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Ah-Choo!:
The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold by Jennifer Ackerman ISBN-13: 9780446541152 Hardcover: 245 pages Publisher: Twelve Released: September 2, 2010 |
Source: Bought through Half.com.
Book Description from Back Cover:
On average, we spend five years of our lives suffering from Colds. Isn't it time you learned something about them? Ah-Choo! explains why...
- A quarter of the people infected with a cold virus don't get sick. What's so different about these folks?
- When it comes to colds, being young is no advantage: Teenagers catch twice as many as people over fifty.
- It's strange but true: If you want to tamp down cold symptoms, "boosting" your immune system may actually be the last thing you want to do!
- The ways colds spread may surprise you. You're probably less likely to get a cold from kissing or getting sneezed on, than you are from a simple handshake.
- People with big, diverse social networks actually get fewer colds than those with limited social circles.
- When you have a cold, TLC may be the best medicine. Studies show simple empathy may be as effective as potent drugs in treating colds, cutting short their duration by a whole day. That's more than over-the-counter medications can claim!
My Review:
Ah-Choo! is a book about the common cold: how you pick them up, what cold symptoms are and why, who is most likely to get a cold, how cold viruses work, how your body reacts, historical views on colds and how to treat them, modern treatments and how well they work, the expert's advice on how to treat colds and prevent getting them, and trivia.
This book was generally engaging and easy to follow, but the author included a lot of scientific studies in some chapters. I liked those, but she wasn't always clear about what was being studied (viruses and bacteria in general, presence of cold viruses, presence of viable cold viruses, etc.), so I didn't always know what to make of the study results. Some of the studies came to conflicting conclusions, and sometimes the author didn't comment on the conflict so I wondered if I understood correctly what was concluded.
The most useful part of the book was actually the appendix which neatly summarized the important information about colds, how to prevent them, and what actually worked if you had one. I plan on using that information, though I already do a lot of it (like frequently washing your hands--thoroughly--and not touching your eyes and nose when you hands may be contaminated). I was surprised by some of the results about what works and what doesn't, and I certainly intend to follow the experts' advice.
If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.
Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.
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