What are the real health consequences of not dressing warmly in cold weather?

[Sampiro]

More than a century after the germ theory of disease became common knowledge you still here people saying "you're going to catch your death of cold" when they see somebody walking around in short sleeves or without a jacket in cold weather. Obviously they have more likelihood of catching a cold in a warm indoor environment filled with people than they do running around without a coat in 33 degree (Fahrenheit) weather, BUT... are there any health consequences of wearing too little clothing in cold weather?

Obviously if you go swimming in 0 degree weather you're at risk for hypothermia, frostbite, and other problems, but for hypothetical construct let's imagine the temperature, counting wind chill and other factors, is in the mid 40's Fahrenheit- chilly but well above freezing, and imagine the hypothetical person is healthy but is wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Other than discomfort until they come inside, are they at risk for any negative health consequences for not bundling up when it's dry and above freezing?

[Candyman74]

Hypothermia is no fun.

[Si Amigo]

Disorientation and confusion. This is how many people die in blizzards; they start doing irrational things.

[Hari Seldon]

I once met a guy who wandered around in January in Chicago wearing nothing more than a short-sleeved shirt and ordinary pants. I have no reason to think he was homeless. He was a failed graduate student in math and was attending the same meeting I was.

I seem to recall reading in my anthropology text that Australian aborigines would sleep, nearly naked, in weather that would get as low as 40 F with no ill-effects or even evident discomfort.

But obviously, frostbite and hypothermia are always possible. And I am not convinced that cold weather cannot exacerbate any illness in which your body is trying to elevate the temperature.

[Gagundathar]

One study (sorry no cite yet) indicated that dry and cold air would degrade your nasopharnyx's (sp) natural ability to combat viral infections. I believe it was because microfissures would open the way through the mucus membranes to the underlying tissue. So that might be a legitimate reason for caution.
I reserve judgment. I regularly walk about in low temperatures with no jacket. But, I am a freak of nature.

[bouv]

Originally Posted by Si Amigo

Disorientation and confusion. This is how many people die in blizzards; they start doing irrational things.

The OP seems to be talking more about "chilly" weather (he said mid 40's) than outright cold, winter, possible blizzard type weather.

IIRC, there was a thread not too long ago about how cold it actually has to be before you can get hypothermia from wearing essentially "jeans and a t-shirt"...let me see if I can find it.

And here it is...though there doesn't seem to be a consensus on how cold it has to be before you can start to feel ill effects from dry air. In water or if you're wet, it's a whole 'nother ballgame...as high as 50 air temp if you're wet, and even warmer water temps if you're actually in the water.

I suspect that if you're not staying outside for any extended length of time (like, less than a day, let's say) and you're were adequately sheltered and fed beforehand, I don't think the average person will come close to hypothermia in dry, 40-50 degree weather.

[Athena]

Originally Posted by bouv

I suspect that if you're not staying outside for any extended length of time (like, less than a day, let's say) and you're were adequately sheltered and fed beforehand, I don't think the average person will come close to hypothermia in dry, 40-50 degree weather.

This. Dry 40-50 degrees F simply is not that cold. Heck, 50 degrees is practically jeans and t-shirt weather for me.

Once you get down to real cold - say, 20 degrees or below - and if you add in wind and/or wet, then things get dicey. Frostbite is no fun, nor is hypothermia. It's not that hard to die if you're outside overnight in cold weather, even if you're dressed for it. It's hard to stay warm in the wind, especially if you're not moving.

[Mijin]

Originally Posted by Sampiro

More than a century after the germ theory of disease became common knowledge you still here people saying "you're going to catch your death of cold" when they see somebody walking around in short sleeves or without a jacket in cold weather. Obviously they have more likelihood of catching a cold in a warm indoor environment filled with people than they do running around without a coat in 33 degree (Fahrenheit) weather...

It may not completely be nonsense.
The peak incidence of cold, flu and other respiratory viruses is in midwinter.

Although this may largely be a result of people spending more time indoors (+ all getting together for the holiday season), there is some evidence that vasoconstriction may inhibit respiratory defence. I can't search for a cite right now, but it was in a journal paper I originally read this.

Having said that, I'm not sure how big a difference wrapping your body up warm would make.

[Sailboat]

One tragically under-diagnosed health consequence of cool weather -- goosebumps.

