Karl Benacci, Features Editor
Ahhh...ahhh...ahhhchoo!
by Cheryl Powell
Knight-Ridder Tribune
Sniff, sniff.
Cough, cough,
Snort. Snort.
Those all-too-familiar sounds of cold
sufferers are far from music to your (stuffy)
ears.
Like it or not, cold season is upon us.
Despite all the amazing advances of mod
em medicine, the cure for the common cold
remains a mystery.
There’s no shot, pill or magical herb that
can completely protect people from respi
ratory viruses, either.
There are, however, some things people
can do to cut down their risk of getting sick,
as well as feel better quicker when they do
catch a cold.
Got questions? Here are some answers,
provided by medical experts:
Q: What exactly is a cold, anyway?
A: The common cold is a viral infection
of the lining of the nose, sinuses, throat
and airways.
An estimated 150 viruses can cause a
cold.
The 'First symptoms of a cold nose or
throat discomfort usually start within one
to three days after infection.
Then the real misery begins. Sneezing.
Runny nose. Cough. Thick, yellowish
green mucus.
Most colds last about 10 days, though
symptoms have been known to linger for
as long as three weeks during recent cold
seasons, said Dr. Andu Mader, director of
diagnostic referral services in the Depart
ment of Pediatrics at Mercy Medical Cen
ter in Canton, Ohio.
Q: How are colds spread?
A: The viruses that cause the common
cold are spread through contact with the
secretions from an infected person.
“Most of the times, when you get a cold
it’s when you touch someone else,” said
Dr. James Tan, chairman of the Department
of Medicine for Summa Health System in
Akron, Ohio.
Hand-washing is the best prevention,
Tan said. When soap and water isn’t avail
able, alcohol-.ba§pd han&sanitizers also are
effective, studies have shown.
Q: Are a cold and the flu the same?
A: They’re both caused by viruses, but
they have different symptoms.
Influenza, more commonly known as the
flu, tends to have symptoms that hit people
hard and fast.
People with the flu get fevers as high as
103 degrees.
Other flu symptoms include headaches,
Crossword
ACROSS
1 Cognizant
6 Letter-carriers’
org.
10 Hue
14 Spur wheel
15 Tidy
16 Conception
17 Appropriate
19 Tops of overalls
20 Make muddy
21 Shockingly ugly
23 Conflagration
candidate
27 Irritate
28 Eye part
29 Excavated
31 Twangy
32 Book before
Judges
35 Casaba, e.g.
37 Pen fill
38 Plunge rapidly
40 Commit an
immoral act
43 Pursue
44 Spoil the
appearance of
46 I want to also
49 Golfer Ernie
51 God of love
52 Immoral
54 York’s rank
57 Chided
59 Dweeb
60 Unspecified
amount
61 Motorcar
66 Significant
periods
67 Russian
sovereign
68 Helen's abductor
69 For fear that
70 Schusses
71 Old oath
DOWN
1 Circle segment
2 Court
3 Arista
4 Reinvigorate
5 “Middlemarch"
author
6 Naked
7 Salton or
Caspian
8 Trodden way
g Beer mug
muscle aches, cough, respiratory symp
toms and tender lymph nodes.
Q: Why can’t 1 take an antibiotic to cure
my cold?
A: Antibiotics treat only infections
caused by bacteria, not viruses.
Improper overuse of antibiotics can lead
to antibiotic resistance. Then when some
one really gets a bacteria infection, the an
tibiotics won’t work.
.' f : .ri
Ohio U. student Jason Rumpler,
like many others this time of year,
nurses a cold.
drink at least six to eight glasses of water
a day.
“Time will do things for the common
cold,” Mader said.
Numerous over-the-counter medications
can help ease the most common symptoms.
To counter runny noses and congestion,
antihistamines, such as Benedryl, can help
by drying up the crud.
These products can cause drowsiness, so
use them with caution, said Tim Brown, a
pharmacologist with Akron (Ohio) Gen
eral Medical Center and West Side Family
Practice. Prescription antihistamines don’t
cause as much drowsiness, Brown said, but
they also tend not to work as well.
Decongestants, such as Sudafed, also
help with congestion. But people with ir
regular heart rhythms, uncontrolled high
blood pressure or past history of stroke or
heart attack need to check with their doc
tor before taking these drugs, which speed
up the heart rate, Brown said.
