Does the cold give you a cold?

[two fingers]

Originally Posted by aborgman

It probably brings out cold LIKE symptoms, as opposed to cold symptoms.

That right there.







And stuff.

You (OP) seem hell bent on having caught A COLD from being in THE COLD. It just doesn't happen. There are literally DOZENS of contributing factors during colder weather that make viruses more common during those times. Yes, there are more colds during colder weather because of those contributing factors. Feel better? But I would argue that respiratory irritation is what you are dealing with rather than an actual cold. They present themselves much in the same way. But, no, you don't get a cold from being exposed to lower temperatures. You get cold-like symptoms. Big difference. You haven't contracted a virus.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by FilterFunk

Great info in this thread, but I'm still wondering why being out in the cold tends to bring out cold symptoms in me, when no other variable seems to do it.

I don't know, I wonder if it's partially psychosomatic, you maybe aren't as aware of cold symptoms during the summer, certainly seen (and had) plenty of cold symptoms throughout the year, not just during winter.

Originally Posted by FilterFunk

Okay, I'm pretty sure we all know that cold weather doesn't make a cold virus appear. But here's an interesting quote:

"Seasonal changes in relative humidity also may affect the occurrence of colds. The most common cold-causing viruses survive better when humidity is low—the colder months of the year. Cold weather also may make the inside lining of your nose drier and more vulnerable to viral infection."

We have very low summer humidity here in Sacramento, CA, and I spend a good amount of time inside with kids all year, yet I never catch cold in summer.

We get it - cold weather doesn't cause colds. But it's clear to me that certain weather conditions help open the door for the virus to take hold.

Which I don't think we ever said it didn't. As had been said earlier, changes in weather change our habits and sure, there'll be some impact on your body, we all have different tolerable ranges.

Originally Posted by FilterFunk

"Research by Cardiff University’s Common Cold Centre in Wales has proven that a drop in body temperature can cause a dormant cold virus to develop. If a person becomes chilled, for example by wearing damp clothes in cold weather, the blood vessels in the nose become constricted. When this occurs, the warm blood is closed off, no longer supplying the infection-fighting white cells."

That's making the already present infection worse, though the majority of the symptoms we face when we have a cold, are actually caused the immune response to the infection, not the infection itself.

It usually takes quite a bit to become chilled, your internal body temperature doesn't change much, neither does the blood supply around the body.

[96tbird]

Long time to become chilled? You just come here to Canada right now. -16c now,last week in the morning we hit -33c at 7 am. Scotland. Ye know not what cold is. Come visit ill have a deoch an doris waitin' fer ye. Then yer a'richt, ye ken.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

If you are getting chilled through, then you probably aren't wearing enough and catching a cold is going to be the least of your worries!

Never had -30-odd, but we dropped below -20C last winter (or the winter before).

[FilterFunk]

Originally Posted by i_got_a_mohawk

Which I don't think we ever said it didn't. As had been said earlier, changes in weather change our habits and sure, there'll be some impact on your body, we all have different tolerable ranges.

Gotcha. I know that nothing's universal, but I happen to think that cold weather doesn't just change our habits, but contributes to opening the door for the virus to become more active in many cases. The Cardiff study sounds about right to me. Way back in the day, people obviously didn't have our access to information and technology, but many of the conclusions they reached weren't completely wrong.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Well, I'd say the conclusions could be wrong but the resulting actions were often right (the relationship between foul smelling waste and infection for instance).

I'm actually trying to find the originally published material from the study in Cardif, will have a look when I get back from work.