57 Years of Colds and Flu
Starting in 1958, Henry kept a record of all his colds and bouts of flu.
In January 1958 I had a particularly dreadful head cold. I thought I might find out how much of my year was bothered by colds, and decided to record them. I distinguished four kinds of affliction:
1 Ordinary head colds.
2 ‘Evening’ colds – come on late evening, block one up at night, and improve markedly in the daytime.
3 Chills – knock-down attack, typically one day in bed, better next day.
4 Flu – unmistakeable, several days in bed followed by great weakness (cycling up Castle Hill impossible for a week or more after returning to near normal).
Henry, Writings, 1991
Henry drew charts of his colds and flu. These are shown below (click to enlarge).
Henry’s summary of his cold and flu records 1958-1991
These figures include head colds, ‘evening’ colds, chills and flu, and were used in a Conversazione exhibit in 1991.
Mean number of colds = 3.4 per year
- An average year: 3-4 colds
- A good year: 1-2 colds
- An excellent year: 0 colds
- A poor year: 5-6 colds
- A bad year: 7 colds
Average number of days per year affected by colds = 20.6 = 3 weeks or just less than 6% of the year
Bad years
- 1968 = 55 days affected (15% of year)
- 1969 = 53
- 1971 = 49
- 1970 = 36
Good years
- 1964 = 0 days affected
- 1966 = 1
- 1986 = 2
- 1985 = 3
Bad months
- February – 20 colds
- March – 20 colds
- October – 17 colds
Good months
- August – 3 colds
- June – 4 colds
- July – 6 colds
Henry’s summary of his cold and flu records 1991-2015
These figures include head colds, ‘evening’ colds, chills and flu, and were used in a Conversazione exhibit in 2015.
Average number of colds = 1.6 per year
- An average year: 1-1.6 colds
- A good year: < 1 cold
- An excellent year: 0 colds
Average number of days per year affected by colds = 11.83 = under a fortnight = 1.7 weeks
Bad years
- 1997 = 36 days affected (10% of year)
- 1995 = 35
- 2010 = 30
- 2013 = 28
Excellent years
- 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 no days affected
Bad months
- October – 7 colds
- February – 6 colds
- December – 5 colds
Good months
- July, September – 1 cold
- January, May, August – 3 colds
Henry noted the striking reduction of colds over the second portion of the study. He attributed it to less exposure to infection, this period coinciding with his retirement and meeting fewer people.