[Hyperelastic]

Originally Posted by Gagundathar

One study (sorry no cite yet) indicated that dry and cold air would degrade your nasopharnyx's (sp) natural ability to combat viral infections.

Until a qualified professional walks in, I'm going with this. Cold air also makes your snot less runny, so you lose the ability to sweep out dirt from your respiratory tract.

Note that no matter how warmly you dress, you still have to breathe in cold air. On this basis I don't force my kids to put jackets on when they don't want to.

[Machine Elf]

Originally Posted by Hyperelastic

Cold air also makes your snot less runny, so you lose the ability to sweep out dirt from your respiratory tract.

Every time I go out in cold weather my nose starts leaking super-liquid snot. If what you say is true, then my sinuses are more than compensating by producing lots of low-viscosity snot.

[BlinkingDuck]

Disorientation and confusion. This is how many people die in blizzards; they start doing irrational things.

While I have the same wonder as the OP...I grew up in Western ND...and it can get COLD there. One time when I was about 16, tempatures fell to about -60F...and that is NOT wind chill.

There was one guy in town who was in his mid 30's...no evident health problems. He was stuck in his apartment (car wouldn't start) and could SEE the grocery store from his apartment window...just a few blocks across an open field.

He was a non-native from a southern state and so he didn't have winter clothing. he did have jacket and gloves but not wintery.

His roommate said he said that he knew it was very cold out but the store was so close that it was no big deal. He threw on his jacket and gloves.

He made it to the store, bought some stuff and never made it back to his apartment. His roommate had fell asleep but called the police when he woke up. They eventually found him several blocks away in a field frozen dead.

I knew that apartment building. The distance to the store really doesn't look that far. That could have been me. Maybe not though...I was a native, had winter clothing and when I reached the store probably would have recognised the warning signs...maybe.

That dude dying made me think twice about doing stupid shit in cold weather.

[constanze]

Originally Posted by Sampiro

More than a century after the germ theory of disease became common knowledge you still here people saying "you're going to catch your death of cold" when they see somebody walking around in short sleeves or without a jacket in cold weather. Obviously they have more likelihood of catching a cold in a warm indoor environment filled with people than they do running around without a coat in 33 degree (Fahrenheit) weather, BUT... are there any health consequences of wearing too little clothing in cold weather?

Because the germ theory is only one half. Yes, we know there are viruses and bacteria around that cause you to get a cold or flu. That part is true.

But it's equally true that all people are not the same when exposed to the same amount of viruses or bacteria (leaving aside contact with a virus mothership): person A slept 8 hours, eats enough vitamin C, has a loving spouse, no stress at job, while person B slept 5 hours, lying awake the rest, eats McD, has trouble at home because of the job, is overworked and underpaid at the job .. and bingo, his immune system is measurably lower than person A, and so the same amount of germs results in him getting sick and A staying healthy.

And one of those stress factors is feeling cold. Especially cold feet. I know that Cecil cited a study with people sitting on cold surfaces that seemed to disprove this, but I'm not very convinced:
- small sample size of about 40 people
- obviously self-selecting of people who have less problems with exposure to cold (and how much cold a person can bear before feeling cold varies very widely among the population

-other studies do show a marked relation between cold feet and lowered immune response.

You also can't predict when you will start to feel cold during the day - a sudden gust of wind and a cloud blocking the sunshine, and the temp drops enough to feel chilly - and once you are cold, it takes a long time to get warm again if you're can't get inside.

[johnpost]

dry and mid40s would have no effect if for a short time (no more than a few days) and the person had calories to burn.

[Gbro]

Originally Posted by Hyperelastic

Until a qualified professional walks in, I'm going with this. Cold air also makes your snot less runny, so you lose the ability to sweep out dirt from your respiratory tract.

Note that no matter how warmly you dress, you still have to breathe in cold air. On this basis I don't force my kids to put jackets on when they don't want to.

And I am NOT Qualified,
We probably loose so much more H2o warming the cold air we breath that without knowing it we are dehydrating. What we usually refer to as Snotsicles, are just large masses of frozen water hanging of the mustache.
So i will buy into some theory of insult to our respiratory system from cold air causing viruses to enter.
I remember reading about healthy sailors coming to port and them catching all kinds of illnesses other than the bite of the Winchester Goose.

[Rhythmdvl]

Originally Posted by Hyperelastic

Until a qualified professional walks in, I'm going with this. Cold air also makes your snot less runny, so you lose the ability to sweep out dirt from your respiratory tract.

