Parents Somehow Less Likely to Contract Common Cold - Polidicks

[quote]A new study says that parents are less apt to the common cold than those without children. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that those with kids were half as likely to develop colds with that number increasing with each additional child in the household. Yet, the study shows that a strengthened immune system is not what protects parents. Rather, researchers say that "mental toughness" stemming from parenthood helps them to fight off the virus, reported the Daily Mail. The study used nearly 800 adults from three previous studies looking at peoples' susceptibility to the common cold. Researchers found that those people who had children were 52 percent less likely to get a cold. Medical News Today said that the study also found that the risk of parents contracting a cold was even lower when the parents did not live with their children - 73 percent less likely. Interestingly, when researchers controlled for factors such as immunity and exposure to the cold virus, parents still fought off the virus better than non-parents, pointing to psychological factors that may offer protection. "Although parenthood was clearly protective, we were unable to identify an explanation for this association," said study author Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University in a press release. "Because we controlled for immunity to the virus, we know that these differences did not occur just because the parents were more likely to have been exposed to the virus through their children." The study was published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.[/quote] [url]http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/health/120707/parents-less-apt-common-cold-non-parents-says-study[/url] Time to become a Father!

[QUOTE]reported the Daily Mail.[/QUOTE] :v:

I may not have finished my biology major, but something about the "science" reported in this article seems...a little off. [B]EDIT: [/B]I read the medical journal and it basically said that there was no real difference between the infection rate of parents vs. nonparents. What was noted is the expression of symptoms. In other words, it seemed that parents were less likely to show signs and symptoms of the cold. [Quote]Whatever the behavioral pathway, greater risk for colds among nonparents was not attributable to an increased risk of infection but instead to an expression of illness among infected participants.[/quote] If anyone is interested, they can read the full study here: [url]http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/content/74/6/567.full[/url]

[QUOTE=zakedodead;36684789][QUOTE]reported the Daily Mail.[/QUOTE] :v:[/QUOTE] Being a parent gives you cancer. [editline]9th July 2012[/editline] Being single gives you cancer. [editline]9th July 2012[/editline] Being someone's child gives you cancer. [editline]9th July 2012[/editline] See the latest useless scoop: Linsey Lohan's latest drunken cancer cancer cancer.

[QUOTE=mac338;36685757]Being a parent gives you cancer. [editline]9th July 2012[/editline] Being single gives you cancer. [editline]9th July 2012[/editline] Being someone's child gives you cancer. [editline]9th July 2012[/editline] See the latest useless scoop: Linsey Lohan's latest drunken cancer cancer cancer.[/QUOTE] That's all true according to the State of California.

Lets all just ignore the fact that adults have time to gain immunities to strains and mutations of the cold...

[QUOTE=spkypwnsuall;36686121]Lets all just ignore the fact that adults have time to gain immunities to strains and mutations of the cold...[/QUOTE] Except every year there's many more mutations of the virus, so that doesn't help when even the antigens change drastically.

Most likely because they wash their hands everytime they touch one of them disgusting, smelly babies I would too

Maybe those parents take better care of themselves because, you know, they're parents, they have kids to watch for, they have no time to be sick.

I thought it would have been the opposite since children go to school, catch colds, and give it to their parents.