Can you get a cold from being 'cold'?
Can you get a cold from being 'cold'?
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Discussion

CoolHands

Original Poster:

23,359 posts

224 months

Monday 30th December 2013
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my missus is moaning like hell cos she's got a cold, and she reckons she got it staying at my parents house which was, err, cold. Cos they're tight oaps. I thought a common cold was a virus, so nothing to do with actually being cold. But she won't have it.

Who's right? biggrin

btw I have returned from the visit with no cold smile

The_Burg

4,853 posts

243 months

Monday 30th December 2013
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My understanding was that most 'cold' illness are caused by heating and all the lurgies loving being gently warmed by modern heating. Most lurgies love the warm and are killed by the cold. One reason we have fridges and freezers.


fido

18,849 posts

284 months

Monday 30th December 2013
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I get sniffly if the temperature drops below 15^C and that often leads to a cold. People tell me the two aren't related. I think they are talking b0ll0cks(!) Else why bother having heating at all. Having said that I find going for a walk in the cold and then returning to a warm house is better than sitting indoors and suffering. In fact it's an effective remedy combined with saunas and lemon drinks.

B17NNS

18,506 posts

276 months

Monday 30th December 2013
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Germs cause 'colds'. Not cold temperatures.

Mobile Chicane

21,983 posts

241 months

Monday 30th December 2013
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Flu and cold viruses are more likely to take hold when your nose and throat membranes are dry.

That'll be most modern centrally-heated houses/offices then.

longshot

3,286 posts

227 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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goldblum

10,272 posts

196 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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No. Absolutely not. Not now, not ever. Colds, flu etc are viruses.

Vladimir

6,917 posts

187 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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I have often surfed in Winter with a minor cold and made it much worse.
Maybe a cold lowers your defenses a bit?

Driller

8,310 posts

307 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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As said before, it's a virus which causes a cold not being cold. However there is one (!) study which showed more chance a getting a cold in susceptible individuals when their feet were chilled:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/16286463/

"CONCLUSION: Acute chilling of the feet causes the onset of common cold symptoms in around 10% of subjects who are chilled. Further studies are needed to determine the relationship of symptom generation to any respiratory infection."

Obviously they need to do more studies.

Munter

31,331 posts

270 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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The_Burg said:
My understanding was that most 'cold' illness are caused by heating and all the lurgies loving being gently warmed by modern heating. Most lurgies love the warm and are killed by the cold. One reason we have fridges and freezers.
Bugs as in wasps, and other insects are killed off as the cold weather arrives. Freezing food is like hitting pause. The "bugs" in frozen food just wait, they are not killed.

grumbledoak

32,565 posts

262 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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Colds and flu are viruses, but apparently it has been proven that you are more susceptible to them if your body is fighting to stay warm. No link to hand, I'm afraid.

Driller

8,310 posts

307 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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This is what I try to explain to the French lot when they go on about "catching cold". If you're so cold that your core temperature is reduced then that could start to have an impact on your immune system as the temperature then has an effect on your cell physiology.

Otherwise just "feeling" cold is going to trigger a behavioural response (putting on a jumper , turning up the heating), the core temperature is maintained inspite of this.

BoRED S2upid

21,035 posts

269 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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There must be something in it as I haven't had a proper cold for years just before Christmas I went for a bikeride it was cold then it started raining anyway very cold and wet and I got a cold.

RegMolehusband

4,113 posts

286 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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My own personal conspiracy theory - somewhere, deep underground, there is a vault containing a cure for the common cold and flu. However it will never ever be opened as it would destroy the multi-billion dollar colds and flu "remedies" industry.

BoRED S2upid

21,035 posts

269 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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RegMolehusband said:
My own personal conspiracy theory - somewhere, deep underground, there is a vault containing a cure for the common cold and flu. However it will never ever be opened as it would destroy the multi-billion dollar colds and flu "remedies" industry.
It's a theory shared by many. Naturally scientists are concentrating on the big killers but take the MMR jab why can't they do the same for a cold?

goldblum

10,272 posts

196 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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BoRED S2upid said:
It's a theory shared by many. Naturally scientists are concentrating on the big killers but take the MMR jab why can't they do the same for a cold?
They have identified the measles, mumps and rubella viruses. There are many cold viruses, and they mutate. Given that colds are, in truth, little more than an inconvenience for most why would they bother?

bulldog5046

1,495 posts

207 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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RegMolehusband said:
My own personal conspiracy theory - somewhere, deep underground, there is a vault containing a cure for the common cold and flu. However it will never ever be opened as it would destroy the multi-billion dollar colds and flu "remedies" industry.
I share that view. Especially with charities!

The page i located earlier in the year appears to have been removed but there was a page on the Cancer Research UK website that stated they had received over £350million in donations in a single financial year. Will they 'cure' cancer? will they bks.

I suspect they are probably heavily involved in biological and chemical weapons.

turbolucie

3,473 posts

211 months

Tuesday 31st December 2013
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RegMolehusband said:
My own personal conspiracy theory - somewhere, deep underground, there is a vault containing a cure for the common cold and flu. However it will never ever be opened as it would destroy the multi-billion dollar colds and flu "remedies" industry.
If they had a 'cure', it would make a lot more money for them than the stacks of completely useless 'remedies' out there.

Fozziebear

1,840 posts

169 months

Wednesday 1st January 2014
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BoRED S2upid said:
There must be something in it as I haven't had a proper cold for years just before Christmas I went for a bikeride it was cold then it started raining anyway very cold and wet and I got a cold.
I think the body adapts to its environment and builds a resistance to illness. I'm cold every morning on the way to work, I cycle or run in, I also spend a lot of time outside in all weathers. My body hates being too warm, office heating and air con is my biggest hate.

HootersGsy

738 posts

165 months

Wednesday 1st January 2014
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Fozziebear said:
I think the body adapts to its environment and builds a resistance to illness. I'm cold every morning on the way to work, I cycle or run in, I also spend a lot of time outside in all weathers. My body hates being too warm, office heating and air con is my biggest hate.
I used to be like that, wore t-shirts in the winter, never really felt the cold and suffered maybe one cold every couple of years. Now that I've spent the last decade working in air conditioned offices I quite often feel the cold, actually wrap up warm in the winter and last year for example had about 4 separate colds.

Perhaps I should move my desk outside...? idea