Nef 04 Ba File 2
Nef 04 Ba File 2
Nef 04 Ba File 2
your nose.
1 What causes colds? Any one of more than 200 types of virus. One, called rhinovirus, is the most active. Under a microscope, the virus looks like a 20-sided golf ball, but it is tiny. 50,000 of them could be put on the head of a pin. 2 How often do we get colds? During the average lifetime (75 years) well suffer about 210 colds, each lasting five or six days. On any one day, 50 million people worldwide have a cold, and on average we each spend three years of our lives coughing and sneezing. Children have more colds than adults, as many as eight a year. 3 Are colds caused by being cold? People traditionally link colds with cool temperatures, but although colds are more common in winter than in summer, its really because in the winter we spend more time together indoors, making cross-infection more likely. Or it may be because we are more depressed in winter and this affects the performance of the immune system. However one thing that definitely does make us catch more colds is being stressed. 4 How do we catch colds? No one is sure. It may be directly from people coughing or sneezing, or by picking a virus up on your hand from a contaminated surface, e.g. a door handle, and then wiping your nose or touching your eye. 5 Why does our voice deepen when we have a cold? Inflammation of the throat makes the vocal chords thicker and, like the strings on a guitar, the thicker they are, the deeper the sound. 6 Is there anything we can do when our nose is blocked? When we have a cold, one side of the nose is normally more blocked than the other. When we fall asleep, our body always makes sure that one nostril stays open. Apparently it does this by a sophisticated reflex system activated by pressure on our arm as we lie on our side, keeping the nostril on the upper side open. If you squeeze a tennis ball under your arm, you can trick the brain into thinking youre asleep, so opening up the other nostril. 7 Why do we cough? Its a reaction to the irritation in the throat caused by colds, and is affected by personality. People who are obsessive cough much more than others. 8 Why do we sneeze? It is a reflex action controlled by sensitive nerves which detect the invaders (the viruses) and get the lungs to blow air through the nose and mouth. When the weather is cold we sneeze more often. We close our eyes when we sneeze, in fact its almost impossible to keep them open. This means that if you sneeze while youre driving at 80kph, youll be driving blind for 50m. 9 Will there ever be a cure? There already is one: our immune system. If it wasnt working, a cold would kill us. There is unlikely to be a vaccine, because there are so many different viruses and each vaccination would work only against one type. 10 What can we do to relieve the symptoms? Reduce your daily consumption of dairy products such as milk and cheese and drink plenty of hot drinks. Eat spicy food such as curry because it makes your nose run and helps to clean out the virus. For headaches you can take painkillers. Above all, be positive and dont worry as this tends to make your symptoms worse.
Are you a perfectionist? If so, it might be time to take things a little bit easier, for your own good and everyone elses!
We live in an imperfect world, yet we are constantly given the message that everything should be perfect: our homes, our gardens, our children and ourselves. This obsession with perfection, says Pauline Yardley from the Association of Stress Management, is one of the main causes of stress and depression nowadays nobody ever thinks they are good enough. But is doing things perfectly a positive thing? Some experts are not so sure. Consider these three examples of perfection: 1 The perfect employee They are always smartly dressed, completely reliable and efficient, and never moody or stressed. They are intelligent, well educated, and express themselves clearly at all times. All the work which leaves their desk is 100% perfect. So what could be better? Well, according to Sir John Harvey-Jones, a management specialist, this kind of worker can be bad news for a company. He says, Business is always a race against the competition and speed is everything. Perfectionists take longer over their work and can delay things too much. If workers are obsessed with doing their work perfectly, they may never finish it in time. 2 The perfect partner They keep their house in perfect order, think about everything their partner might want and make an enormous effort to keep themselves fit and fashionable. They are always busy and are admired by everyone who knows them. But, according to Pauline Yardley, the reality is that their partner is probably wishing they lived with somebody/someone who was more relaxed and would let them put their feet up on the sofa in the evening. 3 The perfect mother Its hard to stop them early in the morning as they rush out of the beautifully clean kitchen where they have been baking bread, to take the children to school and then go off to do a part-time job. They dont look stressed, in fact they smile more than most people do. Their car has always just been washed and they belong to the school Parent Teacher Association. But, according to Tim Kahn, who works for a parent support group called Parent Network, they arent the ideal mothers they think they are. Perfection has no place in parenting, he says. It puts too much pressure on you and your family, and makes you irritable and resentful. It also means you start sacrificing yourself for your children which isnt a good idea. Its important for parents to relax and make an effort to appreciate what their children can do, and not expect them to do much. The problem with perfectionists, says Pauline Yardley, is that it is very difficult to relax around them. Although we applaud perfectionism in sportsmen and women and scientists, it has little place in everyday life. In the end most people dont really admire it. Human life with all its imperfections is much more interesting. Adapted from Good Housekeeping magazine