Paul Hopkins

The Fact OfThe Matter

PAUL HOPKINS The common cold, and winters of discontent

When I was but knee-high to a grasshopper and succumbed to bouts of childhood ailments, my mother would summon the local GP. After he had pressed the cold stethoscope to my chest and back and had me cough and cough, my mother, fearing the worst, would say: “Well, Dr Dolan, what is it?”

He would say: “Germs, Mrs Hopkins, germs. Just keep him in bed a day or two and give him plenty of ice cream. Germs.”

Ice cream, plenty of ice cream? Boy, was it great back then to feel poorly, as my grandaunt was wont to say of any illness.

Before antibiotics revolutionised medicine, germs covered a multitude of ailments and all manner of bacteria, viruses, and fungi.

Today, antibiotics, though perhaps controversial the more we learn, can be argued to be a panacea. But they cannot cure the common cold, that annual bug that besets many of us as winter approaches. You can get a jab at your local GP to ward o in uenza or pneumonia but a cure for the common cold still eludes medical science. e common cold has the twin distinction of being both the world’s most widespread infectious disease and one of the most elusive. e name is a problem, for starters. In almost every Indo-European language, one of the words for the disease relates to low temperature, yet experiments have shown that low temperature neither increases the likelihood of catching a cold, nor the severity of symptoms. en there is the common part, which seems to imply that there is a single, indiscriminate pathogen or microorganism at large. My local GP tells me that more than 200 viruses provoke cold-like illness, each one deploying its own peculiar strategy to evade the body’s defences.

It is hard to think of another disease that inspires the same level of collective resignation. e common cold slinks through homes and schools, towns, and cities, making people miserable for a few days without warranting much afterthought. Adults, reportedly, su er an average of between two and four colds each year, and children up to 10, and we have come to accept this as part and parcel of life.

Our common-or-garden understanding remains a jumble of mumbo-jumbo, folklore, and false assumption. e most common beliefs about how to treat the disease have turned out to be false. Dubious e cacy has done little to deter humankind from formulating remedies. e Ebers Papyrus, a medical document from ancient Egypt dated to 1550BC, advises a cold sufferer to recite an incantation, in association with the administration of milk of one who has borne a male child, and fragrant gum.

Today, winter remedy sales here reach about 2.5m each year, though most overthe-counter products have not actually been proven to work. Some contain paracetamol, an e ective analgesic, but the dosage is often miniscule. Taking Vitamin C in regular doses does little to ward o the bug. Hot toddies, medicated tissues and immune system boosts of ginger, or the like, are equally ine ective.

It would seem the only failsafe means of avoiding a cold is to live in complete isolation from the rest of humanity.

Although modern science has changed the way medicine is practised in almost every eld, it has so far failed to produce any radically new treatments for colds. e di culty is that, while all colds feel much the same, from a biological perspective the only common feature of the various viruses that cause such is that they have adapted to enter and damage the cells that line our respiratory tract. is makes a catch-all treatment extremely tricky to formulate.

As Dr Dolan told my mother all those years ago, you just must let it take its course.

Grin and bear it.

Extracted from A airs of the Heart (And Other Writings) by Paul Hopkins, out now, priced €14.99, and available in selective outlets. The collection, culled from writings of the past 20 years, has been described as a selection of stories that will “warm your emotions and light your soul... bringing together the very essence of what it means to be human”. The bookcan now also be ordered online at www.monumentmediapress.com, with worldwide shipping.

Free book for TY pupils will aid their spend habits

More than 1,200 Transition Year students in Kilkenny will receive a free copy of a bestselling money advice book from Ireland’s top nancial expert to make them more nancially savvy.

As the cost-of-living crisis deepens, John Lowe insists it is more crucial than ever that school leavers are equipped with the tools to help them to manage money.

A pilot scheme which last year saw 3,000 hard copies of Lowe’s bestselling book, Money Doctors 2021, delivered to 30 schools, is now being replicated this month with Money Doctors 2022 ebook being rolled out to over 1,276 Transition Year students in 16 schools across the county for free.

Lowe’s “gift to tomorrow’s leaders” was prompted after his 19-year-old son asked him while in UCD: “What’s an overdraft Dad?”

“After this question, I knew something needed to be done to arm young people with practical money advice that’s useful in their day-today lives,” said the father-ofthree and quali ed nancial adviser.

“Many young people talk enthusiastically about cryptocurrencies and NFTs, but how well do they understand basic nancial terms like an overdraft?

“ e 2022 edition of Money Doctors covers everything you would want to know about personal nance in Ireland and contains a chapter aimed speci cally at TY students and their money. " Money Doctors 2023, published by Providence Press, which goes on sale in midDecember (€12.99) e book has been a bestseller in Ireland three times since the rst edition was published in 2006.

'No more live' GAA on radio

Photo: Sasko Lazarov/ Photocall Ireland

Further to an agreement between the GAA and Independent Broadcasters of Ireland (IBI), Community Radio Kilkenny City has been informed by KCLR that they (KCLR) have exclusive rights to the broadcasting of GAA club games at all levels in Kilkenny. In a statement seen by e Kilkenny Observer, Community Radio Kilkenny City said it "must therefore seriously curtail its own coverage with immediate e ect". It said Community Radio Kilkenny City would now no longer be commentating on any Kilkenny GAA club games (adult or underage), nor would they be reporting live from any games. "On behalf of itself and its listenership, Community Radio Kilkenny City is extremely disappointed by the position it is placed in by the GAA/IBI agreement," the statement said. e station said it would, however, continue to provide extensive reports of Kilkenny GA games on Sunday and Monday evenings. "Since Community Radio Kilkenny City commenced full time broadcasting ve years ago, the station has given unrivalled coverage to club games at all levels in Kilkenny," it said.

Here's to the heart Petermarkathon

Peter Mark, which two salons in Kilkenny, has announced the 2022 Petermarkathon, an annual fundraising event which will take place in Peter Mark salons nationwide from October 24 to 31.

This year the team will be raising vital funds for the Irish Heart Foundation, as part of its ‘Her Heart Matters’ campaign.

The Irish Heart Foundation is the national charity for the prevention of heart disease and stroke in Ireland. More than 4,000 women in Ireland die from heart disease and stroke each year.

In fact, cardiovascular disease kills six times as many women in Ireland as breast cancer. From about the age of 40, a woman’s risk of heart disease and stroke increases as she moves into menopause. The ‘Her Heart Matters’ campaign aims to encourage women in their 40s, 50s and beyond to review their lifestyles and make vital, sustainable changes to improve their heart health.

To raise as much money as possible, each Peter Mark salon in Kilkenny has been tasked with creating its own individual and unique way to raise money this year, so visitors to their local salon can expect raffles, sponsored walks, and many other fun-filled events over the course of the weekend.

* Pictured above: Monique Jordan with Dr Angie Brown, Consultant Cardiologist and Medical Director, Irish Heart Foundation; Peter Mark CEO Peter O’Rourke; and Emily Jordan.

Another local wind farm planned

Plans for a new Windfarm in Kilkenny are to be submitted next year

EDF Renewables want to put 10 turbines at Freneystown

Recently An Bord Pleanála gave the go-ahead for 21 turbines to be erected in Castlebanny in South Kilkenny. Now the planning authority will have another decision to make next year on a proposal by EDF Renewables for one at Freneystown – just northeast of the city.They intend to seek permission for 10 turbines that would power up to 35,000 homes with plans to be submitted in 2023.

If it gets the green light, it could be up and running by 2028.