There are people for whom cold or flu It’s almost a walk, with virtually no symptoms. For others, these are days and days of fever, malaise, and many other typical symptoms. There are even those who can become very seriously ill. It all depends in part on how we the immune system against infections. And it may seem that sometimes it is an unpredictable lottery, but the truth is that in some cases it can be predicted. In fact, according to a recently published study, it can be seen in things as simple as solving puzzles and other things like that. cognitive ability test.
The study in question was carried out by scientists from Duke Universitywho acknowledge that it has some limitations, but also claim that its results are reliable enough to keep working on.
If it repeats the results, they think it would be interesting to raise smartphone apps which allow us to analyze the state of our immune system in a simple way. Doing it all year round might not be very sensible, but a few mind games in the summer season flu and cold they won’t hurt anyone.
Your mental state helps you fight the cold
To start this research, 18 people Three times a day they took a series of tests aimed at analyzing their attention, reaction time and ability to exchange numbers and symbols. Then, on the fourth day, they deliberately exposed themselves to human rhinovirusresponsible for the so-called cold.
It makes sense that they all got sick. However, there were big differences between them. They were measured in two ways, one more objective and the other more subjective. The first consisted of daily rinsing of the nose to measure the amount virus particles are shed in mucus. As for the second, they all had to evaluate how they feel about eight common cold symptoms: chills, cough, headache, nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, sore throat and fatigue.
Thus, it was observed that those who had more severe symptoms and higher concentrations of the virus showed the most controversial assessments in tests conducted a few days before exposure. It would be inappropriate to subject them to a single test, since the key was not really whether they performed better or worse on cognitive tests, but the evolution of their performance.
What are the restrictions?
According to the study authors themselves, their study has two major limitations. On the one hand, which was carried out with very few people. And, on the other hand, it will be difficult to implement in everyday life, since no one wants to conduct such testing. three times a day throughout life.
The first is solved by repeating the procedure with a large number of participants, so they plan to do it in the near future. As for the second, they thought it could be reduced to several trials at certain periods. In addition, work can be facilitated by developing mobile applications responsible for conducting tests almost like in a game. They could use tests similar to those given by the participants. However, other factors can be added, such as reading time, writing time, or even sleep quality. Everything seems to be connected.
Finally, something important remains. This study is supported by others that have also concluded that there is an association between cognitive activity person and the ability of their immune system to fight off certain infections, such as the common cold virus. However, the reason remains a mystery. To show that non-random causality exists, it would be interesting to provide an explanation. In the meantime, if you’ve been feeling a little awkward doing simple cognitive tasks lately, avoid crowds and wear a mask. Yes, just in case.
Source: Hiper Textual
