Why do more people get it around the time when it gets cold? I can tell from personal experience I get cold symptoms when i don’t dress properly when it’s getting colder, or if I spend too much time in a room with AC in the summer. But it’s caused by a virus. What does the temperature have to do with the cold virus?
Also, is the virus wasn’t present would it be possible for us to spend time in cold weather without getting sick?
In: Biology
It is a virus, you get it more often when its cold cause your body is normally to warm for it to survive, when its cold outside, and especially when cold air gets in your lungs, the virus survivability chances increase.
The common cold is a virus, something I read once (wish I knew the source) was ‘you could row naked across the Atlantic and not get a cold unless you were exposed to the virus’. I thought we just got them more when it’s colder weather as that’s when we’re indoors with other folk more than in the summer when we’re outside and stuff….
In the macro, big picture; people associate colds with the cold as they spend more time together indoors as the weather is more harsh outside, and people spend more time indoors in close quarters, thus making a virus easier to spread.
They is an old statistic, murders go up with ice cream sales.
This is not because of the ice cream sales, but the heat outside and more people going outside and being around each other when the weather is nice.
The outside temperature has nothing to do with the virus directly.
Colds are more prevalent in winter/colder seasons because humans don’t like the cold, stay indoors more, giving the virus more people in close proximity with each other, and it can spread better/faster that way. Cold viruses are there all year round, it’s just that we catch fewer colds in summer because humans are more outdoors in warm weather and less likely to be huddled together sharing smaller spaces/breathing all over each other.
IANAD, don’t quote me on this!
I’ve always believed that more people get it only because if the outside is cold, then everyone will just amass in indoor places as they are heated (with little to no air circulation) where the virus can spread easier than it would in an open environment.
Only getting sick in the cold is a myth. The common cold can be caught at any time of the year.
I live on an island with tropical weather around 85 degrees Fahrenheit year round. Still get sick from time to time.
The cold is a virus, there are lots of “common cold” viruses. Each one is a little variaton of the main, like everyone is little different than the others. That is why there is not a solution for the common cold, what you take when you have a cold is something to lessen the simptons and discomfort of the cold, it really does not “cure” the cold.
Now, the viruses, they support cold better than heat, so there are more viruses in the wild. Also when it’s cold outside people thend to be more inside, in close contact with one another in rooms with less opened windows (to maintain the heat) so it’s easer for the viruses to jump from one human to another.
I always thought we are more susceptible to colds when the weather is cold because our bodies are spending energy on staying warm and therefore have less energy to fight off infection. (A relative who is a doctor disagrees with me.)
You don’t get the cold from lower temperatures. This is just a myth that some people believe, but there is a hint of truth there. Our immune systems are more compromised in the cold, which makes it easier for a virus to take hold. There is also the part about people spending more time together indoors when it’s cold, which increases spread. Many times, when you’re out in the cold, you don’t actually catch a cold even though you may experience some similar symptoms. Often it’s just the immune system having weird responses to the cold temperatures which can cause inflammation in the mucus membranes, making you sniffle even though you haven’t been infected by a virus.
The reason why we have no cure for it is a mix of a lot of reasons. There are over 200 viruses that causes, what we call, the “common cold”. They are very rapidly evolving viruses, so while you might be immune from X variation of virus A, when virus A evolves in a year, you won’t be immune to variant Z. The impact of the virus is incredibly mild, unless you are especially vulnerable, so there is very little incentive to put in any work to actually come up with any vaccines or cures. There are some vaccines for certain variations, but these are a lot less common and more severe. The immune response is also incredibly subjective. Some people might just get some mild sniffles for a couple of days, while some will be locked in bed for 2 weeks with massive fevers and chills. This, coupled with the massive amount of different viruses that causes the common cold, makes it incredibly difficult to make a vaccine, treatment, or cure that will help. The same thing happened with the COVID vaccine, but the likelihood of severe reactions was a LOT higher which increased incentive to make a vaccine and specific treatment options.
For a long time, it was believed that you were more likely to get sick in the winter because people spend more time inside close together. More recently, researchers found that your nose is less effective at preventing you from getting sick when temperatures are lower (https://www.wired.com/story/why-do-you-get-sick-in-the-winter-blame-your-nose/#:~:text=A%20new%20study%20shows%20that,bind%20and%20neutralize%20invading%20germs.&text=Inside%20the%20sticky%20confines%20of,surrounds%20small%20hairs%20and%20cells).
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