Believers of old folk wisdom now have scientific evidence to support the idea that cold weather or drafts makes people more susceptible to the common cold.
Yale News is reporting that a team of Yale researchers have published a report that lower temperature in the nasal cavity diminishes the body's immune response, reducing the ability to ward off rhinovirus.
They found that the innate immune response to the rhinovirus is impaired at the lower body temperature compared to the core body temperature. The reason for the impairment is the lower production of Type I Interferon in the cooler nasal cavities. Type I Interferon is a signaling agent to signal the body's antiviral immune responses. With reduced immune response the rhinovirus is more able to establish a foot hold.
"The study also strongly suggested that the varying temperatures influenced the immune response, rather than the virus itself" said study senior author and Yale professor of immunobiology Akiko Iwasaki.
The study abstract (paywalled) at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explains that rhinovirus, the most frequent cause of the common cold, replicate better at the cooler temperatures (33°C) found in the nasal cavity than at lung temperature (37°C), but previously the underlying mechanisms for this difference were not known. The principal discovery is the reduced interferon signaling at cooler nasal temperatures.
One would think that the Asian tradition of wearing surgical masks when they have a cold might be more effective if worn before they catch a cold.
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Saturday January 10 2015, @04:20PM
Typical difference between the value of social ethic between Modern West and Asian cultures.
The mask is worn not for one's own health - but from a polite concern for others.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday January 10 2015, @06:31PM
We all know that. Thank you captain obvious.
That is precisely why I phrased it the way I did.
Prevention is the best cure.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by gumpish on Sunday January 11 2015, @05:59AM
"One would think that the Asian tradition of wearing surgical masks when they have a cold might be more effective if worn before they catch a cold."
Sooooo you're imagining everyone in public wearing surgical masks at all times? Seems a bit silly.
Wearing hazmat suits at all times would also be more effective at preventing the spread of colds.
At least sick Asians wearing masks are doing more to prevent the spread of disease than contagious Westerners who don't think twice about riding mass transit while coughing and sneezing.
And I can assure you that those surgical masks are far more effective at keeping microbes IN (preventing aerosol projection) than they are at keeping microbes OUT (preventing inhalation of some else's spray), after all, that's what they're designed for - preventing surgeons from getting germs on their patients.
(Score: 2) by buswolley on Saturday January 10 2015, @06:50PM
Typical difference my ass.
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/16/china-spitting-and-global-tourism/?_r=0 [nytimes.com]
Every culture has their ups and down
subicular junctures
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Saturday January 10 2015, @07:35PM
OK. Japan and Korea.
There is a difference between socially sanctioned etiquette and individual conduct.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 10 2015, @09:05PM
ok, type in Japanese spit and tell me you don't see a bunch of porn links to Japanese Spit Swapping
?
(Score: 0) by t-3 on Saturday January 10 2015, @05:14PM
Doesn't cold lower the immune response of your entire body? I could have sworn that this is something I learned in grade school??? Did anyone really think that being cold wouldn't make you more likely to get sick?
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Saturday January 10 2015, @05:45PM
Well, I for one thought that I cannot get sick after I'm dead. ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Sunday January 11 2015, @06:24PM
Ah, but one could consider decomposition an extremely severe infection - just one you're (presumably) no longer around to mind.
(Score: 2) by digitalaudiorock on Saturday January 10 2015, @06:34PM
If the cold weather was that significant a factor in getting sick, I'd expect there to be significant statistics showing more illness in colder climates. I could be wrong, but I don't think any such statistics exist. The article seems to indicate that the jury's not out the topic, but I've personally never believed the cold to be a significant factor. I still tend to believe that the "cold season" is more about kids going back to school and spreading illnesses around, people spending more time indoors in close proximity etc.
(Score: 2) by gringer on Saturday January 10 2015, @07:26PM
I still tend to believe that the "cold season" is more about kids going back to school and spreading illnesses around, people spending more time indoors in close proximity etc.
Except it happens in New Zealand as well, where we have winter in the middle of the year with almost no winter holidays.
