Common Cold Causes
You’ve probably spent your whole life getting colds and being around people with colds, but have you ever stopped to think what causes them?
There are over 200 different viruses capable of causing the common cold, many of which are highly contagious. The common cold is most frequently caused by the rhinovirus.
Cold viruses invade your body through your mouth, eyes, or nose. You can catch a cold when someone else who has one coughs or sneezes near you, expelling droplets that carry the virus. Another common means of contracting a cold is by touching objects that someone with a cold has touched with contaminated hands then putting your own hands to your eyes, nose, or mouth. (Even cold germs deposited through the tear duct can eventually reach the nose, since they’re connected). Cold sufferers usually contaminate their own hands when they blow their noses, cover their mouths when they cough, or cover their noses when they sneeze. Some studies have even indicated that colds viruses can be carried on the skin of the infected person regardless of whether than skin has come in contact with saliva or nasal secretions,
More often than not, cold viruses develop and grow in the nose. The virus is transported by mucous to the adenoid, where a high concentration of virus receptors is present. Next, the cold virus grabs onto a receptor positioned at the surface of nasal cells. The receptor plugs into a port on the surface of the cold virus. The virus is absorbed into the nasal cells, and presto, you’re in bed with the sniffles!
A person with a cold contains a myriad of cold virus bacterium in their saliva and nasal discharge. When someone else comes in close contact with those virus cells, they usually contract the common cold. People typically spread their colds within the first three days of contracting them since that’s when nasal discharge contains the highest concentration of virus cells, making the cold extremely contagious.
Now that you know what causes a person to get a cold, you may be wondering what causes a person with a cold to get those particular nasty symptoms. Cold symptoms are mainly a result of the body’s reaction to an infection. When you contract a common cold virus, your immune system springs into action. Your immune system incorporates a range of organic substances called inflammatory mediators. Some inflammatory mediators that are commonly produced in response to cold viruses are kinins, histamines, prostaglandins, and interleukins. They strengthen the body against infection. When a cold virus invades nasal cells, your body releases inflammatory mediators in its defense. This release of inflammatory mediators creates the dilation and seeping of blood vessels and mucus glands, causing the familiar cold symptoms of a runny nose and eyes. Inflammatory mediators likewise stimulate your nervous system, spurring reflexes like sneezing and coughing. To make matters worse, inflammatory mediators activate pain nerve fibers, prompting a sensation of body aches and weakness. Fortunately as many 25 as a quarter of people who get the common cold don’t have a reaction of the inflammatory mediators, and therefore experience no symptoms. That means at some point in your life you may have had a cold and were lucky enough not to have even known it!