True or false: the cold weather can't make you sick

I've been told by doctors, neither being cold nor hot can make you sick. They claim there are studies to prove it, but I don't believe it. Common sense says if your body has to expend extra energy regulating your body temperature, there might be consequences. I think either can weaken your immune system. You obviously need something to attack your body first, but this presence might not otherwise be as noticeable or severe.

Opinion: it might make you "sick" mentally or emotionally if you get too dang much of it. It can certainly injure you physically. I don't know of any physical illnesses that it can give to you, but I believe it can lower your resistance to illnesses that your body would otherwise ward off.

I interpret that as a "true" -- the cold weather does not "make" you sick.

If you mean can you catch a cold from the cold? No, you can't. Despite what my Mom continues to tell me.

Does hypothermia count as sick? If so, then I would say, yes, it can.

Quote: onenickelmiracle

I've been told by doctors, neither being cold nor hot can make you sick.

They keep it fairly cold in the cardiac wards while the patients recover. Now being flu season, we should consider the physiological aspects of that. When we are inside out of the sun with other persons. Low vitamin D. As well, the flu likes the winter because it's drier, and we have less active mucous in our noses, etc. And so on.

Pathogens:
You encounter them: doorknobs, shopping carts, brats, etc.
In Winter you are more likely to be indoors and rebreathing them due to less ventilation,

Quacks say 'commensal' what they mean is you already got pathogens, if they are given opportunities they will take advantage of them. So any dietary insult or any temperature insult can put a strain on the "balance".

A poor diet allows pathogens to mutate and gain strength. Winter diets can be poor as regards sunlight and fresh vegetables so keep up the leafy greens and eat mushrooms for vitamin D. Keep up with parsley for its vanadium content to keep blood sugar levels in range, high sugar levels interfere with the immune system.

You burn more calories keeping warm than cooling off but that means its a greater strain on the immune system too,

Quote: rsactuary

If you mean can you catch a cold from the cold? No, you can't. Despite what my Mom continues to tell me.

Does hypothermia count as sick? If so, then I would say, yes, it can.

I think it's true cold exposure is underestimated. Someone might only think about playing a slot machine for 3 hours at 0° underdressed, but not count the 2 hours a day they were exposed. Second problem, a cold is a vague term. A cold could be a cold, or it could be a sinus infection, any other infection, or a combination. Obviously a cold cannot infect you, but it can let the door open. The studies tell a partial truth and people use them as absolute truths.
Almost seems like the rumors casinos rip off slot customers because "it's cheaper paying the fines, read it in the newspaper", but nobody has ever seen the newspapers when it comes down to proving it. Has anyone actually ever seen these studies in depth, let alone at all, or was it just some dateline bs news people believed or the Mandela effect.

Added: It's possible the times we notice the cold in an extreme way, we're already sick and don't know it yet. If you have a small fever, a few hours underdressed in 0° may really feel even colder than reality. Then you remember suffering, and be on your assumed death bed 12-48 hours later. 103-4° fevers at night, no fun, death seems like bliss.

I've been thinking of this topic for years.

My mom always said "wear a jacket or you'll catch a cold."

I asked my kid's pediatrician about this, and she said that she always has arguments with HER mom about this issue—that you can't catch a cold from being out in cold weather. (And SHE'S a doctor!)

What IS possible—even probable, I think—is that being out in cold weather weakens your immune system, so when you DO contract germs or viruses from touching doorknobs, touchscreens, et al, your body can't defend itself as well.

However, moms telling you to wear a jacket does have a beneficial effect. Long ago, I went to a lighting ceremony for a string of lights that was installed around a lake. It was nice and warm during the daytime, so I didn't bring a jacket. But when the sun had set, temperature had dropped precipitously, and by the time the ceremony started, I was nearly shivering! I should have listened to my mom!

I think you answered your own question:

Quote: onenickelmiracle

... I think either can weaken your immune system. You obviously need something to attack your body first ....

Cold, on its own, and excluding hypothermia, can’t make you sick.

But it CAN make it easier for you to catch something.

The "cold" has to come from somewhere, ie. someone who has the pathogen. As far as humans are concerned, cold weather drives people closer together and greatly increases the chance of being infected (or the term I prefer: inoculated). It doesn't matter if you are tired or immune system is warn down, healthy people can lose the fight against any kind of germ too. You can't get "a cold" unless you are exposed to a living pathogen. <insert argument here about Viruses not being 'alive' so they can hang around for a very long time>. Don't fear the cold, fear other people and crowded, popular spaces. A warm tavern on a cold winter's night (BAD), a packed bus or train in the middle of the summer (BAD), and that touch screen on your favorite Ultimate X game that never gets disinfected... (Super BAD). Having said that, fighting the occasional "cold" is better than never getting sick. Washing your hands and not touching your face/eyes/nose/mouth or sharing food/drinks will go a long way to staying reasonably healthy.

