Quote:
Originally Posted by Amygdala
Being cold weakens your immune system which makes it possible for the germs to make you sick. Germs are there all the time, but they don't make you sick as long as they get the chance to!
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There've been quite a few studies of this, and as long as you've got a normal immune system to start, the chill doesn't significantly affect your immune system.
However, some recent studies have found that even small reductions in calorie levels actually does significantly affect the immune system adversely. So to compare the risks of dieting versus getting a chill - dieting is the bigger risk (I'm still going to do it though).
There's even some evidence that modern immune systems are weaker because we don't experience the wider range of temperatures that people did in the past (We stay warm and toasty most of the winter, and cool and comfy most of the summer, all at a nearly constant 65 to 75 degrees).
Now that I do have a compromised immune system (perhaps from the decades of yoyo dieting), I'm more careful about covering my head (more for my ears than for the head itself).
In college a group of us would swim in the winter and walk across the quad back to our dorms with wet hair. It would get crispy and frozen, but we never got sick from it.
Of course you can't judge by anyone's anectdotal experience, but in human biology and in developmental psychology classes we actually studied the research regarding cold affecting the immune system in healthy people. Repeated research couldn't find a connection.
swimming in the winter
