My healthiest winter seasons were those in Brooklyn, spent swimming weekly with the Coney Island Polar Bear Club. That crowd is staunchly healthy.
22
@Danielle It is a health persons pursuit, you are putting cart before horse, anyhow a 1/2 hour dip is not the same as living in a freezing home 6 months of the year.
48
When we're exposed to cold the blood vessel of the extremities and the mucosal passages constrict, the immune cells lower their activitiy and/or do not have access to suppress the viruses.
All sorts of bugs already colonize our noses and throats. They take over when we're cold.
Often when my 10 yo son gets very cold hands and feet - like wearing sneakers in winter not boots here in Boston - comes down with a cold. "Catching a cold" or some version of it - is the name of the upper respiratory infection in too many cultures for the association to be wrong.... You can search a short BBC article on an experiment with wet hair and getting a cold... but your grandma knew that already....
Also, low vitamin D in winter is a big player in poor immune response
86
No mention of the correlation btwn increased time indoors during winter months --> decreases exposure to sunlight ---> decreased amounts of Vitamin D which significantly impacts the immune system
I up my D (plus zinc, B complex, Lysine) in winter months, haven't had a cold or flu in over a decade
26
Being or feeling stress from being cold, especially for a prolonged period, probably causes an increase in cortisol. That would suppress immunity.
30
Every time -- and I mean EVERY time -- I get chilled to the point that my feet and hands feel cold, I come down with a cold the next day. Breathing steam, staying very warm, and drinking hot liquids help to get me over colds.
The only conclusion I can draw is that rhinoviruses grow better at a temperature slightly lower than normal body temperature. I think many viruses do -- this is why the body fights so many of them with fever. Rhinoviruses have evolved to avoid triggering that effect -- but you can circumvent this.
37
1) There is no virus no question of catching cold- Agree.2) there will always be some virus. Why take chance protect yourself from cold weather. That's it.3) Very young children, old people people coming from warm weather places for first time to clod regions get it easily.You do not need some doctor doing " research"( being paid and expenses for these kind of researches to come to Non conclusion.
Some commentator advises to have complete blood tests once a year just to determine whether one can get cold( Is s/he going to pay for that or is he some lab man?
7
This article stinks. Many of the comments below do the job that the author should have, either by restating the conclusion more effectively, or by adding relevant information. If I ever choose to read this column again, I'll start with the comments and will consider skipping the article altogether.
58
Been living in an almost warm room in a very old house every winter and haven't had a sniffle for years.
9
" college students whose feet were soaked in cold water for 20 minutes a day were more likely to get sick than those not exposed to the cold. "
That is not enough information to evaluate anything. What did the students in the control group do while the students in the study were sitting with their feet in cold water? Were they sitting in the same conditions with their feet in tepid water? We don't know.
There is a short answer to the queestion "Can cold make you sick?" "We don't know., it might, it might not." That is kind of boring.
12
Well, good point, many studies have questionable designs. I criticize the NYT health section all the time, but I think you should give them some slack here and assume they actually read the study and decided it was worth noting. Since they provided a link to the study, and since the study describes the control procedure, that should be sufficient, I would think. (Note that I am not telling you what the control procedure was - for a reason.)
7
That bit about moist air possibly inhibiting the spread of flu virus is interesting. When I lived in (usually) cold, (almost) constantly damp San Francisco I rarely caught the flu. Now that I’m in a lower-humidity climate I get the flu most years, as well as other viruses.
4
you're also older....
12
Do we really need a study to know that cold irritates the upper respiratory ways, and makes us more susceptible to viral infections?
20
That is why it may be important to have a complete blood count when you visit your doctor at least once every year to make sure that all body Chemistry is normal
3
Hard disagree with you there. Not only do most people not need a complete blood panel every year, but if they were to get one...what does that have to do with the outside air temperature, humidity, or prevalence of airborne cold viruses? If you know you are more susceptible to getting a cold when you get chilled, then you'll take steps to make sure that doesn't happen, regardless of what your lab results are.
7
Do G
Iff you work in a restaurant, common dining room (as in a dormitory or old folks home, please stay home. Get 2 or 3 boxes of "tissues" and eat hot chicken soup. And pray it isn't the flu, which is still very much with us. As this article should have pointed out.
5
I believe temperature differentials are a factor.
I have twice been in warm water up to my neck outdoors on cold winter days. Once when I was a teenager, once many decades later. In both instances, I became extremely ill a short time later.
In the winter you may go from 20F outdoors to 72F indoors. But in summer, maybe 80F outdoors to 72F indoors, a smaller difference.
Since cold weather correlates to a larger temperature change, maybe temperature differences are the real cause.
9
I'm all for hard-headed scientific skepticism, but the notion that getting cold makes you more likely to catch a cold is a bit of folk wisdom that is universal, in call cultures, through the ages.
I'm going to defer to my Mom and Grandmom's wisdom, and will continue to assume that it is true, and simply wait for the scientific and medical understanding to catch up with the empirical observation.
27
The problem with the quasi-scientific logic of Dr. Spinner is that it is half truth. Sure you need exposure to a rhinovirus in order to catch a cold, or flu virus for flu. But if he seriously thinks exposure to cold has no effect on the immune system then I challenge him to do an empirical study and go outside all winter in a t-shirt without a hat and to sleep in an unheated room with no blanket and see if he does not get more colds than usual. No, I trust sensible grandmother wisdom of dressing warmly, its common sense, and drinking warming beverages in winter.
