Medical health experts give hard facts on cold and illness
Myths debunked: You can take that shower
It has likely happened to you or someone you know.
You head to take a shower and here comes a family member with a stern warning about showers, cold weather and how the two don’t mix. “You know, you shouldn’t shower and then leave the house,” they say. “You’ll get sick.”
Dr. Jeffrey Linder is a professor, a primary care physician at Northwestern Medicine and chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at Northwestern University. He said the reason for so many cold weather claims may be due to factors such as proximity.
“We are more susceptible to bugs like the flu because of low humidity and we’re all together inside more,” he said. “These things are associated so when it gets cold, we do get sick more often but it’s actually not directly the cold itself. It’s sort of an indirect cause of us getting sick more.”
We wanted to find out the truth about cold weather beliefs, so we talked to Linder, as well as Dr. Terry Chiganos, an emergency medicine physician at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Illinois. We also ran some of these beliefs by Dr. Robert Lichfield, a family practice specialist at Providence Health & Services in Spokane, Washington.
Lichfield: “The short answer is no. The actual temperature in the air actually doesn’t make us more or less likely to get sick directly. What tends to happen is we are more likely to be inside during the winter months when it’s cold and we’re therefore more likely to contract viral illnesses from the other folks that are around us.
Linder: “I actually bike to work yearround in Chicago. Layers, particularly something that’s insulating and can trap warm air near your body that’s a nice warm fabric or wool, is good. An outer layer that’s windproof and waterproof will help you keep warm.”
Lichfield: “Alcohol dulls some of our sensations and actually can be pretty dangerous in the wintertime. If we get too much to drink, it dulls our perception of cold and of pain.”
Chiganos: “Sunscreen is always a must, regardless of the season.”
Lichfield: “That’s false. Our heads do have a really, really rich blood supply, so a lot of heat is moving through our brain and our scalp and the muscles around our scalp.
“On top of that, our head has way more nerve endings than some of the other parts of our body. The cold exposure, we feel it immediately. The reality of heat loss is our body loses heat roughly equally throughout most of its surface area. The number is actually more like 10%. We lose about 10% of our heat through our head and that’s actually just because our head is roughly 10% of our surface area.”
Lichfield: “That’s only true in a couple situations. It’s best to avoid eating snow, if possible. The risk of eating the snow is that it will very quickly lower your core body temperature. It’s not necessarily comfortable but you can go without water for several days and usually do OK as far as surviving.”
Linder: “Definitely not true. You can very much get dehydrated in cold weather. In fact, because the air is usually so dry when it’s cold, you have to be careful to not get dehydrated when it’s cold out. If you’re doing stuff that’s over an hour, you’re probably going to be sweating and/or breathing off enough fluid that you do need to be thinking about drinking fluid and keeping yourself hydrated.”
Lichfield: “It’s not dangerous other than the ice. The only thing that is uniquely dangerous about exercising in the cold weather is icy surfaces. Falls are terribly dangerous. Running or biking on icy roads is definitely dangerous. I typically encourage folks not to bike on icy roads. If they’re going to walk or run, it’s best to have some sort of traction.”