Does getting wet or catching cold actually increase the chance of coming down with flu, colds, pneumonia etc?
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Yes and no.
Keep in mind most of those are caused by virus or bacterial infections. So if we could put a person in a lab environment that we know is “clean” and none of those viruses/bacteria are in it, they wouldn’t get sick with those illnesses period no matter what we did to them.
In the real world, there’s probably almost always SOMETHING you’ve been exposed to that could make you sick. If your body is healthy, it can fight off a lot of that. When you’re wet or cold, your body has to work harder at keeping its temperature regulated. When it’s working harder at something, it can’t be working as hard at fighting off infections.
So you asked the question right: being in unideal conditions like that means you are *more likely* to get sick. But it’s not a guarantee, and you don’t catch a cold just from *being* cold. It’s from being exposed to a virus *and* your body’s immune system being overwhelmed.
So put another way: a kid going to school is way more likely to be impacted by being too cold than a mountain hermit going to chop wood, because the kid’s extremely likely to be exposed to someone carrying something that can infect them where our mountain hermit’s more in danger of being exposed to bears.
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