Of course, dont listen to your grandma, but follow the actual science, done by actual scientists who do research, as quoted in your article, that do demonstrate what grandma knew--exposure to cold makes you susceptible to the viruses lurking about. On Ayurveda and colds:https://www.bodymindwellnesscenter.com/dr-wickramasinghes-ayurvedic-deto...
6
Never listen to your grandmother only those in authority.
3
Along the same lines (at least for me) is whether anyone has done a study to determine if placing one leg in front of the other is the best way to walk? I mean, without a scientific study, how will we ever know?
29
TL;DR: if we think correctly about the problem in a manner relating to the scientific method, the answer is:
we don't know. Maybe, maybe not. We've found that cold weather doesn't directly make you sick but there is a spurious correlation between that which makes you sick and the cold weather. Remember, correlation is not causation, but correlation is a REQUIREMENT for causation.
5
"correlation is a REQUIREMENT for causation."
No, it isn't. Correlation is a measure of a statistical relationship between two sets of data. What it means depends on the qualities of data sets. Its quite easy to have data sets that fail to fully capture any relationship, including correlation.
2
A personal observation: when the outside temp doesn't get above 20 for over a week, nobody gets sick. When it warms up- Wham! Stay away from others for a few days!
My observation agrees with yours. This has been a difficult winter here in northern coastal Maine, with temperatures all over the place. I have just simply stayed home (I'm retired) all winter to avoid people. My 'colds' always turn into a secondary sinus infection, then bronchitis, and I'm terribly ill. Just not worth it! I'm lucky my husband does the grocery shopping, and he very rarely gets a cold or flu.
1
If I breathe heavily in cold air for an extended period of (exercise, shoveling snow, etc), I will get sick, usually within the hour.
Do I get the cold or flu? No, but the cold air aggravates my bronchial tubes and I quickly get bronchitis, complete with coughing and fever and general miserableness.
It took me until my 30s to figure out that I have coughing-variant asthma, and the best thing I did for my health was to move south away from the cold. No cold, no bronchitis!
It did not help that all the doctors I saw when I was younger up north always came to the conclusion that I meant the flu or a cold when I said I got sick due to the cold air and then spending the rest of the visit with them saying that I was wrong.
13
Harpers, I had the same thing when I was young. Exercising in cold — usually damp — air would induce an asthma attack. My parents shrugged it off even as I gasped for air because the doctor always shrugged it off (when it was described to him...I was never taken to emergency) as allergies or an oncoming cold. I wasn’t diagnosed as asthmatic until I was in my thirties!
I think modern-day helicopter parents are intensely annoying — and possibly damaging to their children — but the casual approach many parents took to their kids’ health back in the 1960s wasn’t right, either. I remember feeling like I was suffocating, when those asthma attacks came on. With no inhaler to help me breathe.
11
My four year old has cough variant asthma—we live in SoCal and she didn’t catch any bugs until the cold weather began last week. Wish me luck tonight!
5
The alleged medical response to the question, though accurate, is also only part of the actual answer. Yes. Being cold can help make you ill. Excessive exposure DOES cause respiratory inflammation, which makes the lungs as well as the nasal and throat areas irritated, which causes inflammation, just as a burn does not cause an infection, but an infection of damaged tissue is a serious danger. When respiratory mucous areas are over exposed to cold, they become irritated, thus leaving those areas much more susceptible to the conditions as described in the article. Just as shivering burns up a great deal of energy to generate body warmth, lowering and weakening the body's energy levels, and thus making the immune system not 100%. No, cold, per se, won't make you sick, BUT it makes one way more likely to get sick!
11
This article seriously needs a better conclusion to summarize itself... Let me help
No, being cold doesn't make you get sick. Cold airid atmosphere helps viruses spread, increasing your chances of getting sick. But most of all, being trapped indoors thanks to bad weather, with other sick people, is the biggest contributor
33
I wish the authors of this article had taken the opportunity to educate about the condition cold urticaria. For sufferers of this cold allergy; cold, whether occurring in nature or flowing from a normally operating air conditioner, can actually kill. People suffering from this genetic defect cannot dive into the pool in the summer; or leap into the ocean from the dock, without risking a sudden and fatal drop in blood pressure, or suffocating from a swollen trachea. Luckily, several off-label drugs alleviate the symptoms, so that people like me who love New England winters can still play in the snow...
4
The answer is yes. Though rare, a person can get hypothermia from air conditioning, and definitely you can get hypothermia without a jacket. A symptom of hypothermia is "getting sick" that is vomiting or nausea. You don't need to catch a virus to vomit from the cold.
The problem is "getting sick" is poorly defined. A doctor might call an infection "sickness" a person may refer to vomiting as "getting sick". I don't know that you could rule out anything as getting sick, but I think if we ruled in a common use of the phrase "getting sick" includes some form of vomiting, then yes, you can get sick because of those two things
6
I apologize if I'm repeating anyone, as there are an awful lot of comments. But what I don't see stated in the top few which I read, is that there is a difference between 'being sick' and 'catching a cold'. You cannot 'catch a cold' in the absence of the virus, no matter the temperature. Being cold does not make you 'catch a cold' if you are exposed but your immune system fights off the virus. You can however 'get sick' in a non-viral manner from having your temperature lowered too much, for too long, even before hypothermia comes into play. Distinction is important.
12
I agree. Over the years I have learned that any time I get chilled to the bone, I will end up sick. Not necessarily sick with a cold, but I will become ill. As a result, I try to be proactive and not let it happen. Still, sometimes one cannot help it.
