Can spicy food cure a cold?
Catching a cold is a very disturbing sickness for most people. Some people say that you can increase the healing process from a cold by eating spicy food that speeds up the removal of nasal discharge and phlegm. On the other hand, the opposing argument thinks that you should avoid spicy food that increases heat (火氣) in the body system. So with these two different ideals, which one is correct?
Nasal discharge and phlegm is not really a bad thing
During a cold, the respiratory passage forms small amounts of nasal discharge and phlegm that can cause an unpleasant feeling. Most people probably think that those are "bad" for the body and tries to clear them as soon as possible.
The common believe is that spicy food increases the healing process by increasing the production of excretions in the respiratory passage. As such, the rumours spreading around Internet forums claims that pungent foods such as vinegar, ginger, chilli pepper, onion, can help relieve cold symptoms. But in FACT, nasal discharge and phlegm are not enemies of the body. Without them, our life span will be much shorter.
When the walls of the respiratory passage touches a foreign object, it produces a sticky substance which wraps around the object and then increases the movement in the passage to discharge the foreign object.
Getting a cold or flu often results in inflammation in the respiratory passage. Nasal discharge and phlegm in this case helps to clear the virus, bacteria, waste and dead cells arising from the inflammation.
Of course, eating spicy food can also stimulate the body to produce excretions and increase passage movement. However, there is no scientific evidence suggesting that doing so can increase the healing process from a cold.
Inhaling steam cannot kill off viruses
Cold and flu is caused by virus infections, and viruses infections are occuring in body cells. Flu virus does not exist in the walls of the respiratory passage, but rather they attack the cell tissues underneath the passage to infect the body.
The intake of steam or spicy food can probably promote the production of sticky substances, but it will not have an affect on the flu virus that have already invaded deep inside the body. We can only rely on the body immune system to eliminate the virus; increasing the movement of only one organ in the body has little impact on how the body reacts to the virus infection.
Inhaling steam has been a folk remedy in the western culture. Researchers have studied patients who inhale steam to increase the temperature of the nostril to 43 degrees celsius. They concluded that the virus density in the respiratory passage did not decrease, and so inhaling steam cannot kill off virus infections.
There exists numerous rumours such as these that brought many misunderstandings regarding the cause and effect of remedies.
Some have recognized the behaviour of the body to sweat when recovering from a fever during a flu infection. And they have hastily concluded that exercising and sweating helps to promote healing from a flu.
These misconceptions often neglect to note that sweating is an effect of fever recovery, and not the cause of healing from fever and/or flu.
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In support of the healing nature of sneezing, expelling mucous, and allergic response, a fairly recent study suggests that allergic responses may protect from cancer.
The body is so complex. I might think that when we have allergies, from dust and chemicals, getting rid of the source of inflammation is a good thing - otherwise, of course a virus must run it’s course.
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/action/showStoryContent?doi=10.1086%2F%2Fpr.2008.010.27.1828&cookieSet=1