Can You Catch a Cold From Not Wearing a Coat
This wintertime, in that location's a good chance that people volition be spending more time than ever outdoors, given restrictions on indoor dining and gatherings related to COVID-nineteen.
And, for much of the country, that means a lot of time spent out in the cold. That presents a tricky question: Won't that become usa ill? The answer is no. Information technology'southward an sometime wives' tale that you'll catch a cold if you get exterior in the cold without a coat or lid. That said, in that location is a link between cold conditions and viruses.
"We call it cold and flu flavor for good reason," said Dr. Benjamin Singer, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. "Rhinoviruses, which are one of the main causes of the common common cold, spike in late fall and early winter, and influenza historically spikes in mid-to-late winter — February, early March."
Just it'southward not the cold itself to blame — not exactly, anyway.
"Respiratory viruses tend to spread much faster during the wintertime months, and a lot of information technology has to do not with the temperature, just with people being indoors and being in situations that are more than conducive to the spread of the virus," said Dr. Daniel Griffin, an infectious disease expert for ProHEALTH in New York. "It'southward actually the shut quarters."
The holidays are a big gene: Griffin said spikes in viruses after Thanksgiving and Christmas are so predictable that doctors create their staffing schedules accordingly. And if they don't run across a fasten in influenza cases then, they await 1 to happen soon subsequently jump suspension in March and Apr, he said.
In that location may be other reasons people tend to go sicker when it'south cold outside, though.
"We know the ultraviolet of the sun can help kill viruses, but in the winter, the days are shorter, the lord's day is not every bit high in the sky, so we have less of that," Griffin said.
People also tend to go less vitamin D in the winter, which affects amnesty.
"We say, 'Oh, information technology doesn't accept that much sunlight to get enough vitamin D' — simply xv minutes, completely naked, at the equator," Griffin said. "Nobody does that! When we go outside, we wear dress, hats, sunscreen that blocks the ultraviolet that allows us to make vitamin D."
He pointed out that many Americans are vitamin D deficient, and while people should talk to their doctor almost it, in general it'south not a bad idea to take vitamin D supplements during the colder months.
The dryer air in the winter may be a problem, too. Inquiry has shown that drops in humidity often precede flu outbreaks, co-ordinate to the National Institutes of Wellness.
That said, while it's common to get a runny nose when you're out in the cold, that doesn't necessarily mean you're getting sick.
"It is absolutely true that exposure to cold air makes your nose run, but that'due south a normal reaction that our upper airway and the mucosal membranes in our nose take to cold weather," Singer said. "That's not the same thing equally getting a viral infection. And in one case y'all get dorsum into a warm and dry environment, that should go abroad."
While there's a known seasonality for the common common cold and the influenza virus, it's non yet clear how winter will touch COVID-nineteen, since the virus is relatively new and there isn't enough information.
That's why it's even more important that people go along to take precautions, experts say.
"Nosotros haven't seen much flu this year, and I remember function of that is that people did a real good job of getting their flu vaccines this year, simply I also remember people learned a lot well-nigh how to keep themselves safe, and hopefully that will continue," Griffin said.
Source: https://www.today.com/health/can-you-catch-cold-being-cold-t205092
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