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There are more than 200 viruses that can cause the common cold. Coughs and sneezes do, as the saying goes, spread diseases (well, colds anyway), although cold viruses are most commonly caught by putting your hand to your mouth after touching something (such as a door handle) with germs on it.
Nobody knows exactly why colds are more common in the winter, but one theory is that the cold weather reduces blood flow to the nose, so there are fewer immune cells to fight infection. Being stressed is thought to make you more likely to succumb: stressed people have higher levels of steroid hormones in their blood, which is known to weaken the body's ability to fight infection.
Coughs are caused by cold viruses - the infection is just lower down the throat.
Symptoms
Most colds start with a sore throat, which begins two days after infection, followed by a cough, a runny nose and sneezing. There is some overlap with flu symptoms because you can get a fever and muscle pain.
In mild cases, you can get on with life as normal (with a box of tissues), but a bad cold makes the simplest task a chore, and a mild depression can set in - deepened by the obvious disgust of others to such a snotty person.
Key remedies
Most colds get better within a few days. Paracetamol is best for a sore throat and temperature. For a blocked noarse, try decongestants, but do not use them for longer than a week or your nose could block up again when you stop, even if your cold has gone.
There is some evidence to support taking the herbal remedy echinacea, but preparations vary so it is hard to tell what you are getting. Vitamin C tablets will not make you better any sooner. There is a theory that keeping your nose warm should stop you getting another cold, but no evidence yet to support it.
Flu
What is it?
Flu is caused by an influenza virus and is far more serious and debilitating than a cold. There are three types of influenza virus, imaginatively named A, B and C, with A causing a more severe illness.
Every year, one in five people catch flu and around 300 people die from it in the UK. There were three flu pandemics in the 20th century: the last one, in 1968, killed up to a million people worldwide.
Dr Douglas Fleming, director of the Royal College of General Practitioners' influenza monitoring unit, which so far this year has reported normal rates of flu infection, says: "You never know whether it will be a bad year or not. This winter was a bad year in Australia: this is seen by some as a warning."
Symptoms
Flu can hit suddenly, with a fever and aching muscles. A sore throat seems to be optional. Flu makes you exhausted and can keep you in bed for days, or even weeks. If somebody moans about having flu for a day, then it is probably a cold.
Key remedies
It is important to drink plenty of fluids because having a fever makes you sweat and you can become dehydrated. In trials, oseltamivir, better known as the bird flu drug Tamiflu, has been shown to reduce the duration of flu symptoms and time spent off work.
However, it has to be started within two days of becoming ill and is usually prescribed only for people over the age of 65 or those who have a condition such as heart disease or diabetes.
Paracetamol, ibuprofen and decongestants improve symptoms and might help get you through the day, but they won't make you better any sooner.
Man flu
What is it?
A condition said to afflict men who, contrary to the stereotype of them being strong and uncomplaining, develop a sore throat and take to bed murmuring: "I feel like I'm going to die." According to Dr Fleming, any notion that men suffer more severely from infections is 'anecdotal rubbish'.
But man flu is taken seriously by some. One magazine poll in 2006 showed that men take twice as long to recover from a viral illness and spend 50 per cent more on cold and flu remedies then women. The only medical trials on this subject - conducted in Michigan in 1993 - have shown that women are more likely to get cold and flu infections than men. Only in children under the age of three is the reverse true.
Symptoms
Man flu sufferers have an 'excruciatingly' sore throat, a 'really' bunged-up nose and are 'burning up' with fever. They can often go to work, but once home, they can't do anything.
Key remedies
Treatment is complicated. "It depends on how interested you are in being nice to that person," says Dr Antonia Lile, a GP in north London. "Most normal people can only be sympathetic to man flu for about two days. Then try to convince them to go back to work and shut up."
