There is the popular belief that low temperatures could be responsible for us to get a cold or flu. However, the specialists of the house of Bello, Dr. Felipe Rivera and the virologist Vivian Luchsinger, are categorical and say that it is not, since respiratory diseases are produced by viruses.
“Do not be barefoot, you can cold,” “Abrígate, that you are going to get sick,” are some of the phrases that we have heard or that we have also repeated within popular culture. But can the cold really get us to spread with a cold or flu? Are the low temperatures responsible for getting sick? The answer is no.
The Virologist of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine of the U. of Chile, Dr. Vivian LuchsingerHe explains that this belief is far from true. “The cold contributes, but it is not that it is the culprit of the cold because this is produced by a virus. In the case of cold for rhinovirus and influenza flu by influenza virus. ”
And he adds that what happens is that with low temperatures and cold “the effectiveness of innate defense mechanisms, which are the natives we have, decreases. For example, it decreases the activity of the cilia at the level of the respiratory tract, the production of mucus in the nose and that facilitates the entry of the viruses and that are not controlled”.
And the other, says the specialist, “with the cold people tend to be closer, in closed spaces, and that makes the viral infection from one person to another more easily transmitted.”
So, in reality what the cold is doing is through people’s behaviors facilitate transmission between people.
-For its partDr. Felipe Rivera, from the Clinical Hospital of the University of Chile, It is categorical, “Cold directly does not produce respiratory diseases”.
“What the cold is doing is – by one part – irritate the respiratory tract, especially in allergic, asthmatic, COPD, and that makes them more ease for the entry of germs. Germs than to find the mucosa devoid in its local defensive mechanisms by the cold and due to lack of circulation, it is easier for them to penetrate,” says the specialist.
In addition, says Dr. Rivera, “The cold alone in some patients, especially in allergic patients, can cause irritation and trigger for an obstructive crisis due to the sudden warm temperature change, hot, cold”.
But, in normal patients a cold like the one we have in the cities, with warm patients, with adequate clothing does not produce disease, but all the Eskimos and the people who live in Antarctic would always be sick.
