00:00Common cold viruses like rhinoviruses and other coronaviruses and influenza do go up in winter,
00:08although you can get a late summer spurt in influenza. Now the reason that you get colds
00:16in cold weather in winter is a combination of factors. One is the viruses seem to survive better
00:23in cold weather, so they hang around longer, that's the first thing. Second thing is we change
00:29our behaviour because it's cold. We stay indoors, we're not outdoors quite enough and when we're
00:34indoors we shut the windows because the heaters are on to keep the heat in and therefore we've
00:38not got free circulation of air going on, therefore we're more likely to catch viruses at work or from
00:45our close relatives, people that we're living with. And then finally there's the effect of cold on our
00:51bodies itself and there's controversy. So your mum used to tell you to rug up otherwise you'd catch
00:58the cold. So there's controversy about whether when you feel cold your immune system goes down
01:05or really what's going on almost certainly is that your nasal airways, the nose is your first
01:12defence against common cold viruses or viruses, respiratory viruses, and when it's cold there's
01:21usually low humidity and your nose dries out and therefore your nose becomes a less effective defence
01:28against these viruses and they're more likely to get in. So in other words, so it's the virus itself, it's our behaviour
01:36and it's also the low humidity cold effect on our noses and airways that gives you this sort of, you know, the perfect storm if you like.
01:44It's the trifecta of it all isn't it, yeah. So then it comes to your mum saying well you should rug up.
01:51And rugging up may actually have rather this effect on your immune system itself, it may be that when you rug up, or there's no question, when you rug up, you don't get this, you know, your hands don't go cold to the same extent and your feet and maybe your nose and face don't go cold to the same extent and you'll get more blood flowing through your nose protecting yourself better.
02:11So it could be that your mum was right.
02:14Okay, alright. Always listen to your mum, that's basically the lesson here, isn't it?
02:18Never contradict.
02:19Something I have noticed though is I do find myself going to the chemist and getting cold and flu tablets a lot more during the winter time.
02:27Save your money.
02:28Really?
02:29They don't work.
02:30They're a waste of time.
02:31They don't? Okay, so this, yeah, distill this myth for us here.
02:34Well the myth is that they're much more likely to cause you harm than good.
02:38There's no evidence that they make any difference at all to colds and flus.
02:42It's a huge industry.
02:43Just look in your chemist shop about how much shelf space is taken up with them and not a shred of evidence that they benefit.
02:50That is intriguing.
02:52What then is the best solution?
02:54Well, if you've got a fever and you're shivering, then paracetamol or ibuprofen to actually, you know, to correct your fever and make you feel a bit better.
03:03Plenty of fluids because you want to keep, remember I talked about you dry out, so you want plenty of fluids on board to keep things going.
03:10Yeah.
03:11And sit it out.
03:12And just rest, isn't it?
03:13Yeah.
03:14Soup and water and rest.
03:16But the soup's got to be chicken soup.
03:17Okay, of course.
03:18No debate.
03:19It's good for the soul.
03:20No debate.
03:21Let's talk about this new study that's found the decline in apex scavengers and that's had an impact on human health.
03:28Yeah, we don't often talk about animal, you know, non-human animals in this segment.
03:31Yeah.
03:32But this is a fascinating study by an Australian researcher based in the United States, looking at apex scavengers.
03:37Now we're talking about different animals in different areas.
03:40We can talk about vultures, hyenas, Tasmanian devils, even maybe great white sharks or tiger sharks in the ocean.
03:48They're the animals that, they sometimes eat live animals, but they often eat carrion, they eat dead flesh.
03:57Right.
03:58And clean the environment of dead flesh.
03:59Right.
04:00And they have been declining through changing land use, through being shot, you know, and so the numbers of these scavengers has gone down.
04:11And when these apex scavengers, the large animals at the top of the tree, die and become just numbers, then smaller animals take over, such as rodents and foxes, to clean up the dead meat.
04:24Right.
04:25And we hope nobody's eating the lunch as we speak.
04:27But the key here is that the large animals devour much more of the carrion than the small animals and get rid of the disease, the disease in those animals.
04:39The rodents, when they feast on these carrion, it's not a complete process and they tend to spread disease.
04:45So you've got a situation where the end of the apex predators means you've got these so-called mesopredators.
04:51Right.
04:52And they spread things like tuberculosis and anthrax.
04:55So you need the animals at the top, no matter how disgusting we might find them.
