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Don't forget to wear a jacket, or you're
going to catch a cold-- or will you?
Hey, friends, Laci Green here.
Ai, ai, ai, it's that time of year again.
Everyone's getting sick, including me, sadly,
still getting over a little something something.
On Facebook, our "D News" friend Kristi Jimerson asks,
could you guys do a video on why we get sick in the winter more
than summer?
I've done some research, and there
doesn't seem to be any definitive answers
and I'm really curious now.
Me too, Kristi, me too.
It's conventional wisdom that people
tend to get sick more during the colder months.
In fact, the word "influenza" comes from the aged
Italian phrase, "influenza di freddo,"
or "influence of the cold."
There's an odd conundrum here, because scientists
have found again and again that being in the cold
doesn't actually make us sick or more prone to getting sick.
So that part is just a myth.
Even when we're shivering, our core body temperature
stays the same.
This is thanks to the magic of homeostasis.
So if it's not the cold that's making us sick, what is it?
The explanation scientists have to offer
is that when it's cold outside, people are crowded indoors.
All throughout the year at any given time, a few people around
you are infected with some kind of contagious viruses
or bacteria, even though they may not have any symptoms.
But in the winter, we're in closer contact with them,
which makes it infinitely easier for those bacteria and viruses
to hop from person to person.
We're also in closed air systems inside,
so airborne circulate through our homes, offices,
and schools, which brings me to my second perpetrator--
schools, or more specifically, germy, sneezy,
snot-nosed children.
A huge study at the University of Warwick
pegged children as the top spreaders of infection.
It's because they have the highest
number of daily social contacts.
Children go back to school, then they're kept indoors,
with their germy peers right around the cold season.
So they infect each other, and then
they infect their parents, who infect their coworkers.
And before you know it, the whole freaking world is sick.
The last contributing factor pertains to the flu
specifically.
Different microbes and viruses all
survive and transmit at different temperatures.
And for the flu, it transmits into cold.
At 41 degrees Fahrenheit, the flu virus is most stable.
It's ready to infect you and wreak havoc
on your body and life.
But as it becomes warmer, it's harder and harder for the virus
to transmit.
In fact, once the temperature hits 86 degrees,
the flu virus can't be transmitted anymore.
So there you go-- the key to avoid getting sick this winter
is to avoid all contact with other human beings.
Just stay in your basement this holiday season,
like the good little internet citizen that you are.
Or maybe just head off to your own private tropical island.
Thanks for joining me for "D News."
Hope this helped answer your question, Kristi.
If you folks have any other video topics you'd like to see,
let me down below on, or on Twitter at D News.
And we'll check them out.
Bye, bye.