14
Growing up my mother would warn me about not zippering my jacket and having my hair wet. I always questioned her about why it mattered and she answered that I would get sick. I have always wondered if what my mother enforced was correct and valid. I wish this article provided more of an answer. It is very contradictory as to whether or not the cold makes us sick or if it just increases the chances of getting sick.
It hinted that yes, the cold does enable you to get sick, by weakening your immune system but it also isn't the only reason why you get sick. You can also get sick based on humidity levels within your living area. I also found it interest that one study focused solely on college students. I find that college students have an increased chance of getting sick because they interact with so many people daily and can sometimes have unhealthy habits. It would have beneficially to have studied, that is done on other people other than college students.
I also think the article would have benefited from a conclusion. Stating the answer to the question at hand. Does being cold mean you will get sick? No solid answer was given. Based on the information presented, I would have assumed that yes cold does have an effect on whether or not you get a cold. However, Dr. Spinner, who is quoted throughout the article, stated that we can't just link it to cause and effect. So again, there Is no real answer.
5
Growing up my mother would warn me about not zippering my jacket, and having my hair wet. I always questioned her about why it mattered and she answered that I would get sick. I have always wondered if what my mother enforced was correct and valid. I wish this article provided more of an answer. It is very contradictory as to whether or not the cold makes us sick or if it just increases the chances of getting sick.
2
This is a short BBC srticla about a UK study - wet hair DOES increase the risk of catching a cold.... by lowering immune defense Grandma is ALWAYS right ! :-)
And in too many cultures the upper resp infections are called 'a cold'.... for the relationship to be wrong ....
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120305-youll-catch-a-cold-with-wet-hair
2
In my case I believe that there is a direct link between heat, or lack thereof, and immunity. It can be best understood as the amount of energy the body has to fight an illness. The colder it is, the more energy is expended in keeping the body warm, and less for the immune system, esp since I am thin and have little extra insulation.
I see the immediate improvement when I warm up my room, eat a hot meal, there is a sudden thaw in winter, etc...
14
But it would also be true that heat -- being too hot and making the body work harder to cool down -- could make you sick. In my experience, this is true, although the illness is more often gastrointestinal, even leaving aside the question of food hygiene, which is harder in hot weather.
2
If being cold made you sick, there would be far more colds in the Twin Cities and far fewer in Dallas or Houston, and swimmers would be sicker than track and field athletes.
I live in a city which has virtually the same average temperature in July as it does in January, yet colds are more prevalent in my students in the winter. Why? Kids congregate indoors when it is inclimant without.
Of course severe cold in the form of hypothermia probably lowers immunity because it dangerously affects many normal body functions.
4
So my husband could be correct?! We debate about this all the time. He always tries to get me to wear a hat so that I "don't catch a cold". Obviously I refuse because who wants hat-hair....
4
Yup. "individuals who do not believe they are overweight, or who view obesity in a positive light, are less likely to seek treatment for weight loss."
I live in SW Florida where guys can comfortably go outside shirtless most days of the year. But the guys that do this the most are the guys that need to drop upwards of forty pounds.
1
What many of the anecdotal references here seem to miss is that feeling cold (shivering when a gust of cold air comes in, say), is often a telltale sign of a weakened immune system (typically due to sleep deprivation, which, yes, does correlate with cold catching rates). Hence, what's perceived as a cause (cold) is just the symptom of a further removed, and less obvious (inmunodepression) one.
10
It's been known for decades that rhinovirus, the most common cause for the common cold, replicates most efficiently at a few degrees below 98.7F - our usual core temperature. This is the temperature our airways and sinuses typically reside at, particularly in cooler seasons. Tho the other factors mentioned likely contribute, I think the above is the most significant factor.
In addition, I'm convinced I've been able to shorten my cold duration by making sure I keep as warm as I can during the illness - particularly at bedtime. (I'm an MD, btw)
12
With this kind of non-scientific thinking I'm sure glad you aren't my doctor.
1
Poor, poor, pitiful me! My "normal" temperature is 96.8F, not 98.6F. But, I'm not often sick with rhinoviruses, or much of anything else. Oh, well, I've always been an outlier.
I know all the reasons why you cannot get sick from getting chilled.
But I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve gotten chilled (not just cold, but chilled), inside or outside, I’ve immediately gotten sick. Same with going to bed with wet hair during cold weather.
Just the way it is for me.
15
Since an initial, persistent bout of bronchitis about 10 years ago I've had a half-dozen distinct episodes where a sudden drop in temperature - being caught in a summer thunderstorm, or entering an over-air-conditioned building in a tropical climate - has immediately triggered a coughing spell that has subsequently turned into bronchitis again. Sometimes these bouts last for weeks. I know now when another episode starts to hit the Flonase at its recommended dosage - to prevent the acceleration into bronchitis - and follow up with Vitamin D supplements in case it's taken hold. Works very consistently for me!
4
I have noticed when it’s cold outside, (say below 45F) - my nose runs a lot. This kind of runny nose is more like when your eyes are watering - thin clear watery secretions, quite different from the kind of runny nose you have when you’re sick.
But still, if everyone else’s nose is running like that too, and if people absentmindedly wipe it away with their hands - that would suggest ‘nose slime’ (with all sorts of germs) ends up on doorknobs, elevator buttons, and other surfaces much more frequently than when it’s NOT cold out. simply because more people are touching their noses throughout the day, and because ‘stuff’ is coming out of those noses, to be placed on surfaces where the ‘stuff’ gets shared.