Nose sprays or nose drops, such as Afrin,
also are helpful tor short-term use, Brown
said. Using them for more than three or
four days, however, can cause even more
congestion after people quit using them.
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*0 right* reeerved.
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language
11 Dunderheads
12 Extensive
interstellar mass
13 Dangling
ornament
18 Address for an
officer
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23 Vijay Singh's
homeland
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26 Thrashes with
the fists
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43 Superlatively nifty *>o Madrid misters
45 Dobbins’lunch 53 The Winding
paj ( 7 Stair poet
46 Bivalve mollusk 33 Sleep state
Q: So, what can I do to feel better?
A: For starters, get plenty of rest and
56 Feel about
58 Twilight
62 Skater Babilonia
63 Gershwin or
Levin
64 Cover
65 19th letter
FCATOItSS
& FUNNIES
Friday, January 31, 2003
For aches and pains, people can use as
pirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen or the
newer nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, or
NSAIDs.
The NSAIDs have an added benefit.
“It can also stop your cough, and we
didn’t know that,” Tan said.
People with ulcers should check with
their doctors to see what’s OK to take.
Don’t give children with a fever aspirin,
this avoids the risk of developing Reye’s
syndrome.
Cool-mist humidifiers that moisten the
air and allow the nose to stay moist also
can ease cold symptoms and coughs.
Q: Are there any natural remedies that
can reduce the chances of getting a cold or
ease symptoms once someone gets a cold?
A: The mainstream medical community
remains skeptical about the effectiveness
of alternative treatments. Some alternative
therapies, do have scientific studies to back
up their claims.
Echinachea has been shown in some
clinical trials to shorten a cold, Brown said.
“It probably needs to be taken within the
first 24 to 48 hours within feeling the symp
toms of the common cold,” he said.
Zinc lozenges and nasal sprays also have
been shown in some studies to decrease
the symptoms and duration of a cold, but
those results are questionable, Brown said.
Like echinachea, zinc must be taken as
soon as people suspect they have a cold.
Q: Can a cold turn into a bacterial infec
tion?
A: Lingering cold symptoms can in
crease a person’s susceptibility to contract
ing a bacterial infection in the middle ear,
sinuses or lungs.
When someone has a cold, the normal
drainage is blocked because the mucus
membranes are swollen. Tan said.
‘That means it’s stagnant, and bacteria
can tend to grow,” he said.
These bacterial infections tend to de
velop after seven days. Unlike a cold, they
require an antibiotic to clear up.
Q: When should someone see a doctor
for cold symptoms?
A: If a cold lasts longer than 10 days,
most experts agree it’s time to call a doc-
Children’s Hospital Medical Center of
Akron recommends contacting a doctor if
any of these symptoms develop:
_ Pus-like drainage from the nose.
_ A red throat.
Hoarseness that remains when other
symptoms are gone.
_ Prolonged coughing, wheezing or la
bored breathing.
_ Significant behavior changes, such as
irritability or lethargy.
Remember: College is good
by John Gallagher
Knight-Ridder Tribune
John Bommarito used to think he didn’t
need a college degree to move up in his
field. A music industry entrepreneur,
Bommarito, a 35-year-old Livonia. Mich.,
resident, has been a music buyer, a store
manager and a disc jockey at clubs and
small radio stations. But the music turned
sour when he tried to find a higher man
agement job without a bachelor’s degree.
“I figured, well. I’ve got 15 years of solid
work history. I’ve been a head buyer, I’ve
run my own company, I should be able to
find a job,” he said.
But he searched frustratingly for six
months, getting no offers except for jobs
in record stores as a glorified stock clerk.
Instead of raging against the system, he
realized that going back to school for a de
gree “was the only thing I could do.”
Nothing comes closer as a means to in
crease lifetime earnings than getting more
education. Economists agree that the case
for more education is overwhelming.
College graduates older than 25 earn
more than twice as much each week as high
school drop-outs, $896 vs. $360, nearly
twice as much as those who stopped with a
high school diploma, $506 a week, and
comfortably more than those with some
college but no degree, $598 a week, all ac
cording to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta
tistics.
Moreover, college graduates have expe
rienced growth in inflation-adjusted earn
ings since 1979. In contrast, high school
dropouts have seen their real earnings de
cline. ~
Michael Connors, a building rehabilita
tion specialist with Macomb County, Mich.,
government, will finish his bachelor’s de
gree in business communication within the
year. He might stay with the county or look
elsewhere. But, either way, he expects his
degree to pay off.
