What is the causality between cold temperatures and getting sick?
In: Biology
If you’re asking about the cold, there is no evidence to support the claim that cold weather gives you the cold. The reason more people get sick in cold temperature is because most bacteria live longer in cold than in heat.
Your system has to use resources to stay warm causing the body to sacrifice infection fighting ability
People get sick all the time, even when it’s warm, but they may not notice it.
When it’s colder, the air is dryer, and your body is spending more resources on being warm than fighting infection. So, it’s more likely you’ll show more symptoms when it’s cold.
Cold environment caused organism metabolism to slow down. Theoretically, cold environment would cause slower infection. Maybe because your metabolism slowed down too, you felt more tired and felt the fatigue and ” sickness “. But it should not cause a sickness by infection unless the sickness is caused by the cold itself
The big one with cold temperature and being sick is what you do with your day. When it’s warm you have a BBQ or go for a hike, or the beach, etc, they are all outside, and usually fairly socially distantanced.
When it’s cold you watch TV, play video games, or throw an indoor party, where you’re usually in a room with terrible ventilation and packed so close to each other you are literally touching your guests.
Social distancing matters a lot for disease transmission, and it’s super easy to do on a nice day outside and super hard on a cold day inside.
As edman007 pointed out; it is due to the proximity of other people, rather than an effect of the temperature on the body. In worse weather, more people use public transport more and spend time in shopping Malls for example. Socialising would also tend to be indoors.
Also, cold weather irritates the mucus membranes, giving us the typical ‘sniffy’ nose when out in the cold.
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