Running with a cold...

[CrabDan]

Got a bit of a cold... Well, actually, quite a sh*te one - The sort that feels like it's about to explode from the depths of my immensely sore throat and spread mucus all over the inside of my skull.

Anyway, I decided to see if I could sweat it out by running a cheeky 5k. 5k, incidentally, was definitely enough. My body temperature has now set itself to "nuclear" but otherwise I feel no different to before... Possibly a little more energised, if anything...

But my question to you lot is, was it actually a good idea? Or a thoroughly sh*te one? Am I going to regret this?

[Happy82]

I usually find that a run when suffering from a cold helps bring the gunk off the chest, although I usually feel like st after doing it

[jfrf]

I find any kind of exercisce helps clears the sinuses when i have a cold, so I definitely don't let a cold stop me

[ewenm]

General rule of thumb from lots of runners is keep running if it's a head cold, take the day off if it's on your chest.

[arguti]

Exercising with a viral ilness such as a cold or flu can be quite dangerous as although cases are rare, you do see the odd young person die of viral myocarditis - inflammation of the heart

[goldblum]

arguti said:

Exercising with a viral ilness such as a cold or flu can be quite dangerous as although cases are rare, you do see the odd young person die of viral myocarditis - inflammation of the heart

I'm pretty sure no connection has been established between exercise and viral myocarditis.

[arguti]

goldblum said:

arguti said:

Exercising with a viral ilness such as a cold or flu can be quite dangerous as although cases are rare, you do see the odd young person die of viral myocarditis - inflammation of the heart

I'm pretty sure no connection has been established between exercise and viral myocarditis.

Are you serious?

[Fozziebear]

Just make sure you keep hydrated, I find I need slightly more with a cold and the season change. Try to get some zinc into your diet, helps the immune system. I've clear a chest infection, final couple of days, with a steady run

[arguti]

Just to re-iterate, the common cold virus (typically adenovirus, coronavirus) and many of the flu viruses (coxsackie B most commonly implicated) can cause viral myocarditis which is often asymptomatic and therefore many are not diagnosed clinically.

(Young, especially fit people are generally healthier and have much better cardiovascular reserve and therefore unlikely to even notice the symptoms and even if symptomatic - mild chest pain, breathlessness- will often put it down to the cold or flu itself).

More so with the genuine flu virus which migrates to muscle and the heart is smooth muscle.

In a small number of cases, and I mean small, exercise especially prolonged, strenuous or in cold weather, can be lethal. The common sense medical advice has been to avoid exercise if the symptoms involve fever, muscle pain, shortness of breath or chest pain ie more than a upper respiratory tract viral illness. However, that does not mean it is completely safe but statistically you should be.

In fact, some of these cases are only picked up at post mortem. re the cold weather, much research has been done in the USA about skiers who are much more likely to suffer a heart attack in the first 48 hours of their winter vacation.

http://gsdl.sld.cu/collect/sindrome/index/assoc/HA...
a selected quote: " in particular, The virulence of murine viral infection is increased by malnutrition, exercise, sex and sex hormones, and age. More importantly, genetic factors, including immune states, which are heavily involved in the above-mentioned host factors, play a crucial role in susceptibility to infection."

http://spo.escardio.org/eslides/view.aspx?eevtid=4...


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4246139?dopt=Ab...
a selected quote: " Fully half of the mice died.....the majority while swimming. .......The myocardium was transformed to a completely necrotic, inflammatory, calcifying mass."


If you need further persuading, speak to your local cardiologist or virologist. I admit the the risk is fairly low and that my experience is skewed because in hospital setting, we tend to see the ones that run into severe problems not the ones that got away with it.

HTH

Edited by arguti on Wednesday 10th October 09:34

[shouldbworking]

Had the joys of a 1.5 miler with a cold recently. Managed to add 20 seconds to my worst time. was minging.

[sparkyhx]

I was told that you risk taking the infection deeper into the lungs where its harder to recover from

Just going outside will clear the head and sinuses, so those saying they feel better its no great surprise.

Just got my first cold in nearly 2 years, so feeling pretty cr*p

[goldblum]

arguti said:

goldblum said:

arguti said:

Exercising with a viral ilness such as a cold or flu can be quite dangerous as although cases are rare, you do see the odd young person die of viral myocarditis - inflammation of the heart

I'm pretty sure no connection has been established between exercise and viral myocarditis.

Are you serious?

You might try to be more polite.

I'd forgotten about Sudden Death Syndrome in the young but it should be noted that V.M. is just one of a number of possible diagnoses of cardiac arrest in that age group (under 25). Anyone with a pre-existing/underlying cardiac abnormality may be at greater risk from S.D.S., and that risk rises during exercise.

A link from one of your links:

"In a careful epidemiological study of Finnish military recruits performed during the 1980s, the annual incidence of unequivocal myocarditis was a modest 0.02 percent. However, during acute infections, 1.2 percent of sick recruits had evidence of myocarditis on electrocardiograms and blood tests. During an epidemic of influenza A, the incidences rose to 7.7 percent. The majority of affected recruits had no cardiac symptoms."

If you have an everyday cold then the risk is miniscule..but if you have full-on flu - which is considered 'acute' - i.e.aches,pains,nausea,dizziness and fever then the risk increases and in that respect I am happy to acknowledge my mistake.

[arguti]

True it is one of a number of causes of SDS but the original question am I safe to run with a cold and my answer would be don't push yourself with any viral infection on board as, apart from the risk of SDS, it increases the virulence of the viral infection itself.

Apologies if I came across as a tt!

Edited by arguti on Wednesday 10th October 15:47

[matts4]

I felt the onset of a cold on Mon evening, however woke up yesterday feeling fine.

Went for a 4 mile run and felt mighty fine for 4 hours afterwards. Cue non stop sneezing from 2pm yesterday and I woke up in the middle of the night with a blocked nose and chesty cough.

Its been flooding out of me all day and I feel ste.

I'm hoping I've turbo charged my recovery however, as normally it takes 2-3 days to get to this stage normally.

Time will tell..........

[CrabDan]

Feeling alright so far! I might do another one tonight, see if I can ruin myself...

[BrabusMog]

I must say I ran my second quickest 10k ever when I had a cold. But reading some of the stuff on here has, erm, worried me slightly!

[goldblum]

BrabusMog said:

I must say I ran my second quickest 10k ever when I had a cold. But reading some of the stuff on here has, erm, worried me slightly!

A.C.S.M. Primary Care Sports Medicine.p.257:

"There is no research that can offer clear evidence based guidelines about exercising during viral infections. .. advice to athletes with an acute non-specific infection will be dependent on common sense and collaboration with their clinician."

[CrabDan]

Another one done. Not the quickest 5k ever at 23 minutes but I feel alot better for it.

Maybe tomorrow I can start doing things properly again!

[alfa phil]

used to try running through a cold until one time it developed into a nasty chest infection which took weeks to clear up , now when i have the sniffles i just take a few days off from it, you wont come back any less fitter,

[sidotcom]

Just tried it myself this week (got a place in London Marathon so felt pressured to start training) and didn't stop snotting the whole way round. My body temperature went through the roof and I ended up having to stop with dehyration. So my advice...don't do it.

Hopefully you feel better by now!