I've had two colds in four years. I believe I've discovered ways to limit my exposure to the germs that cause colds. Beyond that I'm confident I have built up immunity so that when I am exposed to cold germs my system may be able to fight them off. I didn't start out on a crusade. But this serendipitous discovery has lead to what seems to be a healthier lifestyle. My conclusions are not scientific. I am not a doctor (although in third grade Linda Flood paid me in Milk Duds to give her regular physical examinations).

If you follow the suggestions in this article I can guarantee one thing: you will continue to get colds during cold season. That is because the odds are against you. Cynthia Haines, MD, writing for WebMD.com says, "The common cold can be caused by nearly 250 different viruses." But there is hope.

About five years ago I noticed that several of the people I had grown up with were beginning to get older. Reluctantly I realized I needed to take steps to improve the way I lived so that I might live a little longer and healthier. A good diet seemed to be the most important way to stay healthy. However, when I looked at the U.S government's recommended food pyramid, I recognized that my diet resembled a beef, potato, and sugar plateau.

A reader asked a question of Men's Health magazine about vegetable juice. Their doctors stated that eight ounces of V8 vegetable juice was roughly equivalent to eating two vegetables. Suddenly I saw the point of a pyramid poking out of the ground. What a quick and relatively painless way to eat healthier, I thought.

I tried a small glass of V8 at dinner one summer evening and was not totally appalled by the taste. I thought if I could drink three glasses per day the pyramid might be attainable and a longer, healthy life might be within reach.

In the spring of the next year I was discussing with my wife how lucky our family had been in avoiding illness during the winter. I noted that I hadn't caught a cold all winter. I then realized that my eighty-seven-year-old father who lives with us also had gone through winter without a cold. I could never remember one winter in which he and I had not caught one or more colds.

I thought back and tried to discern what he and I had done differently during the winter. I slowly came to the realization that the only thing we had done differently during that year was drink three glasses of V8 per day.

"Could it have been the V8?" I asked my wife.

She reminded me that she and my daughter had not followed my V8 example and had coincidentally suffered about their normal number of colds. I came to a most unscientific conclusion: the vegetable juice may have strengthened my immune system. Still, I'm not a doctor, but then Linda never asked for a refund on her Milk Duds either.

Bolstered by a layman's view, I began to seek other ways to protect myself from colds.

I moved from nutrition to prevention. The easiest way to avoid a cold is to avoid the germs that cause them. Michelle Parker, a school nurse and member of the New York State United Teachers Health Care Professionals Council, urges proper hand washing and drying. "It's the friction that kills the germs, and the time - not just the hot water," she says. So I became fastidious in hand washing. Then what?

"After you wash your hands, dry them with a paper towel-not a communal hand towel that can be a safe haven for germs," suggests Neil Schachter, MD, medical director of respiratory care at Mount Sinai in New York City. We switched to paper towels in the bathroom and kitchen that next year. I caught one cold at the end of January (yes I was keeping track by then) but had avoided the flu which went through my house. I plowed ahead, looking for more advantages against my foe.

Author and Nutritional Researcher Jordan Rubin, Ph.D., author of the best selling book The Maker's Diet points out that the average person touches and scratches their face between twenty and fifty times per day. He says the eyes and nose make perfect entry points for germs to enter into a body. If you have to scratch your face after having your hands in a less than clean environment, he recommends using a knuckle to scratch rather than the more easily contaminated fingertip. With this bit of information in mind I fought the urge at my work space to touch my face much like Dr. Strangelove struggled with his right arm to avoid a Nazi-like salute. In year three of the saga I received a cold for Christmas.

I ran across a study about people in Scandinavia who used a sauna twice a week and had fewer colds than those who didn't. The study involved only twenty people and could hardly be considered scientific. I had been drinking hot tea in the morning and evening for years. After hearing many people say that they would let steam from a kettle drift into their nostrils to open clogged passages I wondered about the preventive powers of steam. About the same time I read where some doctors actually recommend inhaling steam on the assumption that the warmth may inhibit potential cold germs from producing a cold. I began gently inhaling steam when preparing my tea each day. I thought the General would approve.

Last year I shared a rather small office with two co-workers. Naturally they both developed colds when the weather turned cool. One held onto his during the entire fall and most of the winter. I imagined I had no chance of avoiding their fate but I was going to try.

I used all the tricks I have laid out here but I knew airborne germs in such a tight environment could be my downfall. What I tried next took my breath away. Literally. Whenever a co-worker coughed in my general area I held my breath until I imagined the offending germs had fallen harmlessly away. Moreover, I tried to keep a safe distance between each person when I talked to them. During those times when I had to work closely with one or the other, I tried to keep my head turned at such an angle that there would not be a chance of a face to face transfer of cold germs. This might strike someone as a little Howard Hughesian, but seeing one friend suffering almost all winter made me a little more cautious (okay, paranoid) than usual.

By spring I had notched another cold free season. The trying circumstances of the last winter made the feat even more remarkable, at least to me. Just consider this bit of information from Medicinenet.com which is staffed by a network of U. S. Board Certified Physicians: on average, preschool children have 9 colds a year; those in kindergarten, 12 colds a year; and adolescents and adults, 7 colds per year. My four year average? .5 colds per year.

I haven't reached a level where I am never going to get a cold. No one living outside a bubble will. But I have enough anecdotal evidence to show I have turned the odds in my favor. And I've got the numbers to prove it.

I even won my skeptical wife over to the fight.

"Okay, you win, Dr. Spock," she said as fall approached. "What do I do first?"

"Got some Milk Duds?" I asked.