“Financially, it’ll open up an opportunity
to obtain a better job with better pay,” said
Connors, 27, of St. Clair Shores, Mich. “It’s
r Through the looking glass
I THINK I’VE MADE MY POINT
. a 24-year-old woman was trying to get some sleep in her |
| Bluffton, S.C., home, but her boyfriend was watching TV in |
| another room and refused to turn down the volume. After a I
Ispirited discussion brought no resolution to the matter, she stabbed I
I him. She was arrested.
I IT’S OK, YOU’RE SAFE NOW
A man drove through a roadblock in Marseilles, France, and was .
arrested after a brief high-speed pursuit. He explained to police i
that he had been driving recklessly because he was being “chased |
I by Martians.” Psychiatrists have been notified. j
I After lightning burned down three houses in Limpopo,
lAfrica, angry villagers concluded that the bolts from the blue were I
I directed by two old men practicing witchcraft. The men emphati-
I cally denied this, but the mob drove them from their homes
I ;—: '
Captain RibMan* » Color CommtnUfy
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a tool that enables you to open other doors."
And pay isn’t all of it, either. Want greater
job stability ? High school dropouts are suf
fering nearly 9 percent unemployment right
now; for college graduates, the figure is just
slightly over 3 percent.
Alison Wolf, a British writer and author
of a new book “Does Education Matter?”
puts it neatly: “Pick a highly educated and
a poorly educated person at random and you
can almost guarantee that the first will be
earning more than the second.”
She added, “The more educated you are,
the more likely you are to enjoy stable,
long-term employment.”
Bommarito attends classes at University
of Michigan-Dearbom, studying toward a
business degree.
He jokes about standing out as “the old
guy with the little balding patch and the
gray hair and the beard.” But he also real
izes that his degree will be able to get him
what he wants.
“Earnings is somewhat important, but
more important to me is going to a com
pany that I’m going to enjoy working for,”
he said, “coming home from work and tell
ing my wife, 'I had a good day today.’ I’d
like to be able to say that once.
“I haven’t been able to say that in so
long.”
So bountiful are the lifetime benefits of
more education that they’re worth going to
some trouble to get.
But it’s not easy. Keep in mind that
midcareer workers who go back to school
often need to juggle children and classwork,
as well as come up with tuition and fees
that could run into tens of thousands of dol
lars.
Frank Floyd, a machine tool designer in
Shelby Township, Mich., grew up in Ala
bama and got mainly technical training in
the Navy and, later, on the job. Now 40,
Floyd is going back to school at Oakland
Community College for an associate’s de
gree while holding down a full-time job.
With hopes of getting a bachelor’s de
gree next, he figures he’s looking at 10
years of school and work.
by Mike Pingree, KRT Campus
NO, IT WASN’T US, HONEST
anyway.
The Behrend Beacon
by Sprengtlmeytr t Davis
"It’s quite challenging, to say the least,”
Floyd said. “It isn’t always convenient. It’s
just something to be committed to and do
Few experts doubt that the trouble is
worth it
“In the long run, if you want to have
higher income, you’ve got to get more edu
cation," said Ed Lotterman, a St. Paul,
Minn.-based economist and writer. “It’s
hard to do in the short term, but the deck is
just stacked against you if you don’t have
more than a high school degree.”
Education isn’t free, of course, and it can
help to calculate how long it will take to
earn back what you’ve spent on tuition and
fees. That’s especially important if you’re
quitting your job to go back to school full
time.
Say you’re a secretary earning $25,000
a year. Assume you quit that job for two
years to finish a bachelor’s degree you had
started but never completed. Assume tuition
and fees run $lO,OOO a year. Your lost in
come plus out-of-pocket expenses will to
tal $70,000 by the time you get your de
gree.
If you then get a better job paying, say,
$40,000 a year, it will still take you nearly
two years just to break even on your in-
vestment
Payback periods that stretch to several
years might call for a reappraisal of a plan.
But it usually shouldn't mean scrapping the
plan altogether.
A couple of caveats:
Not every education plan is right for ev
eryone. If you don’t enjoy computers, tak
ing a class in programming won’t be for
you. If you don’t like children, it makes
little sense to get a teaching degree. The
moral: Think seriously about what you
want to do.
Beware of educational scams that prom
ise you an easy road to your degree. Be par
ticularly wary of ones that show up in your
e-mail file unbidden. If it sounds too good
to be true, it is.
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