As Louisiana settles in for a particularly brutal cold snap, plenty of people are huddling up indoors and cranking up the heat. While staying cozy inside is much more preferable to fending off the chilly weather outdoors, that’s the main reason colds and other illnesses spread in the winter months. Dr. Brobson Lutz, Health Spokesman for Orleans Parish Medical Society, emphasizes it’s not generally the weather itself spreading sniffles around the house; it’s staying in together and spreading a potential germ back and forth.
“Cold weather does not directly cause colds,” Dr. Lutz notes. “It does, however, facilitate the spread of viruses such as the common cold. That’s because people are spending more time indoors, close together and in close contact,” he went on to explain. Another important factor in the spread of viruses during the winter months isn’t the temperature of the air itself, but how dry it becomes.
Despite Louisiana’s reputation for humidity, that moisture drops in the dry winter months, and Dr. Lutz says that has a great deal to do with why colds and other viruses spread in colder temperatures. “Dry air reduces the body’s ability to trap and fight off germs in the nose. So, most viral respiratory infections peak in the winter. But, again, it isn’t the temperature itself … it’s the virus,” Dr. Lutz went on to emphasize.