The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Colds from the cold?
Doctors say no, but sheltering with others all winter could spread germs
It is an age-old question: Are people more likely to get sick when it’s cold outside?
With the state in the grips of flu season and a cold snap, medical experts are somewhat mixed on the answer. Most agree there is a relationship between frigid weather and human vulnerability to illness, but are unclear about how exactly intense that association is.
“It seems like people get sick a lot more in winter, but it’s a little bit of a stretch to say the cold has a major impact on the immune system,” said Dr. David Marks, an internist with Griffin Faculty Physicians, a multispecialty medical group affiliated with Griffin Hospital in Derby.
The relationship between the cold weather and the common cold seems particularly pertinent, since the state is in the thick of flu season, with the contagious respiratory illness widespread in the state. There have been concerns that the United States will have a particularly bad flu season, based on what’s been happening in the Southern Hemisphere, which gets the flu first. Australia in particular has had its worst flu season since 2009.
Meanwhile, the state has been experiencing a cold snap, which does not seem likely to let up until Monday or Tuesday.
Cold nose theory
Though he does not believe there is a strong link between chilly temperatures and susceptibility to illness, Marks conceded that there is a relationship between the two.
For one thing, people are more likely
to be trapped indoors when it’s cold out, and in closer contact with other people, and their germs. This can speed the spread of illness, Marks said.
Cold also puts stress on the body, and stress has been shown to lower immunity, said Dr. Goran Miljkovic, infectious disease specialist at Bridgeport Hospital.
“It hasn’t been proven that if you are in the cold weather, you’re at higher risk for getting sick, but it will add to your stress overall,” Miljkovic said. “And any form of stress to the body would lower the ability to fight infection.”
Some experts also said that the temperature inside the nose — which is typically lower in the colder months — also has a link to immune response.
In 2015, researchers from Yale University released a study showing that the common cold virus reproduced more quickly in the nasal cavity, which is typically cooler than the rest of the body.
The researchers examined cells taken from the airways of mice, comparing the immune response to the common cold virus when cells were incubated at the core body temperature of 37 degrees Celsius, and when the cells were at a slightly cooler 33 degrees. Scientists found that the immune system didn’t respond as well to the virus in colder temperatures.
Proboscis shield
For some, this research helped support the idea that the body’s immune response is weaker in cold weather.
Dr. Cornelius Ferreira, senior medical director of primary care at the Western Connecticut Medical Group in Brookfield, echoed the idea of a relationship between the temperature in the nasal cavity and the body’s susceptibility to colds.
He even suggested that protecting the proboscis can help shield people from illness.
“Wrapping a scarf around your head could help keep mucous membranes warm” and help prevent illness, Ferreira said.
His other tips for keeping health include getting lots of Vitamin C, washing hands and, of course, getting the flu shot.
“It’s not too late,” he said.