- Immune system helps to defeat viruses better when at body temperature
- While most of the body stays at 37C, the nose struggles to get above 33C
- Keeping nose warm with a scarf in winter could help to keep you cold-free
Fiona Macrae Science Editor For The Daily Mail
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It seems mother was right: failing to wrap up properly may raise your odds of catching a cold.
Research shows the body finds it easier to fight off the common cold virus when it is nice and warm.
Three of the immune system’s weapons work better at a pleasant 37C.
The finding backs up the idea that people are more likely to come down with a cold if they get chilly, perhaps by not putting on a coat in winter or going out with hair that is still wet
Not wearing a coat in winter or going out with hair that is still wet could mean you’re more likely to catch a cold
But while the warning has proved popular with generations of mothers, scientists have sniffed at it, saying coughs and sneezes are not caused by a drop in temperature.
Instead, they have claimed the virus simply spreads more easily in winter, when we are crammed indoors in stuffy rooms.
The US researchers looked at how well rhinovirus, the bug that is the biggest cause of the common cold, survived in human cells kept at different temperatures.
This showed that a natural defence mechanism, in which infected cells self-destruct, kicked in earlier when the cells were kept at 37C (99F) than a chillier 33C (91F).
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A second defence mechanism, in which the virus’s genes were attacked and destroyed, was also stronger at 37C.
Earlier research by the same team from Yale University found that levels of an immune system protein which stops the virus from breeding were cut at the lower temperature.
Researcher Akiko Iwasaki said: ‘In this study, we found there are two additional mechanisms at play.
‘All are more optimal at 37 degrees.
‘Temperature has profound effects on anti-viral defences that affect the outcome of cold infections.’
Doing something as simple as keeping your nose warm with a scarf when venturing outside in winter could help keep you cold-free, experts believe
Crucially, while much of the body is usually at 37C, the nose normally struggles to get above 33C, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reports.
This suggests doing something as simple as keeping your nose warm with a scarf when venturing outside in winter could help keep you cold-free.
And by unravelling the workings of the immune system, the work points the way to drugs that keep colds at bay.
Such medicines would be popular with those whose winters are made miserable by cold after cold.
But they could also prove invaluable to asthmatics, whose risk of life-threating attacks is heightened by having a cold.
Professor Hugh Pennington, one of Britain’s leading microbiologists, said there is ‘no harm’ in wrapping up in a scarf in the winter.
If nothing else, it will stop you sneezing on others and so spreading the cold.
It will also prevent your nose going an unsightly red.
He added: ‘The best prescription for a cold is a hot toddy.
‘It has no medical effect at all but it makes you feel better.’
Typically, children get between seven and ten colds a year, compared to just two or three for adults.
Studies have shown that happier people catch fewer colds.
And it is not just that their sunny disposition makes them less likely to complain about symptoms.
When scientists deliberately infected volunteers with the virus, upbeat sorts were less likely to fall ill.
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