3 ms·
It feels appropriate to suppress the symptoms of the cold (headache, coughs, stuffy nose) while it runs its course. Some people do find it virtuous to suffer a
by Luc 7y ago
It feels appropriate to suppress the symptoms of the cold (headache, coughs, stuffy nose) while it runs its course.
Some people do find it virtuous to suffer a little, but that's another matter.
- whiddershins 7y agoAre cold symptoms maladaptive? The “symptom” is an immune system response to a pathogen. To me, it seems rational to default to assuming the symptom has an evolved purpose, a mechanism in fighting infection, and not counteract it unless absolutely necessary.
- Luc 7y agoAFAIK the medical consensus is that the virus exploits the cough reaction etc. to infect other hosts. E.g. quick random Google: https://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/3/1/e000118 https://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/3/1/e000118 "The commonest form of cough is caused by upper respiratory tract infection and has no benefit to the host. The virus hijacks this natural defence mechanism in order to propagate itself through the population."
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]