So, more opportunities for shared cold viruses leads to more colds.
Wash Your Hands!
8
What if the cold virus is actually embedded in us, and cold temperatures can trigger it?
I'll use the analogy of having had the chicken pox and, because of that, something can trigger shingles in the future.
I am in good general health. The nature of my work placed me next to a refrigeration unit that emitted frost and cold on the outside. The room was not heated and I was in there for 4 hours. It was an unusual circumstance.
Going into that room I felt perfectly fine. Later that night I was feeling run down. The next day I was unable to function. Out of commission for 2 days and sick to varying degrees for 3 weeks, and it wasn't the flu.
Maybe we need to look at this differently, or at least acknowledge this is worth researching further.
18
Yes, cold gives you colds. There is no definitive proof yet, but a lot of asuggestive evidence. https://www.nature.com/news/cold-viruses-thrive-in-frosty-conditions-1.1...
6
...and studies indicate that great fluctuations in temperature likewise impact immunity. So going out into cold conditions and inside to warm ones contributes to likelihood of cold/flu.
6
I always considered having a bad mood as being ill, deserving a day off. My various bosses for 25 years never had problem with that. Now that I am old enough to be my own boss, I just play it by ear.
5
I understand 40 degrees is the temperature to avoid most. It is the temperture viruses are most active.
2
It certainly causes muscle discomfort and cramps that can leave you feeling run down and in need of hot soak, and yes the “lowered defences” argument is a strong one, however viral infections seem to occur regardless of air temperature.
Though the best cure for a blocked nose is not the cold, it’s fiery hot sauce...
4
Honest question: Do arctic peoples (e.g, Saami, Aleut, Inuit, etc.) suffer colds? The flu?
11
As we know when it is cold in the Northern hemisphere it is hot in the Southern hemisphere.
As we know flu season in the North is when it is cold there.
I have a question.
Is this true about the Southern hemisphere.
Do they have their flu season when it is cold there or do they have it when we in the North have it.
1
The southern hemisphere has its flu season during its winter (our summer) and scientists use data from the southern hemisphere's flu season to create vaccines for our northern winter flu season.
Seems it hasn't been too successful lately though.
1
I’m really not sure if I understand what the point of this article is.... “Does being cold get you sick?”.... can anyone go out into “the cold” say in the dead of a New York winter, half-naked, for any prolonged period of time and come back NOT getting sick somehow? A “cold”, pneumonia, “the sniffles”, fever/chills, sneezing, coughing, “allergies”... whatever it is.... you get sick when you are not dressed warmly enough for a sufficiently long period of time. Period. The longer you go being “too cold”, the sicker you are going to be. Is the relationship causal, indirect, technically “not correct”, I mean who cares - just sounds like people want to make themselves feel smarter by pointing out “it’s actually not the cold that gets you sick...”.... There is a very direct relationship. PERIOD. If you don’t believe it, go stand naked in the middle of Central Park even on a 50 degree night for 60 minutes, I will guarantee you, you will not be well when you get home - and I don’t mean from someone trying to take advantage of you while you are naked either.
14
Correction for the statement, "With high humidity, flu viruses expelled in a sneeze, for example, tend to attach to water molecules and may drop out of the air before they can trigger a new infection. In a dry room, those flu viruses often continue to float around until they reach their next victim."
Viruses are expelled in droplets of respiratory fluid, many smaller than can be seen with the naked eye. The viruses do not "attach to water molecules" while they are airborne. Rather, humidity affects the amount of time the viruses remain airborne by controlling the extent of evaporation of the droplets. Drier air means more evaporation and a smaller droplet that can stay suspended for longer. Humidity is also thought to affect whether the virus remains infectious or "dies" while in droplet before it reaches another person. Indoor temperatures tend to be lower during the winter, and viruses survive better in colder air. That said, the susceptibility of our immune systems is likely to be important also.
I am a professor who studies flu virus in air. (http://www.air.cee.vt.edu)
149
Thank you Lindsey. I had to read that seventh paragraph down it starts with a bold research, Bunch of times to try to get the feel of that research: basically goes both ways if it’s too dry the water droplets (fog) are too small and fall out of the air blah blah blah… But what made the most sense is the study about people with “cold feet” getting sick – I always get a sneeze when of my feet gets cold!
2
Dr M, agreed. We have read your work and even a Popular Science article about it not too long ago. Your results are clear and counter-intuitive. From it a while back we did some physics simulations on the rate of desiccation of micron sized viral laden particles. The kind we our LRT is most susceptible to when exhaled into 20% RH, RT (room temperature) dry air. The results resembled lyophilization or differential vapor pressure. We show these indoor conditions on a our free wello app on iphone and android, called wellowatch. Its updated for most regioins of the world hourly. And we believe that we can also account for susceptibility from past data (like SARs HK) from rapid drops in AH. Best, RIk
8
Keep your hands away from your face. Number one rule.
Don’t shop for eyeglasses without alcohol swabs.
Clean gym equipment before use, then also after. Before is for you, after is for them.
Don’t use public keyboards.
Don’t touch bathroom handles.
Get the flu shot.
Money is dirty cloth; consider NFC readers.
Don’t let a sick barista put the top on your coffee cup.
Use alcohol-based hand sanitizer, unless you are about to eat, and then just wash with soap and water.
