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Why do people get sick more often in cold weather/winter?

  • 09-08-2010 12:25am
    #1
    Supercell
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 15,616 ✭✭✭✭


    During the summer the amount of people taking sickies in work drops dramatically compared to winter.
    Personally i can get it - I am almost never sick in the summer but in the winter I'll get one or two colds on average. What gives?

    I eat the same, I live in the same place?
    So why are we sicker in winter?
    Just curious as i just realised I haven't had a cold or flu in yonks (since last winter), in fact i feel great!
    https://www.loughlinstown.ie/

    Have a weather station?, why not join the Ireland Weather Network - http://irelandweather.eu/



Comments

  • #2
    locum-motion
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,143 ✭✭✭locum-motion


    Why do people get sick more often in cold weather/winter?

    Despite the fact that a 'cold' is called a 'cold', it's actually little or nothing to do with cold weather, being cold etc. If anything, it's the opposite.

    The consensus appears to be that during cold weather/winter, humans spend more time indoors, in the company of other humans, with the heat turned way up, and in a fairly humid environment. In short, we spend lots of time in the perfect conditions for the spread of airborne/aerosol-borne viral respiratory illnesses such as the common cold and the flu.

    So, maybe we shouldn't call it a 'cold', we should call it a 'hot & humid'!


  • #3
    seawolf145
    Closed Accounts Posts: 123 ✭✭seawolf145


    Supercell wrote: »
    During the summer the amount of people taking sickies in work drops dramatically compared to winter.
    Personally i can get it - I am almost never sick in the summer but in the winter I'll get one or two colds on average. What gives?

    I eat the same, I live in the same place?
    So why are we sicker in winter?
    Just curious as i just realised I haven't had a cold or flu in yonks (since last winter), in fact i feel great!

    Lack of sunlight gives less D vitamins a rich source for your immune system.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D


  • #4
    anotherlostie
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,722 ✭✭✭anotherlostie


    The increased use of hand sanitisation facilities to combat the swine flu threat may have contributed to it too - I got no colds in work this year, which is a first in 15 years working in an environment of between 400 and 1500 people.


  • #5
    ORLY?
    Closed Accounts Posts: 265 ✭✭ORLY?


    Cold weather also temporarily paralyses cilia, increasing the chances that anything enetering the respiratory tract will gain a foothold.


  • #6
    kilmuckridge
    Closed Accounts Posts: 56 ✭✭kilmuckridge


    Exposure to cold also causes some circulatory changes (thickening blood etc.) which make old or vulnerable people more likely to die in the following 3 days.


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  • #7
    opinion guy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,001 ✭✭✭✭opinion guy


    Its all about how the virus survives in cold dry conditions apparently:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/health/research/05flu.html


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