If You Get Cold, You'll Get Sick

[Wrong Turn]

Some expats where I live say that if you get really cold (but are dry - no rain) you'll likely get sick.

I thought this was a myth. Is it a myth?

Also, if you go outside with your hair wet, or if you get wet from rain in the cold (colder than normal) do you have a likelihood of getting sick?

TIA.

[canuckamuck]

Define sick:

One can get hypothermia from being cold, but the cure for that is getting warm.

Colds and viruses come from various forms of contact with other people.

If being cold made you sick then us Canadians would have all died of years ago. In fact i am quite sure cold temperatures inhibit the spread of disease.

The one link I can imagine between cold and getting sick is if you get so cold your immunity is weakened. I think you would have to be pretty cold for quite a while, for that to happen.

[Jingthing]

Canadians are used to the cold and know how to take of themselves to deal with it, so I don't think that answers the question. Its a good question.

[slapout]

To put this question into perspective. Will you get sick if you get too hot? Both extremes can cause body malfunction, but I am not aware of either causing a disease/sickness. I am not a doctor but have worked and lived in both extremes and the only effect I have noticed was discomfort.

[richard_smith237]

The Cold is a virus... it needs to be present in the air to catch it. So regardless of the temperature if there is no cold virus present you will not catch a cold.

There maybe optimum environmental conditions for the survival of airborne viruses.

[Jingthing]

It is fact that airborne viruses spread more easily during cold winter seasons.

[phetaroi]

I can only speak for myself. If I get really chilled (for example sitting in a draft of too cold air conditioning), tomorrow morning I'll have a sore throat.

My guess is that it's from the bacteria and viruses that are always in your body. If your resistance is lowered by any number of reasons, your natural defenses are less able to fight off the bad boys.

[Thongkorn]

If your Body's core temperature gets to Hot you will get cold, Or seem to get cold, Your body will start to expire(Sweat) to try to cool you down. In some extreme cases they have to put you in a bath of ice to get your temperature down or you will die of heat exhaustion.

[PeaceBlondie]

If you spend all day outside at 15 degrees C, lightly clothed, you won't get a virus or infection. Thai folk lore says you'll get sick. It's not true.

[gotlost]

An average of -25C to -84C for 18 months. No ruins ,no drips, no eras. Cold as ---- but not sick.

[PoorSucker]

The veins in the nose contract when cold so virus filtering in the nose is less.

[hhgz]

"ome expats where I live say that if you get really cold (but are dry - no rain) you'll likely get sick. I thought this was a myth. Is it a myth? Also, if you go outside with your hair wet, or if you get wet from rain in the cold (colder than normal) do you have a likelihood of getting sick?"

How old are you? It does not matter. Illness is caused by contagions (bacteria/virus), not by wet hair.

[Neeranam]

In Bangkok, you can get sick by getting rain on your head - that's why people wear plastic bags on their heads and students put their books on their heads. Something to do with the bacteria being blown up by the wind before the rain starts which then gets mixed up with the rain.

[Wrong Turn]

Thanks for the replies.

I suppose - guess - that the answer is no.

[marshbags]

Somone told me the other day his doctor always recommended swallowing the stuff that comes with a runny nose.

He said it contains preventative bacteria that stops chest infections ??????

I,d commented that it doesn,t help to swallow the flem or the muscus and I always make sure were possible not to do this.

Have I been following the wrong advice all these years?

Either way I will do as I,ve always done...blow my nose and cough up any flem, green / brown yucky stuff ect. ect.

I,ve never heard of this before, has anyone else

marshbags

[Wrong Turn]

Honestly folks,

My question in the OP was serious. I believe I've heard that it was a myth - that if you get cold or go outside in the cold for a long time you'll get sick - or be more susceptible to getting sick.

This is, a myth, correct?

[dumball]

Wrong Turn' date='2010-01-03 21:10:56' post='3242101']

Honestly folks,

My question in the OP was serious. I believe I've heard that it was a myth - that if you get cold or go outside in the cold for a long time you'll get sick - or be more susceptible to getting sick.

This is, a myth, correct?

Yes , it is a myth , a virus or bacteria needs to be present before you get sick , coughers and sneezers who do not cover their mouths spread more germs than the cold ever will , when will Thai catch onto this fact ?

[PeaceBlondie]

Agreed. Cool temperatures or wet hair does not cause disease. Otherwise rain, swimming, and cold showers would always cause sickness.

[Robroy]

What about the 'change of weather makes you sick' theory, held by most Southeast Asians?

Is there any science on that one?

[inquisitive]

Honestly folks,

My question in the OP was serious. I believe I've heard that it was a myth - that if you get cold or go outside in the cold for a long time you'll get sick - or be more susceptible to getting sick.

This is, a myth, correct?

I apologize for jumping into the middle of this discussion without first reading all the comments already posted, but I only have a minute or two left before I must leave, so ...

I believe this is a question which the scientific and medical communities dispensed with quite a long time ago - although Lord knows both of those communities reverse themselves every so many years. I can tell you that at NYU Medical School in 1972 it was taught that you could NOT catch a cold by becoming cold. There was nothing wishy washy about their declaration. The issue, they said, had already been beaten to death. Many studies were provided as proof, including one I remember where they had prisoners constantly wear wet socks just to see if it increased their susceptibility. (The researcher must have been so harrangued by his mother as a child for getting his feet wet that the first thing he did when he got his MD was to hire prisoners to prove she was wrong! Sheesh!)

It is true that anything that stresses the body makes the immune system more susceptible to attack. This includes getting drunk, by the way. Experiments have shown that too much alcohol increases the chance that you will fall prey. Then again, is it possible to have too much alcohol? Perhaps this is an area where board member could assist the medical community with some current research?

Other stressors are not enough sleep and, well, too much stress, just to name two.

Bottom line: worrying about getting sick from catching a chill can probably get you sick faster than the chill itself.

Now that's comforting, isn't it?

[Dustybin]

Well all I can say is that I am definately healthier in the warm climates than the cold climates.

Less coughs, colds and chest infections.

And if i do pick something up its easier to shift in the warm than in the cold.

After all , in the cold your lungs and airways freeze from the inside.