Originally Posted by Machine Elf

Every time I go out in cold weather my nose starts leaking super-liquid snot. If what you say is true, then my sinuses are more than compensating by producing lots of low-viscosity snot.

Never kiss your honey
when your nose is runny;
you may think it's funny,
but it's snot.

[kayaker]

I am in short sleeves today, with a hooded sweatshirt. It was 19 degrees Fahrenheit when I left home. My car is in an integral garage with heat. I drive 15 minutes to work, park, and walk 10 yards to a heated building. Worst case scenario would be car trouble (I'd call AAA from my cellphone).

[DSeid]

Generally accepted medical opinion is that "getting a chill" being "underdressed" in weather like the op describes is immaterial to infectious disease risks (although breathing cold air can trigger asthma and the stress of dealing with the cold can trigger a cardiovascular event in an at-risk individual) but even that is in some dispute by those who know the evidence but still hypothesize why the folklore may be true.

There is a widely held folklore that respiratory infections are the result of a “chill” or exposure to draught and damp, that in some way penetrate the body to cause illness ... Laboratory experiments involving inoculation of cold viruses into the nose and periods of cold exposure have failed to demonstrate any effect of cold exposure on susceptibility to infection (Andrewes, 1950; Dowling et al., 1958; Douglas et al., 1968). Modern textbooks of virology (White et al., 1999), dismiss any cause and-effect relationship between cold exposure and common cold, and often ridicule the idea as an erroneous folklore. ... Although folklore maintains that acute exposure to cold predisposes to respiratory infection (Helman, 1978), this hypothesis has received no support from laboratory studies aimed at demonstrating an increased susceptibility to respiratory viral infection on acute cold exposure ...

... In conclusion, the present review proposes a hypothesis to explain the relationship between acute cooling of the body surface and common cold ...

The premise of their hypothesis is the same as Hyperelastic's - cold air might make nasal passages less able to keep mild infections from becoming more symptomatic - but they offer no support other than folklore must have some basis.

[Tom Tildrum]

You're at risk of hurting your hand, because every idiot you meet is going to jovially ask, "did you forget to read the weather report today?", until you finally break down and start punching someone.

[aceplace57]

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=629488

A thread from two months ago.

[Sampiro]

On the subject of breathing in cold air: Neil Gaiman, who for those who don't know him is an English writer who has lived in Wisconsin and Minnesota off and on since the late '80s (mostly on), was on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me recently and was asked about his initial reaction to the midwestern winters. He said initially he had an arrogance about it: "I've lived in London and vacationed in northern England and Scotland in some of the coldest winters on record, I'm equipped for this", but the first time he said until he went outside in sub-zero temperature he didn't realize that it could could get cold enough that just inhaling could be painful. He came close to cashing in his chips and moving to a warmer climate his first few winters, but now has chosen to bear it out. (I'm still not sure why a wealthy foreigner who has no roots there and could afford to live there would live in a place with the harshest winters in the U.S., though he did say in interviews he owns a vacation house in Florida and travels a good bit during blizzard season to get a break from it.)

I remember studying (through readings and films- not observation) traditional Eskimo/Inuit who built honest-to-Og igloos from a long ago anthropology class and how ingenious a structure the igloo was/is. (My professor said that today anybody who lives in an igloo is more apt to be an anthropologist or an ice adventurer than an Inuit, most of whom have more modern winter quarters in small towns.) The dome shape of the igloo came into being because of the way the harshest winds skirt over it and the near impossibility of collapsing it, and on the interior even without a fire the temperature is usually slightly above freezing regardless of what's going on outside, so with a small fire going it was fairly easy to get the interior temperature to 60 F or so without having to worry about melting the walls, a very bearable temperature with just light clothing. Eskimo/Inuit also essentially invented (probably not the original inventors, but at least independently) the drawstring leather sweatpants and ensuring there were no holes, however tiny in it, was the wife's Number 1 responsibility, and so the traditional Eskimo garment was surprisingly lightweight, especially when compeared to the the huge bundles worn by Russian and North American explorers.

[Eva Luna]

And don't underestimate just how quickly frostbite can set in. I gew up in a cold climate (Chicago area), and once in high school I got locked out of the house late one night after a babysitting job. I hadn't brought a hat, because I thought I would just be running from the client's car to the house, but the key froze in the lock, and my pounding on the door didn't wake anyone up. By the time I got to a friend's house half a mile away (he was having a party that night, so I knew people would be awake), my ears had literally blistered.

