You catch colds and flu from viruses which you catch from viruses or flu bacteria coming into contact with your eyes, nose, mouth (maybe other mucus membranes -- lets not think about other mucus membranes and how you got a cold virus in contact with them, k?) or from someone sneezing and their err... fluids, filled with virus, aerosolize and you get microscopic droplets of it splatter on your face or hands. Then you go rub your eye, pick your nose, or rub your mouth and you've given yourself a good dose of virus.

I heard about a study once where a bunch of people played poked together. I think there was cold or flu virus on the cards intentionally. Anyway, some of the players had a thingie on their neck, like those collars they put on cats and dogs to keep them from chewing their stitches, which kept them from touching their faces. Others didn't. The ones that couldn't touch their faces didn't get sick, the other folks that could touch their face did get sick.

Why are they more common in winter? I don't think that is known. Maybe being inside in dry heated environments makes your sinuses more susceptible to infection. Another possibility is that the common cold virus thrives better in less humid conditions.

So go outside and freeze your ass off, you might get frost bite or hypothermia but you won't catch a cold from it.

Should put that all in a spoiler button!

Oh yeah! I forgot that probably most people see this from inside the forums rather than from the main page.

I love those spoiler buttons, so cool!

I thought I'd catch more wrong answers on this one.

Most people probably expect what they think is the obvious right answer to be the wrong one so they choose the one they thought was wrong hehe ;)

Me? I went with the one I thought was obviously right... I was wrong lol :\

Well typically winter people are more sedentary, and diets change, and cold weather can bring your immune system down some.

I caught one little sentence in my Microbiology text book. I sold it back.

But it said that rhinoviruses actually grow best(ideally) at 33-34 C. Not 37C.

I thought that was very interesting.

Well typically winter people are more sedentary, and diets change, and cold weather can bring your immune system down some.

Hmmm... another bit of folklore is the immune system and cold weather. I don't think there is much support for that.

Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 2002; 34(12):2013-2020
Cold exposure: human immune responses and intracellular cytokine expression
JOHN W. CASTELLANI; INGRID K. M. BRENNER; SHAWN G. RHIND
ABSTRACT
CASTELLANI, J. W., I. K. M. BRENNER, and S. G. RHIND. Cold exposure: human immune responses and intracellular cytokine expression. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 34, No. 12, pp. 2013-2020, 2002. It is commonly believed that exposure to cold environmental temperatures depresses immune function and increases the risk for infection. This review paper will 1) present an overview of human physiological responses to cold exposure, 2) present the human studies examining the effects of cold exposure on immune responses, and 3) summarize recent experiments from our laboratories examining the effects of exercise and fatigue on immune responses during subsequent cold exposure. Based on the review of the literature, there is no support for the concept that cold exposure depresses immune function.

Key Words: ANTARCTICA; EXERCISE; HYPOTHERMIA; NATURAL KILLER CELLS; SHIVERING

Now I can just see someone saying to their wizened old grandmother after she admonishes them to bundle up so they don't catch their death of cold: "Granny, cold doesn't make you catch a cold. You catch a cold from viruses which you get by coming in contact with viruses".

And then Granny says, "You young pup, where'd you here that outlandish idea?"

And the kid replies... "The Druid's Grove. It's an Everquest game message forum".

I think we might have credibility issues!

"I think we might have credibility issues!"


/smile