DR. WALLACE: Every winter, I miss many days at school because I get three or four colds. I'm an honor student, and it makes it very hard for me to make up all the schoolwork I miss.
This year, I'm going to prepare myself and do everything possible to prevent catching a cold — even if it means I won't kiss my boyfriend until springtime. I know that vitamin C is supposed to help, so I will have a supply of it in tablet form, and I'll eat at least one orange every day.
I'd appreciate any other tips that will help. I'm sure there are many teens who would like the same information. — Alexandria, Chicago
ALEXANDRIA: According to the American Medical Association, human beings can suffer as many as 200 colds in a lifetime, and no one escapes from having them. Interestingly, hand transmission is responsible for many colds.
For example, if someone who is infected touches his or her nose or the area around it and then shakes somebody's hand, the virus is transferred to the second person's hand. If that person touches his or her own nose (or eyes, as the tear ducts drain into the sinuses), he or she is likely to become infected, too. Most viruses are seldom found outside the nasal fluid, meaning you won't necessarily catch a cold by kissing.
People catch more colds in the winter, partly because they are indoors a great deal and therefore in close contact with one another. Aside from the practice of good personal hygiene, there aren't really any other ways to avoid colds. So wash your hands often and be careful what you touch!
SHOULD I GO STEADY WITH A PEN PAL?
DR. WALLACE: I'm 15 and have been pen pals with a 16-year-old boy from Nova Scotia, Canada, for the past year and a half. We have written to each other once a week — faithfully. It has been a wonderful experience, and I look forward to receiving his letters and answering them the same day. "Justin" lives in Halifax, and it sounds like a super place to live. I've learned a lot about ice-skating, ice hockey and ocean fishing.
I informed Justin about my living in beautiful Northern California. Lately, Richard has been writing that he thinks he loves me and that he would like us to go steady even though we have never seen each other. He says that he is coming to visit me when he graduates from high school in two years. We have traded photographs, so we each know what the other person looks like, and he did call me for Valentine's Day recently.
I honestly admit that I sort of like Richard in a romantic sort of way, even though we haven't yet met. The thought of going steady with a pen pal is intriguing.
But I still haven't decided, and that's why I'm writing to you. I'd like your opinion. — Cautiously Optimistic, Redding, California
CAUTIOUS: I think that having a pen pal is wonderful, and I can understand the mystery of romance that can creep into a long-distance correspondence, but I see no value in going steady. Why eliminate the opportunity of dating because you are going steady with someone you have never met and wouldn't see for at least two years?
Wait until you have spent time together before making that decision. It would be a huge waste of time to go steady for two years and then perhaps discover when you meet face-to-face that, while you like each other, the "magnetic" attraction is missing.
Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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