From personal experience being someone whom works outside in all weather, I don't get "colds" from it. I can always trace it to being near someone else with a sore throat or bad cough that I can't get away from or share equipment with. More recently, kids coming back from daycare. That's a human cesspool that's almost impossible to avoid contamination from.

...that was a lot longer than I wanted my 2 cents to be... Im must be lonely (trying to avoid colds i guess)

Quote: smoothgrh

I asked my kid's pediatrician about this, and she said that she always has arguments with HER mom about this issue—that you can't catch a cold from being out in cold weather. (And SHE'S a doctor!)

As you referred to... people who say this are being far too literal.

Ask that same pediatrician if she would say there's no problem with her own kids, her older parents, her patients, etc. walking around without hat, gloves, warm shoes, heavy coat, etc. in the cold weather... then draw your own conclusions.

I don't think vitamin C helps prevent colds either.

I think the vitamin industry is one of the biggest cons around.

Quote: AxelWolf

I don't think vitamin C helps prevent colds either.

Wrong.

Quote: AxelWolf

I think the vitamin industry is one of the biggest cons around.

Right

Most gurus claim curing a cold not preventing it but definitions are difficult. Some say vitamin c makes the urine expensive but antioxidants clearly play a role in most biochemical reactions that produce free radicals that otherwise would ravage tissues.

Terminology is weird. For instance Vitamin D is not a vitamin at all,.
And most anti oxidants will gladly be prooxidants under certain circumstances, Andsome are antioxidants within a cell and prooxidants in the intercellular matrix,

Alof what happens in a little white mouse won't happen in a human but slicing open a little white mouse is cheaper than slicing open a graduate research assistant,

Using vitamins to drive a chemical reaction is great but even in test tubes its more than just A plus B yields C, Many body states are determined by 'vote pooling' in separate subsystems. So sleep onset is more a bottom up voting system than a top down construct .,

Quote: FleaStiff

Wrong.

Perhaps I should amend my statement.

I don't think taking vitamin C supplements helps prevent colds. I think its a myth.

If you have some evidence to the contrary please share.

The problem is with those darn bioethicists, They just won't let subjects be exposed to viruses and then let them report "having a cold", Its subjective and no one knows exactly what is meant or how long this 'cold' would have lasted if they had taken a Good and Plenty candy instead,

The vitamin supplement industry is often fraudulent in its claims and formulations, Some vitamin tablets are virtually empty,

Vitamin C in 500mg tablets should contain 500mg but if it also contains some rosehips it is deemed to contain sufficient to be labled 1,000mg. Its just lables, not necessarily a correct dose,

There is no way to have someone swill a bunch of tablets, happen to be free of colds afterwards, and then say it was because of the tablets, since there is no way to determine what colds he would have had without those tablets,

There are anectdotal reports, even from medical students, about taking vitamin c for years and being cold free, Some doctors say such people might as well pour their money down the urinal drain as take a vitamin c tablet first. Some doctors swear its effective,
How are you going to prove it,
I look at the evidence and tend to favor vitamin supplementation, though the presence of zinc and absence of iron is probably what ends a cold quickest.

Most organisms can make their own vitamin C and do crank up production when sick; but humans can not make vitamin C,

I think zinc acetate works better at preventing colds. When in the casinos I use it twice a day.

I have had so many fights with Mrs. Wizard over this. She always makes our kids bundle up when its cold, despite their protests. I say that you can't get a cold from being cold and let the older kids decide for themselves how warmly to dress. Mrs. Wizard's argument seems to be pretty much that it's called a "cold" for a reason.

Quote: Wizard

...it's called a "cold" for a reason.

I've wondered about the origin of the name for this particular illness. My assumption is that there is an observed relationship between being in cold weather and getting this illness. However... maybe not. Where's Paco?

The scientific answer:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/well/can-being-cold-make-you-sick.html

Quote: Wizard

I have had so many fights with Mrs. Wizard over this. She always makes our kids bundle up when its cold, despite their protests. I say that you can't get a cold from being cold and let the older kids decide for themselves how warmly to dress. Mrs. Wizard's argument seems to be pretty much that it's called a "cold" for a reason.