
The DIY saliva test that tells if you're catching a cold - gibsonf1
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1092549/DIY-saliva-test-tells-youre-catching-cold.html
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etal
"The scientists plan to develop a home test," it says.

While the article itself is about par for the Daily Mail, this is a great
research area that's being commercialized now. A team at Stanford is doing
something similar for various cancers:

[http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/12/02/stanford.blood.s...](http://esciencenews.com/articles/2008/12/02/stanford.blood.scanner.detects.even.faint.indicators.cancer)

and a lab at my school is doing the same thing for stomach cancer in
particular. The prof I talked to said it would become a product in about 2
years. This technique of identifying a disease by its protein/RNA profile is
easy to get lost in, but powerful and broadly applicable.

A test for the common cold (which bug is that, exactly?), developed on a
sample of 38 yacht racers, is a bit dubious, though.

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streety
Sounds like a fantastic technology to extend the mentality around yo-yo
dieting to every aspect of health.

I have a low IgA count so really need to look after myself >> I'm fat so I
need to diet.

I have a high IgA count so I can take it easy for the next few days. I can
stay out to 3am tonight and skip the gym tomorrow without worrying about
getting a cold >> I've just lost 2 stone so I can reward myself with a donut
without worry. Oh look, the twelve packs are on special offer . . .

Please note I have not checked to see whether staying out until 3am or going
to the gym has the slightest effect on the chances of catching a cold. My
point is the mentality and not the value of the specific treatments/actions.
Nor do I believe that eating a donut (or 12) will automatically pile on those
2 stone again.

I believe I've tracked down the relevant paper:
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18580401?ordinalpos=1&...](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18580401?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum)

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gaius
Going to the gym lowers your immunity, not by much since trained people have
stronger immune systems anyway due to hotter metabolisms, but getting a cold
is one of the sure signs of overtraining.

~~~
timcederman
How do you explain that?

Going to the gym vs going for a run is likely to expose you to a lot more
viruses, that's for sure.

(that said, I had some idiot person cough in my face while I was out running
once. Nice empty road, and as soon as I got next to them, big hacky cough,
right in my face. 2 days later had a very nasty cold)

~~~
gaius
Training hard puts your body into a state of recovery. It is in this state
that you get stronger, faster, etc. Your body has a finite amount of resources
and while it is recovering it cannot devote the usual level of resource to the
immune system, partly due to the additional workload, and partly due to
depletion of micronutrients (which is why athletes take extra zinc, magnesium,
etc). I'd cite a reference but I can't be bothered to dig through my pile of
_Runner's World_ magazines, you can probably find one on their website.

~~~
timcederman
I guess that may contribute to why probiotics and vitamin C help people who
exercise but not people who don't.

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bdfh42
Just a gentle reminder - an article in the Daily mail is just about sure to be
a complete fabrication and bear no positive relationship to fact.

~~~
gibsonf1
I would be more convinced about potential fabrication with reference to the
content of the article itself.

~~~
bdfh42
I don't think it is necessary to investigate and expose every piece of
nonsense we see coming from the Daily Mail. Their track record (particularly
in this subject area but generally as well) is such that any sane person would
automatically filter out any content from that source.

If you need some examples of your own to set your filter then try here
<http://www.badscience.net/index.php?s=Daily+Mail> where someone has taken the
trouble to expose the nonsense of the DM (and other organs of the press).