Any other questions? But don’t forget the number one rule: if you don’t put a virus in your eye, you probably won’t get sick.
68
"Them" could include "me". If everyone followed the rule at the gym, to wash the equipment after use, nobody would have to wash it twice, as you suggest. Why can't people just follow the rules? Doubling up on the cleansing the solution is killer on my hands, so I just follow the rules.
2
I would recommend going to a sauna at least once a week from autumn until spring. The body learns to adjust better to different temperatures because of the better blood circulation; the nostrils are getting less dried out. All in all, the immune system seems to improve. At least that's my experience after doing this for 30 years - and if I don't have access to a sauna when it's cold, my body is longing for it.
4
So??? Can you answer the question please? This article is not very conclusive, is it?
3
My wife and mother insist that wet hair causes colds.
18
that's why they aren't doctors
33
I used to walk to my early morning college class in the middle of winter right after taking my shower. My hair, wet when I left home, was frozen when I sat down in class (as I defrosted, water ran down my back). I also (knock on wood) never got sick, caught a cold . . . never! 30 years later and I can't remember the last time I caught a cold (I now live in Miami) let alone had the flu (I don't get the flu shot). Best piece of advice: wash your hands, early and often.
6
Many viruses, including influenza, are more stable (ie, likely to survive longer and be ariund to infect more people) at cold temperature. This explains seasonal variations probably more than anything said in the article.
12
Whether or not immune cells are less effective at lower temperatures, this would require a person’s internal body temperature to drop (perhaps significantly) if it were to have any bearing in the real world. If that were the case, then something has already gone awry.
17
Also - it seems equally plausible that the cold and flu spread when they do because kids have been in school long enough to all get each other sick (primary schools being Petri dishes), and infect their parents who then infect colleagues.
5
I don't know about this. The year I started riding a motorcycle through the winter was the last year I ever got the flu. Before that I got sick at the end of each Fall semester. Something about exposing the body to very cold conditions seems to supercharge it. At least that's been my theory for the past 30 years.
7
Easy enough to prove. Do people who reside in Maine year round catch more colds/flu than people who reside in Florida year round?
23
That presumes that people who reside in Maine are always cold and people who reside in Florida are never cold. I would imagine that Maine has a very high number of people who know how to warm themselves, not let themselves get cold or chilled, and keep their living spaces warm.
2
With all due respect to the author, this paragraph is untrue:
{Home heating and humidity may also play a role in winter health, Dr. Spinner said. Running the heat to keep the house warm also dries it out — and can dry out our sinuses, too. “When you don’t have good nasal mucus flow, it’s harder for the immune system to work against the virus,” he said.}
The physics of indoor/outdoor dry air teach they are close in grams per cubic meter, aka AH (absolute humidity).
Outdoor dewpoint is nearly the same in all homes, businesses and outdoors. Sorry but your thermostat does not change your indoor weather, just room temperature. Humidifiers on the other hand truly change your indoor weather for wellness.
The two aspects of cold temperature and disease spread are 1. transmission by a sick to well person comes from the sick person exhaling warm moist viral laden air. This process we call nanodessication akin to lyophilization. Exhaling preserves the exhaled enveloped virus, by the physics of high different vapor pressures exhaled into low vapor pressures (low AH).
Next, susceptibility of the well person is reduced by many things but on a daily basis, dehydration of the mucous lining in the URT/LRT (respiratory tracts) comes from indoor dry air, low AH. Jetcraft are the worst. Cold weather set an upper limit on indoor AH so that well people's respiratory neutrophils are less motile and dry mucous doesnt filter viable virus as hydrated mucous. See cystic fibrosis and
HYDRATE!
3
My relative humidity inside is different than outside on a regular basis. Right now it’s 97% outside 45% inside. Dew point outside is 40. Dew inside is 47.
7
Relative Humidity has nothing to do with my comment. The measure is a very simple one called Absolute Humidity. It is how many grams of water are in a cubic foot of air. The outside AH is very close to the inside AH, particularly in commercial buildings where outside air exchange is standardized.
What you will find is that at sea level or thereabouts, dewpoint is correlated to a measure of AH (logarithmic). The fact that dew point is dimensionally a temperature it is coincidentally close numerically to RH at room temperature.
You stepped in the fallacy of RH. Remove the temperature from the RH formula and you get AH. If you wanted to enjoy your golf game, run, tennis game or wherever you sweat, you'll find dew points under 70F deliver that. RH will tell you nothing. Furthermore if you look at one of the largest spread of SARs in Hong Kong (subtropical and moist) you will find the balmiest day when it spread. 60F and very low AH. Because it was cool however, the RH appeared high.
I've created an entire app for contemporaneous spread and susceptibility and maintain records worldwide on these indoor conditions derived from outdoor weather going back 18 years. The app is called WelloWatch on Android and iPhone. Its free without advertisements.
People are indoors all the time theses days, so the crowded indoors in the winter concept is just received wisdom that doesn't make any sense.
4
I have also heard (from a few MDs in the family) that one of the first symptoms of getting a cold or flu is a feeling of being "cold", or shivering. I spend lots of time outdoors in the cold and am very seldom sick - colds or other. Of course, correlation does notn equal causation.
2
Being cold can not only make you sick, it can kill you. It's a condition called "Hypothermia", also known colloquially as "Exposure". This condition can and does occur in conditions well above the freezing mark. I am astounded that this was never mentioned by any of the quoted Medical authorities.
