SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The flu season arrives so predictably, and affects so many of us, that it's hard to believe that scientists have had very little idea why cold weather helps germs to spread.
...
the answer may have been lying invisible in the air that we breathe. Thanks to the laws of thermodynamics, cold air can carry less water vapour before it reaches the "dew point" and falls as rain. So while the weather outside may seem wetter, the air itself is drier as it loses the moisture. And a steady stream of research over the past few years has shown that these dry conditions seem to offer the perfect environment for the flu virus to flourish.
...
That's counter-intuitive – we normally think that the damp makes us ill, rather than protects us from disease. But to understand why, you need to grasp the peculiar dynamics of our coughs and sneezes. Any time we splutter with a cold, we expel a mist of particles from our nose and mouths. In moist air, these particles may remain relatively large, and drop to the floor. But in dry air, they break up into smaller pieces – eventually becoming so small that they can stay aloft for hours or days. (It's a bit like the mist you get when you turn a hose pipe to its finest spray.) The result is that in winter, you are breathing a cocktail of dead cells, mucus and viruses from anyone and everyone who has visited the room recently.What's more, water vapour in the air seems to be toxic to the virus itself. Perhaps by changing the acidity or salt concentration in the packet of mucus, moist air may deform the virus's surface, meaning that it loses the weaponry that normally allows us to attack our cells. In contrast, viruses in drier air can float around and stay active for hours – until it is inhaled or ingested, and can lodge in the cells in your throat.
(Score: 2) by moondrake on Wednesday October 21 2015, @09:20AM
This story pops up every couple of years. It has actually been known for quite a while that dry air helps distribute the virus, but it cannot be the only explanation. For example [scienceblogs.com], in the tropics, the flu most often occurs during the rainy season, which (obviously) not when the air (absolute or relative) is dry. This had led some (e.g. in the comment section of the blog I linked to) to speculate that its related to vitamin D deficiency, but I do not think there is any convincing evidence for that yet.
(Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Saturday October 24 2015, @04:31AM
Monsoon season is (much) colder than usual (and yes darker too).
I think the sniffles comes before actually getting a cold, to avoid getting a runny nose (or anything close to it) it's usually much more important to keep your feet warm (real warm) and also dry (sweat is not a problem as long as it stays hot) this again ties in with the moonsoon thing where it's not too uncommon to get your shoes and socks soaked and cold. Add air conditioning (at work will be worse in this case since you usually don't have any dry socks and shoes to change into) for a perfect set-up for getting some really nasty colds.
In much colder climates I can almost always avoid sweaters as long as I have some really warm footwear like full and thick indoors felt shoes (not plain slippers, that's nowhere warm enough). It's only if it's getting truly cold that I have to worry about adding more clothes (doesn't have to be a sweater though, anything that brings heat to your shoulders and back).
Temperature regulation (body, not air or environment) is much more sensitive and important than people realize. If one tunes that right the body has to do a lot less work to try to stay healthy (if you're not warm enough the body is too busy trying to make up for it and if one is sitting down at a desk it never manages).
Other than that washing your hands using plain hard soap each time you've been outside and every time you've been to the toilet helps a lot and has been documented to work (cuts flu cases by two thirds if I remember correctly).
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))