Me, my son, and both my parents have gotten colds lately.
I think this is because it got cold outside suddenly.
I’ve heard it say you can’t catch a cold because of the weather, but I never ever got one when it was warm outside.
SO, how does one “catch a cold”?
Is it because of the bodies response to a temperature change downward?
Or that the germs are out there, but you don’t catch them unless you get chillde, therefore making your body less immune?
studies have shown that you catch colds for one reason: cold germs come into direct contact with your nose or eyes. you normally pick them up through touch - door handles are a big culprit. if you pick up something that has cold germs on it and then wipe your nose or eyes, you’ll probably get a cold. airborn cold germs are supposedly not a big factor in catching a cold. cold weather brings more people inside and closer together, thus increasing the likelihood of direct germ contact. it only takes one person to start the germ thread in an office or a house. i’ve found that taking 1000mg of vitamin c per day has helped me fend off colds. so does washing my hands often when a cold is going around.
Proximity of people is a factor, but dry air inside buildings also appears to be a factor. A study in France during WWI showed that soldiers who lived and worked in heated buildings got many more colds than soldiers who stayed in the trenches, even though the trenches were much colder. The hypothesis I heard was that soldiers in the trenches continued to have a good flow of mucus that tends to flush out the viruses, but that the mucus of people in a dry heated building dries up and doesn’t provide that benefit.
I forgot to mention that some people believe that rapid changes of environment (cold to hot or vice versa) depresses the immune system so as to make a person more susceptible to getting a cold. I don’t know if there has been a study of the idea, though.
Zwaldd is correct: colds are primarily transferred through touch. In fact, it has been proven you can catch a cold by touching a doorknob that was just recently touched by a person who had a cold. For the record (and contrary to conventional wisdom), it is rare for a cold viruses to be transferred via the air (i.e. an infecting person sneezing and someone else inhaling the virus).
The primary reason people get colds more frequently in the winter is because:
a) People spend more time indoors when it’s cold outside.
b) People tend to keep their windows and doors closed when it’s cold outside.
The cold virus can more easily spread in a closed-up house.
O.k. so lets say my snotty co-worker blows some mucus on his hand and gets it on the doorknob. How long can the virus possibly live in that inhospitable environment? Also, if I get it on my hand, how long can it live there (presumably longer since it is warmer and more ‘viral friendly’) before I have to touch a mucus membrane?
this link separates some facts from myth regarding colds:
http://www.commoncold.org/special1.htm
Cecil Adams on Why is winter the season for colds, flu, etc.?
Also, SDSTAFF Jill with additional information