6
When I'm cold my nose runs. I wipe it. Hand to nose with or without tissue (yeah, sometimes I'm in the yard and don't have one. Yes, gross.) Hand near mucous membrane. Hands have germs. Not really that hard to see relationship of cold temp to colds.
2
My nose runs too when it’s cold, but I doubt it’s because I’ve got a cold. Hypothermia, hypochondria, what’s health without sickness?
1
Try blowing your nose holding your thumb or index finger over one nostril and expel. Works for me.!
Use the nettie pot.
2
Nasal saline is far safer.
If you do, make sure to use distilled water warmed in a VERY cleaned pot.
Being cold may not make you sick but it will most certainly make you miserable!
5
what kind of 'college students' are soaking their feet in buckets of cold water and why can't i stop laughing at this silly article?
8
The experiment you are making fun of, had people put their feet in cold water. Blood was drawn before and after exposure and there were less circulating white blood cells after exposure to the cold water, and therefore making it more likely that when they were exposed to the virus that they caught a cold.
7
Superwoman, Barbara! Wish I had your steely genes! In a cold valley in NH it takes layers of wool sweaters, turtlenecks, long underwear, flannel-lined trousers, wool socks, and a hat on in the house to stave off the chill in an old house kept at 64 degrees F.
6
If one runs his humidifier at 64°, that’ll be a vari miserable Indoor existence; one would not only feel the cold, it would go right to your bones!
So, in other words, run your humidifier!
keep the humidifier running
2
"It’s not because being cold gives you a cold, as your grandmother might have you believe. There are several existing hypotheses, though why flu flourishes in the winter is “a fascinating question that’s engaged infectious disease doctors and virologists for years,” Dr. William Schaffner, the immediate past-president of the National Foundation of Infectious Diseases and professor of preventive medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told weather.com." https://weather.com/health/cold-flu/news/flu-season-strikes-winter-20140122
These comments read like a case study in confirmation bias. What else is new?
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I may not catch a cold but I may get sick with a sore throat if I go out into the wintery mix without being dressed properly
8
Here's one explanation from a bath-robed Russian immigrant I came across exercising on the beach then splashing around in icy Lake Michigan during February: "Cold doesn't make you sick; germs do."
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Thank you. This was the only article on the NYT web site that I thought warranted a click. What a shame that such a great paper is being destroyed.
To bad the Times can't get a irrevocable endowment to keep it in business and let their great reporters do their jobs and stop being publicists and lobbyists for the progressive left.
12
Russ Douthat, David Brooks, Bret Stephens not conservative enough?
18
A body nourished with processed fast food has a shot immune system in any weather system! WHOA!~
9
If I’m outside and it’s chilly, especially in the evening, I get a sore throat and usually a sinus infection follows. I’ve seen this cause and effect for enough years to know it happens. I’m fondly known as the scarf lady.
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No. Not if it doesn't happen every single time.
The mind is a powerful tool. If you believe that something will make you sick it probably will.
3
Being cold is VERY uncomfortable. Isn't that bad enough? SO glad I live in Arizona!
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People...stop looking for the confirmation bias. Holy Schnickey! Dont look to the feet in the cold water study and make it the the whole. Think it thru...maybe college students are not the best study group. Maybe their lifestyles factor in. Less sleep, living in close and ill-kept quarters, sharing bed partners, community bathrooms, sharing food utensils, poor diets, running around at all hours, etc.
And when you'e getting sick, your reaction to the cold weather is heightened. We all sniffle in the cold, but if you're getting sick, you will sniffle more...so you will notice it. A slight fever, that might go unnoticed in an overheated workplace, will likely cause you to shiver more, and think its the cold when you go outside, etc.
The fact is YOU need to be exposed to the virus. Which this article clearly pointed out. It didn't in any way say that "the cold" made you sick...but that maybe (small number of studies) being cold/chilled would make getting sick/er more likely.
See the difference?
6
So basically after years of research we still have a lot more to learn, got it.
2
Rule One, the absence of evidence is not evidence FOR something...combine that with the corollary of publication bias...that roughly states "dog bites man is NOT news but man bites dog IS news"...and you have the foundation for a variety of published associations that fail to be meaningfully reproduced in prospective, properly blinded trials and even large (albeit always heterogeneous) population epidemiological comparisons...
refuting a published or entrenched belief that doesn't really exist is also very costly and difficult to do, and the inability to reproduce a finding usually finds its way somewhere onto the back page...The value of truly "knowing" is not insignificant. In big pharma that can be a billion dollars to bring a new drug to market. Faith and the power of placebos is also not insignificant, and to that, "you say tomayto and I say tomatto"..and everything needs not become a skirmish in a larger cultural war.
This article explains why academic settings are harbingers of colds and flus. Poor ventilation, overly heated rooms with low humidity...and 45 students (and teacher) coughing and sneezing into the enclosed enviornment. Under these conditions the 'sneeze or cough into your sleeve' advice really doesn't have a chance.
2
Prolonged stress weakens the immune system. Prolonged periods of cold cause stress (try turning the thermostat down to 60F for a couple of days and see if you feel your stress levels rise). Therefore it seems pretty reasonable that prolonged exposure to cold will weaken your immune system.
10
My body tends to be cold, even a full degree below normal, and I've noticed that eating raw vegetables puts it even lower. I've even given myself a sore throat several times by eating salads too much. My body temperature definitely responds to the effect of an internal low temperature by getting sick. On the other hand, if I avoid raw vegetables and also drink lots of ginger tea, I rarely if ever get sick. Haven't had a cold in years if I keep my body temperature up.
