Although our noses have been telling us differently, many medical experts have been saying that it's not actually the chilly weather that makes us catch a cold, but the closer proximity to viruses and germs in closed circulation environments that make us more susceptible to getting sick. Finally, a new study shows that it is, in fact, the cold that makes us get sick.

Researchers from Yale University have found that cool temperatures cause our immune systems to become weaker and give viruses a better chance of infecting our bodies. In addition, a cold nose, in particular, is the best way for a virus to enter and exit our systems.

 

According to the Yale researchers, the most common cause of colds during the wintertime is the rhinovirus, which is also known to trigger asthma attacks.

Tests show that when the virus enters into a nose with low temperature in the nasal cavity, interferons - the immune system's way of stopping the spread of virus using proteins to warn healthy cells - were not as effective as to when the virus enters a nose with a normal body temperature or warm.

The team was led by Akiko Iwasaki, a Yale professor of immunobiology. "We found that the innate immune response to the rhinovirus is impaired at the lower body temperature compared to the core body temperature," he said.

In addition, it was seen that colds are not as frequent in the summertime because even though the influenza virus can be blown away as far as six feet in a single cough or sneeze, the wet humid air, pulls it to the ground, making inhalation less likely.

So when the air starts to get chilly, remember to bundle up, and keep those noses warm to avoid catching another case of the winter sniffles.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in a paper entitled, "Temperature-dependent innate defense against the common cold virus limits viral replication at warm temperature in mouse airway cells."

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