Does colder temperature make you more prone to getting a cold Or COVID?
Most health experts agree that when it’s cold, people spend more time indoors and close contact with other people, which likely increases germs’ spread.
Also, experts believe that our immune system may be more active when our body is warmer, as in during the summer months.
Vitamin D for COVID
Back in 2007, there was this study…
https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.0030151&type=printable
In this particular study looking at the spread of the influenza virus, they put guinea pigs together in a chamber and carried out different environmental experiments on them. They found that low relative humidities of 20%–35% were most favorable for infection, while the transmission was completely blocked at high humidity of 80%.
They also found that when guinea pigs were kept at 5 °C, transmission occurred with greater frequency than at 20 °C, while at 30 °C, no transmission was detected.
The authors concluded that low relative humidities produced by indoor heating and cold temperatures favored the spread of the influenza virus.
I also want to add that cold weather, by itself, can cause a runny nose without necessarily having a cold, and this allows for the virus to be carried in those secretions, which probably facilitates transmission.
Rhinoviruses cause 40% of common colds. The covid’s second most common cause of cold is the normal one, not this novel covid, aka SARS-CoV-2.
Its been shown that the rhinovirus reproduces more quickly at cooler temperatures means you might catch a cold more quickly if you’re chilly.
And this probably applies to the covid as well.
It’s likely that with the combination of all of these 5 factors, meaning cooler temp, lower humidity, people staying indoors more often in winter months, cold weather causing runny noses, and our immune system is more active when it’s warmer, these combinations of factors likely explain why colds, flu, and COVID are more likely to cause infections in the winter months.
But there is likely a 6th factor as well. And that is vitamin D. Our bodies don’t normally make vitamin D unless we get sunlight. In the winter months, for most of us in this world, we don’t get enough sunlight to make enough vitamin D. Unless you live in a warm climate, maybe you are the exception. So if you aren’t getting enough sunlight in the winter months, that means you have to get enough vitamin D in your diet.
And if you don’t do that, you will have low vitamin D levels. Vitamin D helps regulate or Calcium levels and is important for bone and muscle health. It also plays a role in regulating our immune system, but its exact role is not known.
Why is this important for the common cold, flu, and perhaps with this novel, the covid that’s causing COVID? Well, vitamin D doesn’t affect these viruses themselves. Instead, it affects our immune systems.
So what is my recommendation for taking Vitamin D?
The best thing to do is check with your doctor to see if you might have low vitamin D, and if it is low, you’ll def need to get more vitamin D, especially during the winter months.
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin vital to the function of white blood cells that helps fight infections and overall immune system health. Vitamin C is also important for iron absorption, and being deficient in iron can make you more vulnerable to infections in general.
The normal, recommended daily intake of vitamin C for adults from the diet and/or supplements is 75 to 120 mg. You can get about 80 to 90 mg from a cup of orange juice or sliced orange, or even more from kiwi fruit or a cup of sweet peppers.
Zinc has become one of the most popular suggestions for reducing symptoms of covid.
Some studies showed that zinc reduces the duration of a cold by half, while others showed no effect. Another study found that the type of zinc taken determined the result—zinc gluconate lozenges that provided 13.3 milligrams (mg) of zinc lessened the duration of colds, but zinc acetate lozenges that provided 5 mg or 11.5 mg of zinc did not.
Doctor Mike Hansen, MD
Internal Medicine | Pulmonary Disease | Critical Care Medicine
Please Subscribe to Doctor Mike Hansen YouTube Channel:
Click Here