If you’ve spent some time in Portugal, you’ve probably heard the older folk, especially the ladies, complaining about the “correntes de ar”, those pesky air draughts that love to “apanhar o peito” and keep giving them the sniffles, colds and chesty coughs.
This is more or less the Portuguese equivalent version of the old wives’ tale of catching a cold if you go out with wet hair or catching a “chill” if you don’t wrap up in colder weather.
So, how many grains of truth can we find in this?
Pathophysiologically, the only thing that can make us ill is a virus that enters our body. The degree of illness will then depend on our ability to fight and destroy that specific virus … and there are literally hundreds of strains of the various blighters, with the rhinovirus species being responsible for over 50% of the common colds (closely followed by the coronaviruses, respiratory syncytial virus, human parainfluenza viruses, adenoviruses, etc etc etc).
Strictly speaking, even moderate hypothermia (that is when the core body temperature goes below 34ºC) can have a very significant impact on our immune systems. At those low body temperature levels, there is inhibition of the adaptive immune processes, reduced production of all our fighter cells and altered expression of key inflammatory genes and communicating enzymes, resulting in a general suppression of cellular defences.
However, even a mild reduction in temperature in the upper airways (our noses and throats) can provoke a restricted blood flow to those tissues (through cold-induced vasoconstriction) resulting in delayed defensive responses. This allows for an unopposed increase in replication rates of the respiratory viruses, as the natural killer cells are much slower in getting to “ground zero” of the viral attack.
So, even if getting chilled and being in draughty conditions cannot actually make you ill, it can potentially put an extra strain on your immune system, and if that is already undermined due to other pre-existing conditions, increased physical and psychological stress levels or if you’re already fighting off a cold, it may make you feel sicker and for longer.
“If your body is fighting off a cold, and then you compound it with the stress of trying to stay warm, it may affect the recovery period of getting over a cold,” says Lilly Immergluck, M.D., a professor of microbiology, biochemistry and immunology at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta.
But then, can taking extra vitamin C, or zinc, or vitamin D prevent you getting a cold, you ask?
Scientific metanalyses have not shown conclusive evidence in favour of taking such supplements, however, vitamin C and zinc do help maintain healthy skin and tissue integrity, which act as our natural protective barriers, thus blocking cellular entry of pathogens. They can also potentially support immune cell accumulation and act as strong antioxidants.
There appears to be more evidence in support of vitamin D as an immunomodulator through its role in suppression of excessive inflammatory and auto-immune reactions as well as promotion of immune cell production. However, there is no evidence of it having any benefits once illness sets. So, in this case, prevention is better than cure.
Unfortunately, not all viral attacks can be prevented or thwarted, and illness can set in. Hydration and fever/temperature control are key treatment strategies, followed closely by chicken soup, otherwise known as Grandma’s penicillin!
Having soup not only helps thermoregulation and hydration, there actually is scientific evidence (albeit scant) that it does work as a curative treatment.
A research team from the University of Nebraska Medical Centre published a study in October 2000 showing that the key ingredients of a cold-busting chicken soup (namely onions, parsnips, celery, parsley, turnips, carrots and chicken, etc) had a significant effect on the anti-inflammatory and mucous producing mechanisms in the human body, thus helping reduce the symptoms of a cold.
In Eastern European cultures especially, onions and onion syrup have played a key role in cold and flu treatments for centuries. The key component of such a concoction being quercetin (a flavonoid antioxidant that helps block inflammatory pathways and calm irritated tissues in the respiratory tract), as well as the organosulfur compounds released by onions, which possess natural antimicrobial and antioxidant properties that help combat minor throat or upper respiratory pathogens. I clearly remember drinking plenty of such syrups growing up … even when I wasn’t sick!
So, clearly not all old wives’ tales are such tall stories after all. And yet again, it would appear that Grandma does know best.
Stay healthy!
Read more article from Dr Joanna Karamon on health: Prevention rather than cure or The “supplemental” debate or The dreaded jab: from inoculations to vaccines…