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Comment by epo | Hacker News Reader

Seems kind of obvious, exercise strengthens the body and promotes general health. What next? wrapping up warm can prevent a cold? Slow news day?

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You're confusing the reporting of science with science.

The news article contains what (the media think) the public would want to know of the results.

The actual study (I'm not sure I can find it, but it appears to be a follow on from: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/497802 ) will use scientific methods to work out why this is true, not just that it is true.

One of the most poorly named entities I know of is "common sense". It's extremely uncommon. I can't tell you how many times I've went somewhere in winter and seen idiot mothers with their baby sitting in the stroller with it's belly showing. It's not a bad thing to keep repeating and demonstrating these kinds of health facts no matter how obvious they should be.

While exposing a baby to cold certainly isn't a good thing to do, I think colds spread in the winter by people being indoors so much. You catch a cold from another human, not from the cold wind.

Of course but getting too cold weakens your body and makes you susceptible to cold, etc. It can also lead to problems with the organs later.

> Of course but getting too cold weakens your body and makes you susceptible to cold, etc.

I seem to recall a big discussion on this somewhere on the internet a few years ago. From what I recall, there was very little science at all to back up the theory that you catch the common cold from getting a chill. At least to me, there doesn't seem to be a logical connection between the two.

The best reason I can think of is, when it is cold, everyone tends to spend more time indoors with the doors closed, giving a virus much more opportunity to spread amongst people. Another theory had something to do with nasal linings drying up (?) in the winter, making one more susceptible to infection.

If the chill --> catching cold theory was correct, wouldn't it seem likely that when you get really cold, as in shivering your ass off uncontrollably, wouldn't you be extremely likely to catch a cold? And I know anecdotally that that simply isn't true.

Is there even a reasonably logical physiological theory to backup the chill --> catch a cold theory, or is it simply an old wives tale?

There's also the issue of less sunlight in winter, therefore less Vitamin D.

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