Common Cold is the English name of cold and its other names are rhinopharyngitis, nasopharyngitis and acute coryza. Cold mainly affects the nose and usually starts with feeling cold, fatigue, headache and sneezing. Fever, sore throat, cough and runny nose are accompanied by cold and affect the person with cold.
Mothers have always warned their children that they will catch a cold if they go out with their heads wet or without a jacket in cold weather, but this is a false belief.
Cold weather is not the cause of colds. For example, people in Alaska or in parts of Canada that are above the Arctic Circle don’t get more cold than people living in sunny Australia.These beliefs come from a time when we did not have a way to treat fever and other complications of infection. Common people created myths to explain the events to protect their children from getting sick. The association between cold weather probably stemmed from confusion about its cause, and similar beliefs existed about malaria. It was once believed that the poisonous vapors rising from the swamps caused malaria. But in fact, mosquitoes, which are also abundant in swampy areas, were carriers of malaria. Cold weather and respiratory illnesses are linked, but the connection is much more complex than simply believing that “cold weather causes colds.”On the contrary, cold weather appears to boost the immune system, according to a recent study. Researchers examined the immunological responses of people to exposure to cold and found that acute exposure to cold, for example going outside without a jacket in cold weather, actually activates the immune system. This activation is partially due to the increase in the amount of norepinephrine hormone in the body, it naturally narrows the vessels and is a so-called natural antihypertensive.Of course, although simply going outside in cold weather without a jacket won’t cause a cold, hypothermia (a drop in core body temperature) suppresses the immune system and may lead to a cold.Most common cold symptoms are the result of the immune system’s physical reaction to rhinoviruses (the most common cold-causing virus). Therefore, someone with a stronger immune system in the cold will produce more mucous secretions in the nose, and someone with a weaker immune system will have nasal congestion for a longer period of time, but will have milder symptoms. But a person with a weaker immune system is more likely to have secondary complications of colds, sinusitis, or ear infections.Of course, cold weather may be indirectly involved in the development of colds. The narrowing of the superficial vessels of the body, for example the narrowing of the nasal veins, causes dryness of the mucous membrane, and this dryness reduces the ability of the nose to purify infectious agents. When a person returns to the warm air indoors, a reactive dilation of the blood vessels occurs, causing red hands and a runny nose as the blood returns to them.If the stuffy and runny nose is severe enough to cause mouth breathing, the cycle continues. Mouth breathing makes the ability of the nose to filter the inhaled air not be used, and this situation, together with the dryness of the air inside the house, causes the inhalation of mucous secretions carrying the virus in the mouth, which may trigger the development of a cold or lower respiratory tract infection.It should also be kept in mind that cold-induced asthma may be mistaken for frequent colds if it does not cause severe attacks. These people may think that going out with a wet body or without a jacket is the only cause of a cold, but in fact, people who are in the early stages of a cold may feel warm due to a fever. As a result, they go out without clothes and return home with a full-blown fever as their cold progresses. This phenomenon makes it seem like the cold weather caused the cold, when in fact it was already developing.