Symptoms

When you have a cold, your symptoms can include

• head ache
• mild fever
• chills
• sneezing
• runny nose
• sore/scratchy throat
• cough
• a hoarse voice

Why do you get these symptoms?

head ache- the virus can cause swelling and mucus build up. Head aches can also be caused by cytokines. Cytokines are part of the immune system's response to the virus, they are known to cause head aches.

fever- this is one of your body's ways of trying to fight off the virus, by heating up it will hopefully kill the virus, but if it goes too high it will cause damage to it's own cells.

chills-  when you get a fever, you often get chills to. This happens because your body is colder than the temprature that you are trying to reach. Your body tries to reach the new temprature by moving the mucles, hence the shivering.

sneezing- the virus that causes the cold makes it's home in your nose, which causes swelling and irritation. Sneezing is your body's way of getting rid of it.

runny nose- your body is attemping to flush out the virus and is increasing the production of mucus.

sore/scratchy throat- irritation from the virus.

cough- the overproduction of mucus and the virus can block the air way, and this is the way to unblock it. You also cough when your air passageways are irritated.

hoarse voice- some of the side effects of the common cold are swelling of the throat and viral infection of the upper respritory tract which cause irritation, which causes hoarseness.