4
Any time I am cold for a prolonged period of time, a couple hours at least, I immediately get sick. This has always been the case. Whether it’s because of a weakened immune system or some other mechanism I have a feeling that someday science will catch up with what common knowledge has been saying for thousands of years.
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I have never gotten sick after being chilled. Not even after serious hypothermia from swimming too long in cold water. I spend a significant amount of time out in the cold in upstate New York on a regular basis. I only get sick if something is going around in my work environment. Being around people makes you sick, not getting cold.
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I've gotten "sick" - a sudden onset cough leading to bronchitis that might last weeks - a half-dozen times in the last 10 years after a sudden and sustained drop in temperature, say 15 deg over 2 minutes. The final absolute temperature does not need to be that cold; it appears that the big differential change with sustained final temperature is the culprit. Even when I'm "on the mend" just a slightly cool draft from an open window will trigger the coughing again and exacerbate the symptoms. The phenomena are very repeatable!
2
I disagree. There is a description in Traditional Chinese Medicine of "catching a cold wind". It is when you are vulnerable and exposed to cold. I myself have "caught a cold" exercising right beneath an air conditioning vent. I was sweating, so pores were very open, and the cold just went right in. I know many people will disagree that this is possible, but I have seen it in myself and my patients. It is not just a "wives tale". I recommend doing some research on this.
9
i believe stress in our lives weakens our immune system, which makes it harder for our bodies to fight stuff. Like divorce, job difficulties, etc.
2
Yes, I agree. It would be interesting to test a correlation with those stressors. Re cold, it also is a stressor. Stress causes cortisone to be released, which suppresses some symptoms of stress (just in case you might have to fight or flee), and also cortisone suppresses the immune system.
Re another comment above, yes, people often have chronic low-level latent infections. When the immune system is suppressed, latent infections can start to grow. That does not mean that external sources are not also important sources of infections.
Re students with their feet in cold water, that is an example of a well designed randomized controlled experiment. Anyone who can design a better experiment that will get human participation should go ahead and do it. Probably you could get a grant, if you needed money to do it.
People expose themselves to cold frequently without catching colds (snow sports, surfing, scuba diving). On the other hand, there are anecdotes of illness after sitting in drafts, prolonged chills caused by being in wet clothes, or working outdoors with inadequate clothing protection (hoods, hats). There’s an interesting article about the effect of chilling on the immune system.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/scientists-finally-prove-cold-wea...
Likewise birds can acclimate to cold weather, but it’s important to keep your caged birds out of drafts and extremes of air conditioning.
2
Have not had a flu or cold since I learned to live and sleep in a cooler environment. I crack the windows open during the day... and especially at night. I’ve adapted to dressing a little warmer at home.
6
Personal climate tolerance is part of it for me as well. I just fall apart in the cold, eyes and nose run when out in the cold, but many people are fine. I end up with chronic sinus problems. I’ve never had the flu, but I am under the weather all winter.
Summer and sunshine on the other hand bring good health. Unless ruined by office work in and overly air conditioned building. A problem I’ve solved by working from home.
3
We are exposed to viruses all the time but usually they don't harm us. Doctors and nurses deal with contagious people all the time but don't necessarily get sick from it. Stresses to the body can weaken the immune system and allow a virus to bloom as a cold. For several years, I had a job where I had to travel to Europe a few times a year to see clients. I would always get stressed out preparing for the trip and working extra hard to leave things in order so my colleagues could fill in for me while I was away. I often got sick a day or two before I left on the trip. Cold temperatures are another source of stress to the body and make us vulnerable.
4
Isn't the real question whether exposure to cold has an effect on the immune system. the fact of the matter is, we are inundated by pathogens continually. But the immune system if it is functioning well manages to keep them in check. For airborne disease there at special considerations of spread: droplets, etc. But exposure to potentially pathogenic bugs is not a rare event. They may even live in us or on us. It is the host's status that is usually the critical trigger.
2
Maybe after 72 years my immune system has been exposed to and protects me form the large number of viruses which can cause colds. Other than an annual flu shot I don’t do anything special to prevent getting sick. We keep our Connecticut house cool and I will occasionally run around outside without a jacket. I don’t remember the last time I had a cold. Or maybe I just lucky.
1
I believe there was some report here in the times that raising your internal body temperature by staying warmer than usual seemed to do something to help your immune system fight these illnesses.
So whenever I feel at risk, I wear more layers of clothes, both day and night, and I haven't gotten sick since then... Only once, when I didn't realize I was at risk, and wasn't dressing that way. Come to think of it, we are always at risk....
4
I remember medical professionals kept saying "cold weather can't make you sick, that's ridiculous. It's just because you're indoors."
Thanks genius, we know the cold alone can't make you sick. But it makes you more vulnerable to certain viruses like this article is saying. Also, unless you have an outdoor job, most people are indoors most of the time all year.
46
I take only cold shower which in New England means freezing. I don’t get sick very often. I think cold makes you stronger
11
Is true I take cold shower as well in Minnesota which is freezing also. But this is normal day in Russia.
1
Does this article seem contradictory? On one hand college students with feet soaked in cold water were more likely to get sick and yet the article states there is no cause and effect with cold weather and getting a cold. Huh?
73
Thanks to K.Weintraub for the direct answer to a a persistent question.
The answer has multiple layers; mainly without the virus no cold- the relationship between cold virus and symptoms is not hypothesis.