[aruvqan]

Originally Posted by kayaker

I am in short sleeves today, with a hooded sweatshirt. It was 19 degrees Fahrenheit when I left home. My car is in an integral garage with heat. I drive 15 minutes to work, park, and walk 10 yards to a heated building. Worst case scenario would be car trouble (I'd call AAA from my cellphone).

I have a jetta with heated seats. I will commonly have to go somewhere, and I detest being hot and sweaty so I tend to carry my jacket out to the car, turn on the seat and be toasty warm while the heater heats up. If like this past weekend we are on a road trip, I will not bother putting on my jacket while gimping in to pee - I park in gimp parking which is close to the entrance of said rest area building. In case of emergency I do have my jacket in the car, and it is not unusual for us to have surplus 'pumpkin suits' in the trunk just in case of trouble and needing serious protection. Anything rated for the antarctic laughs at weather in New England

[Rhythmdvl]

Originally Posted by aruvqan

I have a jetta with heated seats. I will commonly have to go somewhere, and I detest being hot and sweaty so I tend to carry my jacket out to the car, turn on the seat and be toasty warm while the heater heats up. If like this past weekend we are on a road trip, I will not bother putting on my jacket while gimping in to pee - I park in gimp parking which is close to the entrance of said rest area building. In case of emergency I do have my jacket in the car, and it is not unusual for us to have surplus 'pumpkin suits' in the trunk just in case of trouble and needing serious protection. Anything rated for the antarctic laughs at weather in New England

Don't you end up hot and sweaty wearing that full-body leather suit all day?

[aruvqan]

Originally Posted by Rhythmdvl

Don't you end up hot and sweaty wearing that full-body leather suit all day?

? I normally wear jeans and a tshirt [well, also underwear] What leather suit? And the arctic survival suit is some sort of artificial fiber filled with some other unnatural fiber, and only worn if we have to leave the car and walk somewhere in blizzard conditions. Otherwise I just put on a jacket.

Honestly, going from a heated building to a heated building, all I need is a toasty warm seat to keep me warm until the heat in the car starts up. Although our old 74 beetle had sort of dodgy heat in winter, but that was a problem with the old VWs.

[Silophant]

Gimp Suit: [Potentially NSFW - fully clothed, but bondage gear]

SPOILER:

http://lista.se/public/assets/2010/0...8f_350_350.jpg

[kenobi 65]

Originally Posted by aruvqan

What leather suit?

Hint: don't look up "gimp suit" while you're at work.

[Rhythmdvl]

aruvqan I'm sorry, I was making an oblique Pulp Fiction reference (I'd past a YouTube link to the scene but can't view videos at my desk). I think there was a thread here not too long ago asking how 'gimp' became associated with the suit and if it came from PF--that's the only place I know it from.

BTW, what does "gimping in to pee - I park in gimp parking" mean? Regionalism?

[Chessic Sense]

Not all syndromes and maladies are caused by germs. Hangovers, for instance, look just like a mild stomach flu and dehydration, but there aren't any viruses responsible. Rhabdomyolysis has symptoms of "nausea, vomiting, confusion, coma or abnormal heart rate and rhythm," according to wiki.

It's possible that cold stress can similarly mimic the flu when there's no actual germ present. Someone goes outside for a long period of time, and the next day, they feel run down and stuffy-headed. They wrap a blanket around them and announce "I've got a cold" when really they're just feeling the after-effects of the weather, and it's not a cold at all.

[kenobi 65]

Originally Posted by Rhythmdvl

BTW, what does "gimping in to pee - I park in gimp parking" mean? Regionalism?

IIRC, aruvqan is handicapped. So, it sounds like she's parking in the handicapped parking space ("gimp parking", which would be close to the door), then limping the short distance inside to go to the restroom.

[RFTG6]

An interesting question...and the effects probably relate to whether or not the individual actually feels cold.
Lots of people don't feel the cold, especially kids, who often run around mid-winter in t-shirts. But kids will tell you when they are feeling cold and do something about it (or expect you to!)

_____________________
reading comprehension

[Anaglyph]

Probably a major contribution to the folklore that being exposed to cold temperatures causes you to catch "a cold" is the fact that one of the first symptoms of getting a cold is feeling chilly, independent of ambient temperature.