Why do people say it’s easier to get sick in the cold, or to put on a jacket to avoid catching a cold? Is this true?
In: Biology
This belief mostly just comes from the fact that the cold can lower your immune system and make it more susceptible to illness if you get to cold, so no you won’t specifically catch a cold just from being outside when it’s cold but you do stand a higher chance of catching diseases if you stay out long enough.
Colds are due to a virus not because of the temperature. It’s a commonly believed myth that you can get a disease just from the cold air. You can get hypothermia and be more susceptible to bacteria or a virus perhaps but the virus has to be present before you can catch it.
It may have more to do with drier air, less humidity, making ones sinuses more vulnerable to catching a viral particle or germs.
It’s mostly a myth. As u/Kokkelim0nke said, people get colds more often when it’s cold out because they stay inside squished together with other people. Back before we fully understood what caused diseases, that lead to people associating the cold with getting sick, so the myth appeared that getting cold *makes* you sick.
Not exactly. From what I know, it’s less likely to get a cold from being outside during the winter. Less people, more space, less chance for the common cold to spread. But being in low temperature can temporarily impair your immune system, so if you do encounter the common cold, you’ll most likely get sick. From what I’ve read (don’t remember source or whether it was reliable), the reason people get colds during the winter is because they stay more inside, and therefore they are closer to each other than if they are outside.
You get sick for several reasons:
1. Bacteria
2. Viruses
3. Things that go wrong with your body (cancers, immune disorders, diabetes, etc)
4. Things that impair your bodies ability to keep itself healthy (too hot, too cold, dehydration, etc).
You cannot get a virus or bacteria because you are cold. If anything, getting a virus or bacteria is less likely. You could get hypothermia – one of #4 above. Once you have hypothermia, that might impact your immune system, making you more vulnerable to a virus or bacteria.
The only link is that when you are cold your nose gets cold, and that is a better chance for the virus to start make you sick.
100% of the time you get the cold because you get the virus. Sometimes you get a stronger cold because you are also cold.
Old wives tale, there’s men who cut holes in the ice and go for a swim with no clothes excepts maybe underwear on. They don’t catch colds afterwards either.
Watch a [woman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEDmZlVCCzc) do it
You catch colds like any other virus, it attacks you when your immune system is weakened.
Now if your question is: does the cold lower your immune system, the answer would be yes.
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