Debunking Cold & Flu Wives’ Tales

Cold and flu sea­son has arrived, bring­ing with it a resur­gence of myths and old wives’ tales regard­ing reme­dies and pre­ven­tions. You may have come across some of these time-hon­ored pieces of advice hand­ed down through gen­er­a­tions, but how much truth do they hold? To help us nav­i­gate the facts and fic­tion, we con­sult­ed Dr. Ernest Wal­lace, a physi­cian with QMG Now Urgent Care at Quin­cy Med­ical Group.

Starve a cold; feed a fever.

Dr. Wal­lace said there is no real valid­i­ty to either side. Instead, he empha­sizes the impor­tance of stay­ing healthy through prop­er nutrition.

“The most impor­tant thing is to stay well hydrat­ed with water, and sports drinks are an ok alternative.

Wear a coat or you’ll ​“catch a chill.”

Con­trary to the belief that skip­ping a coat will lead to catch­ing an ill­ness, Dr. Wal­lace clar­i­fies that expo­sure to weath­er alone doesn’t cause sickness.

“You can’t catch an ill­ness from being out­side with­out a coat or any weath­er expo­sure, but main­tain­ing good core body tem­per­a­ture can cer­tain­ly help main­tain nor­mal metab­o­lism and immu­ni­ty,” he said.

Eat chick­en soup to cure a cold.

While chick­en soup doesn’t have any ​“mag­ic heal­ing prop­er­ties,” Dr. Wal­lace acknowl­edges its place in a bal­anced nutri­tion­al intake. The broth can aid in hydra­tion, and includ­ing veg­gies and pro­tein sup­ports a bal­anced nutri­tion­al intake.

Avoid dairy prod­ucts if you have a gas­troin­testi­nal (GI) virus or a cold.

Dr. Wal­lace reas­sures that dairy does no harm dur­ing a gas­troin­testi­nal (GI) ill­ness. While dairy may not be everyone’s first choice, it’s not off-limits.

“Dairy does no harm. It may not be appeal­ing but does no harm,” he said. ​“With a GI ill­ness, sports drinks, bananas, rice, apple­sauce, and toast can be sta­ples. Hydra­tion is the most impor­tant thing, and, if dairy sounds good and is tol­er­at­ed, it’s fine.”

Vit­a­min C can cure a cold, and gar­gling with salt­wa­ter can cure a sore throat.

Dr. Wal­lace clar­i­fies that Vit­a­min C doesn’t cure a cold but can boost the immune sys­tem as a pre­ven­tive mea­sure. As for gar­gling salt water, it may pro­vide some relief, but not a cure.

“Vit­a­min C is not cura­tive per se but can help boost the immune sys­tem as a pre­ven­tive mea­sure. It’s bet­ter at pre­ven­tion than once you have an ill­ness and best attained thru dietary sources,” he stat­ed. ​“Salt­wa­ter gar­gles may feel good but do noth­ing to cure anything.”

A flu shot can give you the flu.

Address­ing the mis­con­cep­tion that a flu shot can give you the flu, Dr. Wal­lace empha­sizes that the vac­cine con­tains no live virus, mak­ing it impos­si­ble to catch influen­za from the shot. Any mild symp­toms post-vac­ci­na­tion are nor­mal immune respons­es, not the flu.

He added, ​“Also don’t con­fuse vom­it­ing and diar­rhea with influen­za. Influen­za is for the most part a res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­ease sim­i­lar to pneu­mo­nia or a severe cold or even Covid. The best treat­ment is pre­ven­tion with a vac­cine annually.”

Treat a fever with cold com­press­es or a cool bath.

While cool com­press­es may pro­vide com­fort, Dr. Wal­lace states that aceta­minophen or ibupro­fen are stan­dard treat­ments for fever. He advis­es against immer­sion in cool baths with­out doc­tor recommendations.

Know Where to Go

If you find your­self expe­ri­enc­ing symp­toms of a cold or flu, our QMG Now Urgent Care team is here sev­en days a week to see you. To learn more vis­it, https://​quin​cymed​group​.com/​q​m​gnow/.