Ask me about Sequencing DNA in front of Linus Torvalds [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by buswolley on Saturday January 10 2015, @06:57PM
I do not know anything,
but I've been harboring a hypothesis that the common cold and humans have evolved symbiotically. Our immune systems are very susceptible to the cold, but the cold doesn't kill us.
Is it possible that the common cold virus benefits us?
We provide a home and they provide, what? Can viruses carry information about other viruses in the population maybe? is that possible?
Its just a curious idea. I dont know anything.
subicular junctures
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday January 10 2015, @07:40PM
Mod parent Interesting. Its entirely possible that this is the original vaccination system for maintaining herd immunity to a bunch of diseases.
Letting your kids play in the dirt now and then doesn't seem to kill them either.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Joe on Saturday January 10 2015, @08:43PM
I don't think that it is very likely that rhinoviruses benefit humans. Human rhinoviruses are too diverse to provide protection against other rhinoviruses (which is why you don't just get the cold once and have lifelong immunity) and it is unlikely that responses against rhinovirus antigens would provide cross-protection to other pathogens.
Viruses can carry information from other viruses through sloppy replication (recombination or packaging segments) or even whole viruses (Sputnik virophage can be packaged inside of Mamavirus).
Lack of knowledge in a field can sometimes be an asset. Outsiders can question basic assumptions that are "known" to be true or bring new insight to stale ideas.
- Joe
Sputnik virophage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_virophage [wikipedia.org]
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18690211 [nih.gov]
(Score: 2) by buswolley on Saturday January 10 2015, @09:09PM
Thanks for the response.
Are rhinoviruses particularly 'diverse' because they are particularly good at "carrying information from other viruses through sloppy replication"? If so, then my hpothesis migh have some life in it ;)
subicular junctures
(Score: 2) by Joe on Saturday January 10 2015, @09:44PM
If you stick with the technical definition of symbiotic (which includes parasitism), then I would say that your hypothesis is 100% correct due to the diversity and specificity of human rhinoviruses.
Rhinoviruses are positive RNA viruses, so they have a high mutation rate and can undergo recombination readily. This means that they change rapidly, which makes it difficult for the immune system to recognize the virus. Furthermore, the conserved parts of the virus that don't change as much are inaccessible to antibodies. All this adds up to a large family (~100 serotypes) that do the same things (conserved function) but look very different on the superficial level (which is what antibodies recognize).
- Joe
(Score: 1) by chucky on Saturday January 10 2015, @09:40PM
There's a whole science around viruses killing bacteria, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage [wikipedia.org]. The virus infects and kills the bacteria, then you treat the virus infection, which is sometimes much easier + no antibiotics involved.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Sunday January 11 2015, @08:55PM
A convenient excuse take a paid day or two off from work?
(Score: 2) by buswolley on Monday January 12 2015, @01:06AM
lol
subicular junctures
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 10 2015, @08:12PM
http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/01/09/2015/the-cold-virus-seeks-safety-in-the-nose.html [sciencefriday.com]
(Score: 1) by JohnnyComputer on Saturday January 10 2015, @09:20PM
37C is no not cold weather, folks.
But this research does suggest that keeping that nose warmer than it is ordinarily inclined to become might be effective.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday January 11 2015, @12:15AM
Nor is 33C, but cold weather cools the nasal passages to 33C in spite of a higher core temperature.
(Score: 1) by Rich on Sunday January 11 2015, @03:21AM
Although "Schlafmütze" (lit. "sleeping cap", meaning "sleepy head") is an insult in German, I started wearing one a couple of years ago, whenever I feel that my immune response is down. Prior to that, I would usually come down once a year with a bad sinusitis which knocked me out for half a week to a week; these days, if it's not avoided completely, it's at most three days of not feeling well. For my personal anectodal evidence, keeping the head cavities warm works wonders.
In acute cases I additionally have some Crataegus based tea, once recommended to me by my GP, which raises the body temperature in general and which, subjectively, has a good effect too. None of the other "household" remedies suggested and tried had any effect that I noticed. Note that my colds have for the very largest parts been bacterial and not, as described in the paper, viral. As far as I am concerned, the warmer head cavities seem to provide generally enhanced immune response.