Medical orthodoxy, which says that there is no connection between low body temperature and viral infections, may not be true. Chilly feeling in the body can induce a cold. Researchers from the Cardiff University's Common Cold Centre, UK, paid 90 students to sit for 20 minutes with their bare feet in buckets of cold water. A few days later the study found that 13 of the students reported cold symptoms, such as a runny nose or sore throat, compared to five in a control group of 90 students who kept their feet dry in socks and shoes. Dipping feet into cold water can cause a pronounced constriction to the blood vessels in the nose. This is one of the factors that actually can aid the virus by lowering the defences within the nose and triggering the symptomatic infection. Previous studies inoculated patients with the cold virus and then chilled them, but failed to find any link between temperature and catching a cold. When common cold circulates in the community, for every person who actually gets a cold, there are 2-3 who are infected but do not develop any symptoms. When these people get body chills the sub-clinical or symptom free infection converts into a common cold with symptoms. The study found that the trial students developing cold symptoms also reported they suffered significantly more colds each year than those who remained symptom-free. This indicated that there might be a group in the population who are more susceptible and may have a common cold constitution.
Family Practice,
November 2005