The common cold

[Firescape]

We can put man on the moon but we can't treat the common cold. Why? And why is the medicine field the slowest progressing field in science apart from any socio-politics?

[ecoli]

The common cold isn't just one virus... it consists of many different strains that's constantly evolving.

 

Medicine is a slowly evolving field because, unlike most other sciences, it's constantly evolving, changing. There are so many variable, different types of disease, interactions, populations dynamics...

 

It's probably a more complex field than you perhaps realize.

[blike]

Not to mention the difficulty of planning (and getting approved) experiments that live, sick human beings.

[Sisyphus]

Because putting a man on the moon is much easier than curing the common cold?

[Fred56]

Apparently so.

[tvp45]

We can put man on the moon but we can't treat the common cold. Why? And why is the medicine field the slowest progressing field in science apart from any socio-politics?

 

Why do you think medicine is the slowest field? In the past, say 30 years, we've seen MRIs, CAT scans, PET scans, Gamma knives, brain plasticity, organ transplants, joint replacements, blood pressure drugs, cancer treatments, etc become commonplace. Hospital beds have almost disappeared as most surgery has become relatively straightforward. The part of medicine that has lagged is delivery and cost.

 

We actually know how to largely prevent the common cold (handwashing, healthy humidity, staying home when ill, adequate rest, good diet, not sneezing or coughing on others) but don't.

[Glider]

...and we can actually treat the common cold very effectively. We can reduce the fever and inflammation. We can aleviate the headache and sore throat and so-on. We can even reduce the chances of full infection if we catch it early enough. We just can't cure it.

 

Putting a man on the moon would be a lot harder if the moon changed position as randomly and frequently as the cold virus mutates.

[Norman Albers]

Funny you should ask. Just a few days ago I heard that a good study debunked the usefulness of cough syrup. My parents were honest: when I was wracking, they gave me half a shot of whiskey!

[Revenged]

it has been well known for decades that cough syrups are uselesss...

 

pholcoedeine (+ other coedine based syrups) are the only ones that has any effect as a cough suppressant - everything else is a con...

 

and i'm prety sure taking sugar cough sweets + sugary cough syrups makes things worse... as bacteria thrive on glucose... so i don't really know why they exsit in pharmacies...

[Norman Albers]

Cool, Revenged. I'll stick to Scotch and positive placebo meditations.

[iNow]

Cool, Revenged. I'll stick to Scotch and positive placebo meditations.

 

Irish whiskey works too when in a pinch.

[Norman Albers]

Thanks, iNow. I don't know the differences but Revenged makes it clear we need dry blends, which I naturally prefer.

[Revenged]

lol... what a joker...

[Sisyphus]

Scotch cures all ills.

[Norman Albers]

Actually I was just having too much fun and I disagree that alcohol helps keep one cold-free. The only times I've had any respiratory infection in maybe twenty years are when I drank too much and pulled down my fluid and immune system. I was talking about getting to sleep when you have a bad cough.

[iNow]

How about some rum with honey in it?

[Norman Albers]

Sounds like good medicine.

[John Cuthber]

Part of the reason we can't cure the common cold is that it isn't worth it. It makes more sense to put medical resources into things that kill rather than annoy as the cold usually does.

[Mr Skeptic]

I wouldn't be surprised if the common cold actually killed a few people. Also, I recall reading that viruses can contribute to cancer? (that may have been retroviruses only)

[John Cuthber]

I'm quite certain that colds sometimes kill people, that's why I put the word "usually" in my post. A few visuses are known to cause cancer but I don't think the cold is one of them.

[Mr Skeptic]

Out of curiosity I looked up the common cold.

 

The annual cumulative societal cost of the common cold in the United States is billions of dollars.

 

No vaccines are available: the primary method to prevent infection is hand-washing to minimize person-to-person transmission of the virus.

...

The common cold can lead to opportunistic coinfections or superinfections such as acute bronchitis' date=' bronchiolitis, croup, pneumonia, sinusitis, otitis media, or strep throat.[/quote']

[Norman Albers]

Especially if you are too fup duck. Further epidemiology, these days I do not tune many pianos since I choose rebuilding jobs as they appear. Thus I have not regularly been in the homes of people with children in school (or not, around here with religious home-schooling strong) as I once was. Thus it is a rare thing that I get a cold?

[Taq_is_hot]

The common cold isn't just one virus... it consists of many different strains that's constantly evolving.

 

Medicine is a slowly evolving field because, unlike most other sciences, it's constantly evolving, changing. There are so many variable, different types of disease, interactions, populations dynamics...

 

It's probably a more complex field than you perhaps realize.

 

Yeah and I think I've had every virus already. Now I just have some time to wait until a new one comes:mad: HEHE!

 

I think that the medical field is evolving quite quickly for all the complications it has! I think its a great accomplishment that we can cure many diseases that we couldn't even 50 years ago. We may be moving slower than other sciences, but we sure aren't moving slow by any means, and we are doing a great job with what we can.

[Norman Albers]

Happily it has been several years since I can recall any 'bad throat' or cold, but at any sign I adopt a WARRIOR ATTITUDE. Water, salsa on light food, an attitude that says NO.

[Taq_is_hot]

LOL One day I poured Tabasco sauce down my soar throat and it cured it right away! Must have killed everything down there. But the next day I got food poisoning, so...