A mate at the school bus stop the other morning was rotten with cold. I suggested it was inevitable since all the kids have got colds at the moment but no, he got cold at a football match last weekend and that’s to blame.  Recently, a woman I know who is the head anaesthetist at the hospital said something along the same lines.

What am i missing? Have I been wrong all these years?

Something to do with getting cold suppressing your immune system, although this is probably unproven bollox as well.

Recently, a woman I know who is the head anaesthetist at the hospital

Seems a bit too specialist. I’d want someone who can knock out the whole of me.

Something to do with getting cold suppressing your immune system, although this is probably unproven bollox as well.

Aren’t cold showers supposed to improve your immune system?

Don’t listen to everything PE teachers tell you. Hard to believe, but it turns out many of them aren’t that bright!

More likely to catch a viral infection (and do yourself other harm) in that environment; but in no way can you catch it from the temperature as they described.

Part of me says they’ve got the right answer for the wrong reasons, so let them crack on, they will be healthier overall by following their flawed advice.

Other part says they are just repeating bollocks from bloke-in-pub or their grandmother* without any evidence to back it up; and treat them and everything that subsequently comes out of their mouth with a slight amount of disdain.

*acceptable in her day, but not in the internet age.

Also, don’t confuse ‘being highly educated’ with being intelligent 😉

it is the lowering of resistance due to the body concentrating blood on the core.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3LJG8Syt2V79D8cjZrPpL5l/can-you-catch-a-cold-from-getting-cold

Still doesn’t mean you’ll catch one if you’re cold, but if may increase the chance. How many eskimoes (inuit?) do you see with colds? Or Geordie girls on a Friday night down the Bigg Market?

Or Geordie girls on a Friday night down the Bigg Market?

Unless you’re talking about Syphilis…..

Yep, I’ve written about this a couple of times at least so the idea’s been around a few years.

Chimes with anecdotal evidence of people being more likely to get a cold if exposing body to other stresses – like going to a freezing football match.

Yeah, a cold is a viral infection.  Arguably “getting cold” could increase your susceptibility to catching a virus but you still need the virus as any fule no.

Unless you’re talking about Syphilis

Girls’ names get weirder every day.

My grandmother (Bless her) kept telling us to dress up warm when we went outside or we would catch ‘the pip’. She meant well, but did not realise that ‘the pip’ was slang for venereal disease, which puts an odd spin on things.

Funnily enough you meet as many people with colds in Africa as you do in Europe. In fact some useless land-whale of a woman gave me a smashing cold last time I was in South Africa by sneezing twice, full in my face, during a meeting. Not what you want when you’re attending meetings all day and flying from city to city.

Unless you’re talking about Syphilis

Girls’ names get weirder every day.

Quite a catchy name that one.

If being out in the cold means catching a cold then surely there’d be an explosion of snot in Scandinavia every winter? Didn’t see that many people with colds when we were there a couple of winters ago in February.

There’s probably a bit of confirmation bias going on. People are probably happier to put their suffering down to being out in the cold rather than thinking they’ve smeared someone else’s snot about their face.

Or heaven forbid, touched a door handle and neglected to hose themselves down with dettol immediately.

head anaesthetist

Sounds mind numbing.

When I go to the mountains in the winter it tends to get rid of any cold I have, as its well **** freezing so the virus can’t survive or someat….

So I don’t think it actually getting cold but more the shitty sort of not really that cold but chilly and damp that we get in this country.

Is the head anaethetist a prime number?

Quite a catchy name that one.

Probably turn out to be a bit of a chancre, though.

Also, don’t confuse ‘being highly educated’ with being intelligent

True, but nonetheless mostly comes out of the mouths of those with no qualifications.

The problem probably stems from people calling viruses ‘colds’ .

Apparently some cold viruses are seasonal. So although you can catch a cold at any time of year there are possiblty more colds to be caught in the winter. A ‘cold’ can actually be any one of about 200 different virus so theres nothing to say a lurgy caught in the African summer is the same as one caught in a British winter

We do after all call a Cold a Cold so we at least associate it with cold weather regardless of whether its a cause. Arguably a tendency to be indoors more in the winter makes passing the virus about easier.

We should just stick to calling it Rhinovirus – because you feel like you’ve been trampled on by a fat unicorn.

Hold on hold on. I’m very intelligent. If they aren’t due to getting cold why are they called colds?

EDIT. Stop answering my questions before I’ve finished typing them.

4 minutes! How many fingers are you typing with?

In fact some useless land-whale of a woman gave me a smashing cold last time I was in South Africa

She says that when she’s lost weight, you’ll still be ugly.

“he got cold at a football match last weekend and that’s to blame”

Standing round for a couple of hours in close proximity to a whole bunch of people, shouting, yelling and sneezing enthusiastically, without a hankie in sight. He could be on to something.

These people probably left their coats on indoors and didn’t ‘feel the benefit’ when they went outside. You can get piles from sitting on a cold step though, that’s true isn’t it?

You do (or at least I do) get a sniffle when actually cold.

Maybe the resulting increased nose wiping, plus the aforementioned suppressed immune response, increases the chances of catching a cold virus?

We should just stick to calling it Rhinovirus – because you feel like you’ve been trampled on by a fat unicorn

or you are well educated and know rhino is Latin for nose 🙁

Erm hello??? Why do you think it’s called a cold??

don’t confuse ‘being highly educated’ with being intelligent.

Apparently walking around the house with bare feet can give you a bladder infection in Germany!

Erm hello??? Why do you think it’s called a cold??

Because it was called that half a millennium ago and the name’s kinda entered general parlance since.

Apparently walking around the house with bare feet can give you a bladder infection in Germany!

Wow, that’s impressive.  I’ve never even been to Germany.

Buddum aTisshoo.

So “catch your death of cold”… ?

You’ll die of cold as in just from being cold? You’ll die from catching a cold (from being in the cold?)?

You’ll catch the grim reaper himself? 😀

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/there-scientific-reason-cold-weather-could-cause-colds-180953817/

Bit behind the times guys! Rhinovirus appears to replicate better under slightly cooler conditions – which I guess could potentially be made worse by colder weather.

I’m reasonably confident that I accquired an infection (tonsilitis) from getting very cold once.  But I was REALLY properly chilled to the bone for ages, the kind that takes forever to get rid of even after you’ve got back inside.  And I was a student living in uni halls so surrounded by unfamiliar germs. This could be due to the effects of cold on the immune system, or it could be a coincidence.

When I go to the mountains in the winter it tends to get rid of any cold I have, as its well **** freezing so the virus can’t survive or someat….

Hopefully you don’t allow the cells that contain the virus time to actually freeze, as you probably won’t be coming back down that mountain if you do. Maybe that’s what <span class=”ILfuVd”>Ötzi</span> was up to when he died – trying to get rid of his cold.