Ah-Choo! The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold

ISBN-978-0-446-54115-1
2010, Twelve (hardcover)

On average, we spend five years of our lives suffering from colds.  Wouldn’t it be a good idea to learn something about them?  Some colds are like mice, timid and annoying; others like dragons, accompanied by body aches and deep misery. Ah-Choo! explains just what a cold is, how it works, and whether it’s really possible to “fight one off.” Scientists call this the Golden Age of the Common Cold for good reason.  Americans suffer up to a billion colds each year, resulting in 40 million days of missed work and school and 100 million doctor visits.  Also, over the past decade we’ve learned much more about what cold viruses are, what they do to the human body, and how symptoms can be addressed.   This ode to the odious cold sifts through the chatter about treatments—what works, what doesn’t, and what can’t hurt. It dispels myths, such as susceptibility to colds reflects a weakened immune system. And it tracks current research, including work at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, a world-renowned center of cold research studies, where the search for a cure continues. 

Select Reviews:

“The common cold is far from being the stuffy subject one might expect. In the hands of gifted science writer Ackerman, the cold is addressed with dry wit while she covers every detail from soup (chicken, of course) to nuts (folk remedies). Only a science writer can find being intentionally inoculated with a cold virus and sequestered for a weekend entertaining.”                                              

—Booklist (starred review)

 “God Bless You!—and this thoroughly delightful compendium of facts, fiction, and down-to-earth advice about the pesky viruses (200 and counting) that knock you down and drag you out . . . Ackerman parses the variety and durability of the cold, its well known miseries, paradoxes, and myriad mysterieswith the thoroughness of a scientist, the doggedness of a journalist, and the verve of a thriller writer.”                                —Publishers Weekly

 Ackerman, who loves to hunt and gather in researching a topic like this, discovered that the common cold served up a tantalizing array of good stories, such as the weird ‘cure’ endured by Calvin Coolidge (three days in a chlorine chamber).  The book is full of interesting facts (you’re more likely to catch a cold from a simple handshake than from kissing or getting sneezed on) and busted myths (susceptibility to the cold does not require a weakened immune system)… Her little ode to the odious cold will leave readers with an infectious interest in the planet’s most common infection–andalso, solid knowledge of how to avoid catching these ubiquitous bugs in the first place.             

—Kirkus Reviews