Discussing other research about the effect of cold temperatures on the immune system,on the nasal mucous and on the survival of the cold virus in cold but dry air attempts to explain why we continue to associate the lowered temperatures with the malady.
It's important to notice that the research on the immune system effects and susceptibility at lower temperatures are at the level of hypothesis-needing additional study to buttress their claims. For instance the study which tracked symptoms of college students whose feet were given a 20 minutes cold bath was done over a period of 4/5 days and included 180 participants. That's a small sample size given and its conclusion cries out for additional scientific corroboration.
1
@Mary Anne. Not at all...look at the whole,not the last piece and allow it to rule the whole. In other words, don't look for the confirmation bias.
There could be many other factors in that study and the students, that contributed to them getting sick. Like the lifestyle of a college student. Eg; poor diet, lack of sleep, living in close and often ill-kept quarters. Sharing bed partners, etc...
2
It said there are some studies showing that cold weakens the immune cells, the feet soaking study being one of them.
5
I know very well that the cold/flu is caused by a virus, but what I've noticed is that when my body is cold, it worsens the symptoms immediately. For instance, if I go to the bathroom for a couple of minutes my nose will get stuffier, I'll start sneezing a lot more, feel more feverish, etc. etc. This actually has had me wondering for a while now if being cold also makes one more susceptible to catching a cold, so this article is very interesting to me.
21
Cari408 - its more likely that being sick makes the patient notice the cold temps more. The body is working hard to fight the virus, a slight fever is already taking hold, so shivering is exacerbated, etc...cold weather makes everyone's mucous membranes work over time, hence runny noses, weepy eyes,etc...
I don't know if being cold can cause illness, but it can play havoc with relationships when some like it hot, and some don't! The one who is always overheated usually wins because they say, "add some layers!" But it doesn't always work that way.
7
Grew up and lived is South Florida most of my life. After moving to NC, my winter colds were more frequent and lasted longer. Having the heat on (which never was needed in Florida) felt like I was baking my sinuses and lungs dry. Takes a long time to decongest with low humidity and the heat on, and still cannot adjust to it well. It's like waking up with your head full of glue. So prefer to have the heat set minimally and use blankets.
3
My house on the coast of downeast Maine is seldom over 60 degrees. My bedroom is 40. I never wear anything but a light cotton shirt outside even in below zero temps. I do not get colds not flu. I am 73.
Just sayin.
44
In the coast of Maine? Hum, how many close-by neighbors do you have? How often are you in a crowded place?
If you live by yourself you will never catch the common cold. You still need the virus and you still need someone close by to bring in the virus.
13
Wow! You have evolved into a furry mammal.
10
Does anyone visit to share germs?
7
I knew it. You were wrong Grandma!
11
She was kind of right too: "Being cold might weaken the immune system, making us more vulnerable to those viruses."
1
To which the reply might be"wretched grandchild!"
This makes me wonder if there are low-level exposure symptoms people might feel in extreme cold and what those symptoms are, as distinguishable from a cold itself?
10
AFAIK the original question wasn't about the common cold - conventionally presumed to be caused by rhinovirus - but asked about getting "sick" generally.
"being cold might weaken the immune system, making us more vulnerable to those viruses"
The answer is kind of Yes.
160
Right. So there is a cause and effect.
5
No, the answer is "might" as in anything might cause anything
5
Medicine is probabilistic Bayes Hypothesizing - so Diagnoses and Causes are framed as probabilities - kinda like how you make decisions every day of your life.
3
Please remember that it's hard to actually lower your body temperature that much, so the idea of "being cold" e.g. lower temperature, having an effect on virus replication seems remote. Lot's of other factors could weaken the immune response.
34
"Please remember that it's hard to actually lower your body temperature that much"
Untrue.
You mean body core temperature, as in, essentially, internal organs. Your skin and the muscles in your 4 limbs can be significantly colder than 37.6℃ ideal for the biochemistry that kidneys, liver and brain operate at. That is because
But not much risk of muscles and skin providing a reservoir for rhinovirus replication, especially in the absence of blood circulation, right?
Funny that, although well irrigated with blood, lungs are in direct contact with ambient air. Sinuses are highly exposed as well, and less well irrigated. So is it really a coincidence infection and symptoms are felt primarily in both those places most exposed to external cold?
I don't think so.
4
Your plausible argument that a person's body temperature probably can't be lowered enough to make it easier for viruses to replicate more easily doesn't at all refute the argument that people's body temperature can be lowered enough to make them more susceptible to developing a cold. I think develop is the right word, not catch. People don't catch colds. They are exposed to viruses that can develop into a cold if their immune system fails to aggressively and effectively deal with them before they can replicate exponentially.
4
from the article: "There are also some scattered laboratory studies that suggest being cold might weaken the immune system, making us more vulnerable to those viruses"
This is what I've always assumed. That the stress placed on the body by being excessively cold can leave us more susceptible to the viruses and bacteria that surround us all the time.
205
Shivering from the cold is exhausting. So, fatigue and cold leaves us more susceptible to catching a cold. Ask any parent of sneezing, coughing young children who keep them up all night.
6
The doctors who always said "that's silly, cold doesn't make you sick, viruses do" just wanted to knock down a straw person to feel smart.
Yes, we all know viruses make you sick. But the cold makes you more susceptible to it.
25
Which brings us to homelessness, & the poor & displaced huddled for shelter in sewer pipes waiting to be installed .......
7