I recently travelled from my home where it was in the 70’s to Washington DC where the temperature was a record breaking 22 - 31 degrees. I was freezing! I started to get sick with a stuffy nose and a really sore throat. So I got to thinking, does the cold weather really give one the cold?
First what is a cold? According to the Mayo Clinic “The common cold is a viral infection of your upper respiratory tract — your nose and throat.” Certainly sounds like what I cought. There is much more information on the Mayo site. So establishing that I was cold and in cold weather and I have a cold. Is that the cause?
The cold is viral so could it be a particular virus that inhabits and lives only in cold weather? My instincts tell me not. If that were the case then why do people get colds in warm and hot clients? It’s not like they have a sickness called the ‘warms.’
Since we are talking colds though and since I did contract something while up in DC I did want to investigate it. As thought and with minimal searching I found studies have found no correlation to cold weather and colds. Interesting. There seemed to be one for me, or is there?
I think the more likely explanation is my close proximity to people. Colds are highly infectious and pass easily from human to human. Most commonly this is through touch. Since I was just in an airport, a busy one at that, and in an airplane full of travelers it is highly likely that is were I contracted this cold.
So what can we do about it? Well there has been many studies into using zinc and echinacea and other herbal medicines and there has been no conclusive evidence supporting or denying them. I think a few simple things we can do like wash our hands and practice good hygiene will go a long way towards preventing the spread of the common cold. I also like to drink a nice cup of herbal tea and take a lot of vitamin C. Whether this really helps or not is up in the air, but I sure feel better. I also have a post on 12 common natural cures right on this blog. Please check those out. They may help you.
If anyone has a few cures/aids that have helped them in the past, please comment below. We would love to hear from you.
