5 ms·

> Also you may risk giving more people diseases This is an old wife's tale. Especially at 18C. No one is going to be getting diseases.

dpatru 5y ago
I get a runny nose if I get cold. Same for my children. From an energy perspective, this make sense. If the body is expending more energy trying to get warm or not get cold, it may not have the necessary energy to fight off germs. Also, the immune system works better hot, aka fever. Cooling the body can be expected to suppress the immune system. Before you dismiss proverbs (old wives’ tales), consider that they could persist because they’re true.
- leereeves 5y ago
  > I get a runny nose if I get cold. I was curious, so I looked it up, and according to [1] and [2], that's a natural reaction to help the nose turn cold, dry air into warm, moist air. "When cold air enters the nose, it stimulates the sensory nerves within the nasal cavity to activate a process via a cholinergic reflex or pathway. It causes the vessels in the nasal cavity to expand and become engorged, leading to congestion and mucus secretion which produces a runny nose. It’s a compensatory mechanism that’s trying to maintain ideal conditions inside the nose by adding humidity and warmth while filtering the air." 1: https://medicine.uq.edu.au/article/2017/10/why-does-your-nose-run-when-its-cold https://medicine.uq.edu.au/article/2017/10/why-does-your-nos... 2: https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/blog/is-the-cold-weather-causing-your-runny-nose https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/blog/is-the-cold-weather-causi...
- kaba0 5y ago
  I would like to see a source on that, but the human body is orders of magnitude more complex than to reason about things like “it has to expend more energy” and “fever is good”. You could pretty much derive every effect from every input with these low level “conclusions”. We have evidence-based medicine exactly because even when it would seem logical, biology puts a curve on that and the opposite of the intended effect happens.
- goodpoint 5y ago
  Dress up.
lucb1e 5y ago
I think when you're calling bullshit, in order for it not to become a he-said, she-said situation, you should provide any sort of source. If you sit still at 18°C, working on a computer, you'll get very cold before the ~3h of work in the morning is over if you don't also adjust your clothing. I don't find it such a leap to assume this body temperature change reduces your immune system, but then I don't really know. I'd be interested in the answer, but at this point OP's argument makes more sense to me than yours and neither is backed up with links so...
- driverdan 5y ago
  > I think when you're calling bullshit, in order for it not to become a he-said, she-said situation, you should provide any sort of source. You have it backwards. I'm saying there's no difference. The person making the claim there is a difference is the one who needs evidence.
- majewsky 5y ago
  > if you don't also adjust your clothing That's the thing though. If you live in an area where heating is required in the winter, you definitely have the necessary clothing to get through a period of 18 °C in your home.
  - lostlogin 5y ago
    You could take the terrible example we live by here in New Zealand. We pretend it doesn’t get cold, have poorly insulated and rather damp houses and just suffer through it. An inside temperature of 18 in midwinter sounds lovely. We also lack good wardrobes, but that might just be me.
    - Hallucinaut 5y ago
      NZ housing stock is truly atrocious. I knew it was bad but didn't appreciate how bad until living in the UK and going through winters sometimes without even needing to use heating (granted in apartments in that situation). Double glazing being near universal compared to pathetic aluminium frames are a major difference and leaky buildings top it off.
rozab 5y ago
Good study of excess winter deaths in Europe: https://jech.bmj.com/content/57/10/784 https://jech.bmj.com/content/57/10/784 >most countries suffer from 5% to 30% excess winter mortality >The strong, positive relation with environmental temperature and strong negative relation with thermal efficiency indicate that housing standards in southern and western Europe play strong parts in such seasonality
- driverdan 5y ago
  This isn't supporting evidence. It says nothing about the impact of lower temperatures on your immune system. It's a correlation with total mortality which could be caused by many other unrelated things.

dpatru 5y ago

I get a runny nose if I get cold. Same for my children. From an energy perspective, this make sense. If the body is expending more energy trying to get warm or not get cold, it may not have the necessary energy to fight off germs. Also, the immune system works better hot, aka fever. Cooling the body can be expected to suppress the immune system. Before you dismiss proverbs (old wives’ tales), consider that they could persist because they’re true.

leereeves 5y ago
> I get a runny nose if I get cold. I was curious, so I looked it up, and according to [1] and [2], that's a natural reaction to help the nose turn cold, dry air into warm, moist air. "When cold air enters the nose, it stimulates the sensory nerves within the nasal cavity to activate a process via a cholinergic reflex or pathway. It causes the vessels in the nasal cavity to expand and become engorged, leading to congestion and mucus secretion which produces a runny nose. It’s a compensatory mechanism that’s trying to maintain ideal conditions inside the nose by adding humidity and warmth while filtering the air." 1: https://medicine.uq.edu.au/article/2017/10/why-does-your-nose-run-when-its-cold https://medicine.uq.edu.au/article/2017/10/why-does-your-nos... 2: https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/blog/is-the-cold-weather-causing-your-runny-nose https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/blog/is-the-cold-weather-causi...
kaba0 5y ago
I would like to see a source on that, but the human body is orders of magnitude more complex than to reason about things like “it has to expend more energy” and “fever is good”. You could pretty much derive every effect from every input with these low level “conclusions”. We have evidence-based medicine exactly because even when it would seem logical, biology puts a curve on that and the opposite of the intended effect happens.
goodpoint 5y ago
Dress up.

lucb1e 5y ago

I think when you're calling bullshit, in order for it not to become a he-said, she-said situation, you should provide any sort of source. If you sit still at 18°C, working on a computer, you'll get very cold before the ~3h of work in the morning is over if you don't also adjust your clothing. I don't find it such a leap to assume this body temperature change reduces your immune system, but then I don't really know. I'd be interested in the answer, but at this point OP's argument makes more sense to me than yours and neither is backed up with links so...

driverdan 5y ago
> I think when you're calling bullshit, in order for it not to become a he-said, she-said situation, you should provide any sort of source. You have it backwards. I'm saying there's no difference. The person making the claim there is a difference is the one who needs evidence.
majewsky 5y ago
> if you don't also adjust your clothing That's the thing though. If you live in an area where heating is required in the winter, you definitely have the necessary clothing to get through a period of 18 °C in your home.
- lostlogin 5y ago
  You could take the terrible example we live by here in New Zealand. We pretend it doesn’t get cold, have poorly insulated and rather damp houses and just suffer through it. An inside temperature of 18 in midwinter sounds lovely. We also lack good wardrobes, but that might just be me.
  - Hallucinaut 5y ago
    NZ housing stock is truly atrocious. I knew it was bad but didn't appreciate how bad until living in the UK and going through winters sometimes without even needing to use heating (granted in apartments in that situation). Double glazing being near universal compared to pathetic aluminium frames are a major difference and leaky buildings top it off.

rozab 5y ago

Good study of excess winter deaths in Europe: https://jech.bmj.com/content/57/10/784 https://jech.bmj.com/content/57/10/784 >most countries suffer from 5% to 30% excess winter mortality >The strong, positive relation with environmental temperature and strong negative relation with thermal efficiency indicate that housing standards in southern and western Europe play strong parts in such seasonality

driverdan 5y ago
This isn't supporting evidence. It says nothing about the impact of lower temperatures on your immune system. It's a correlation with total mortality which could be caused by many other unrelated things.