no sex or who had sex more than twice a week, Charnetski says.

If you still get a cold, at least you had fun fighting it.

And these people may have to fight the hardest:

Smokers. Research is inconclusive on whether smokers are more susceptible to colds, but "if they do get a cold, they don't do as well" because tissues already are damaged, says Arnold S. Monto, M.D., an epidemiology professor at the University of Michigan who has studied colds for more than 30 years.

Allergy sufferers. Cold symptoms linger longer and are more numerous in people with allergies because their mucous membranes tend to be inflamed already, says James F. Jones, M.D., of Denver's National Jewish Medical and Research Center, a top respiratory hospital.

Sugar addicts. Sugar suppresses white blood cell count for two to five hours after ingesting it, says naturopathic physician Mark Stengler, the author of The Natural Physician's Healing Therapies (Prentice Hall Press, $30). He adds that sugar addicts tend to be depleted of key vitamins and minerals, which may weaken immunity.

The long-sought-after cure for the common cold may be in the marketplace in five years, estimates Jack M. Gwaltney Jr., M.D., a professor of internal medicine at the University of Virginia who has been studying colds since 1962. The miracle drug? Anti-viral agents to halt cold viruses from growing in the body.