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Can Being Cold Make You Sick? (Published 2018)
A reader asks: Can you get sick just from sitting in an overly air-conditioned room or going out without a jacket? Or do you need to actually catch a virus?
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Research findings and data from the National Library of Medicine
PubMed articles
High humidity leads to loss of infectious influenza virus from simulated coughs
At low relative humidity, influenza retains maximal infectivity and inactivation of the virus at higher relative humidity occurs rapidly after coughing. Although virus ca …
Exposure to cold impairs interferon-induced antiviral defense
It is commonly believed that exposure to low temperature increases susceptibility to viral infection in the human respiratory tract, but a molecular mechanism supporting …
Acute cooling of the feet and the onset of common cold symptoms
Acute chilling of the feet causes the onset of common cold symptoms in around 10% of subjects who are chilled. Further studies are needed to determine the relationship of …
Temperature-dependent innate defense against the common cold virus limits viral replication at warm temperature in mouse airway cells
Most isolates of human rhinovirus, the common cold virus, replicate more robustly at the cool temperatures found in the nasal cavity (33-35 °C) than at core body temperat …
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