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Experts say information technology's non necessarily being out in rainy conditions that causes you to take hold of the flu or a cold during wintertime months. Getty Images
  • Experts say you may be more than likely to get sick during the winter months, but not because of the pelting.
  • They say cold weather forces people to be in enclosed spaces longer and increases the chance of infection.
  • They add that viruses tend to live longer in colder temperatures and lower humidity.

The leaves are turning, the temperature is dropping, and the cooler months are on their way.

For many, the cold weather conjures images of warm drinks, a cozy fire, pelting, snow… and the common cold and flu.

But are you actually more than likely to go sick in the cooler months?

You lot might — but experts say the pelting is probably non to blame.

"The winter flavor is the fourth dimension of year when we take more respiratory infections," Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious affliction expert at the Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, told Healthline.

"Respiratory infections are transferred more readily in the winter time for two reasons," he said. "The get-go is we spend more fourth dimension in enclosed spaces, close to each other, then that we accept more prolonged contiguous contact."

The second reason has to practise with humidity.

"When we transmit viruses from ane person to some other, we're unremarkably three feet [from] each other — the so chosen 'animate zone,'" Schaffner explained. "When we're in a fourth dimension of low humidity such as we have in the winter fourth dimension, it appears that that little scrap of moisture that surrounds the virus evaporates, so the virus remains in the air for a sufficiently prolonged time and so that the person who is sufficiently shut to me tin can breathe information technology in."

Y'all may take been told that you lot can grab a cold by getting defenseless in the rain and staying in wet apparel.

Experts say this is a myth.

"All our parents used to say that, possibly to keep us indoors in bad weather," Stephen Morse, PhD, a professor of epidemiology and an communicable diseases skillful at Columbia University in New York, told Healthline.

"But getting moisture and chilled is too associated with colder months, so the correlation was obvious, and people tend to notice the times they got wet and did go sick, not the times they didn't," he said. "But as we say in epidemiology, correlation is non necessarily causation."

Dr. Jaime Friedman, a pediatrician in San Diego, said myths relating to moisture atmospheric condition and communicable colds probably evolved due to a poor agreement of viruses.

"I would imagine that earlier anyone knew about germs, it would make sense that the common cold and shiver you feel when you lot are wet feels like to the common cold and shiver of a fever and an affliction, therefore associating 1 with the other," Friedman told Healthline.

"It also makes sense that since viruses thrive in cold weather, we get sick more often in cold weather condition. We at present know that colds are caused by viruses and pneumonia is caused past viruses or leaner, so y'all can just get sick if you are exposed to these germs, regardless of the weather," she added.

According to the Centers for Affliction Control and Prevention (CDC), every year at that place are millions of cases of the common common cold with the average developed getting 2 to 3 colds every year. Children typically get even more.

The majority of people become colds in wintertime or spring, simply it is possible to catch a cold whatsoever time during the twelvemonth.

Seasonal influenza circulates year round in the United states of america, but the influenza is near common in fall and winter.

Some fence that the name influenza may really be a reference to the Italian phrase "influenza di freddo," pregnant "influence of the cold."

Experts say colder weather condition can allow the influenza virus to circulate more hands, just other factors are also to blame for the increment in influenza cases in the winter and fall.

"Nether the right weather, many viruses will concluding longer at colder temperatures. In the lab, we could store flu samples for a couple of days in the refrigerator, just they'd be rapidly inactivated at regular freezer temperatures," Morse said.

"Temperature and humidity are an of import role of the story but tin can't explain everything," he added. "Human activity, our trend to exist closer together in the winter, may also play a office."

He continued, "In temperate zones, the influenza flavour normally does coincide with colder months. But in the tropics, flu is oftentimes associated with the rainy seasons and may occur year-round or evidence both winter months and summer months peaks. And many of our pandemics, including the 2009 pandemic, seem to appear in the late jump and summer, after the traditional flu season has ended."

Lack of regular exposure to sunlight during the colder months may besides bear on the allowed arrangement, but experts say this is an area that needs further study.

"The role of sunlight is poorly understood, just ultraviolet light from the sun is a well-known decontaminant. Historically, lord's day exposure was used to treat tuberculosis patients prior to antibiotic therapy with some success," Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine in the segmentation of infectious diseases at the University of California Los Angeles, told Healthline.

The CDC advises the best mode to avert a cold is to regularly launder hands with soapy water for at least 20 seconds, equally well as avoid touching the face up, optics, nose, or mouth with unwashed hands.

You should also try to avoid close contact with those who are cough and sneezing, as well as regularly disinfect frequently touched surfaces in the dwelling house similar doorknobs.

Morse argues that your grandmother might have been wrong almost communicable a cold from getting wet, simply it may still exist worth listening to some of her communication.

"Your grandmother probably was right well-nigh staying warm and comfortably dressed when going outside, keep skilful health habits… good diet, stay hydrated, avoid overexertion. And if you accept the flu, try to stay home and then you don't give it to others," he said.