Gargling with water can prevent colds

Gargling can prevent a third of all colds

Washington: Daily gargling with water can prevent colds among healthy people, according to Japanese researchers who published their report in the November issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. "The most important finding in our study is that the common cold could be prevented over 30 percent of the time by daily gargling with water," said lead author Kazunari Satomura, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Kyoto University. "This simple hygienic habit could contribute to public health and it would have obvious economic benefits," he added. A total of 130 subjects contracted a cold, sore throat, sinus infection or a form of bronchitis. There was no significant difference in the rate of first infection between the control group and the povidone-gargling group. But there was a 36 percent decrease among water garglers compared to controls.

However, the results may not be as impressive as they first appear, according to Peter Muennig, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor at Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University in New York. Muennig says that while the researchers found a "borderline statistically significant effect" for water gargling, there was no true placebo group - that is, there was no control group in which people could gargle with "fake" water. "Because people in Japan, and Asia in general, tend to believe that (gargling) is an effective preventive modality, it is possible that the positive effect noted was due to the placebo effect," he added. Muennig says that the investigators report that there is no clear mechanism by which gargling reduces one's chances of getting a cold, but that they speculate that gargling might clear the throat of germs before they have a chance to spread.
-Oct 20, 2005