More than 50 years ago, an experiment was supposed to prove that colds have something to do with cold and freezing. It failed. A low ambient and outdoor temperature does not automatically lead to a cold or an infection. Otherwise, we would all be sick all the time during a cold winter.
Pathogens not cold is the cause
There is another fact that argues against the link between the cold and the common cold. Most pathogens are quite sensitive to cold – colds are much less common in the Arctic or Antarctic than in temperate latitudes. So a cold requires a pathogen, not just cold temperatures.
Weakened immune defenses
However, colds actually occur more frequently in the cold season than in summer. Why is this?
Viruses can spread especially quickly in winter conditions for the following reasons:
- The accumulation of colds in winter is due to the increased number of germs in the rooms.
- In addition, we spend most of the time in poorly ventilated, heated rooms. The mucous membranes dry out, pathogens have so an easier game.
- Are already disease germs in the body, it comes at low outdoor temperatures rather to diseases than in the summer. Because by cold exposure, the body’s immune defenses are somewhat lowered, so that diseases can be triggered more easily by pathogens already present.
Why do we shiver from a cold?
The sensation of hypothermia typically occurs just before the development of a fever, which precedes the other symptoms of illness. When people shiver, they readily attribute a cold to the cold. However, it is just the opposite: a person who has a cold begins to shiver – so this is the result, not the cause, of the illness.
