Medicine Warm noses protect against colds

Protection against colds: Keep your nose warm

08/01/2015

Adults in Germany have an average of two to five colds a year. Experts often disagree on how best to protect themselves from the unpleasant effects of a cold, such as colds, sore throats and headaches. According to a study from the USA, it makes sense to keep the nose warm to protect against viruses.

Expert and amateur tips against colds
Headache and body aches, coughing, throat pain and fatigue: On average, adult Germans have two to five colds a year. Experts and lay people often have tips on how best to protect yourself from a cold. Some rely on old home remedies and others think that boosting the immune system is the best protection. Another approach is to avoid stress and to sleep as much as possible. As a study from the US now shows, it makes sense to keep the nose warm to protect against colds.

Warm nose can protect against viruses
The fact that common cold viruses rarely cause infections in the lungs has so far been explained by the temperature-dependent proliferation of viruses, which is faster in the mucosa of the cooler nasal cavities than in the warmer deep airways. This writes the „Tagesspiegel“ in a recent post. Researchers in the US have now shown, however, that the innate immune defense plays an essential role. Thus, the defense of mucosal cells was after infection with an infection by rhinovirus at 33 degrees much weaker than at 37 degrees, as the scientists in the journal „Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences“ (PNAS) report. It may therefore make sense to keep your nose warm in winter to protect yourself from common cold viruses.

Lower body's immune system at low temperature
„In general, the lower the temperature, the weaker is the innate immune response to the virus infection“, so Akiko Iwasaki from Yale University in New Haven. When the researchers infected cultured mouse airway mucosal mucosal cells with rhinoviruses, it was confirmed that the viruses proliferated worse at the human body core temperature of 37 degrees than at the 33 degrees typical of the nasal cavities. „The lower the temperature, the lower seems to be the body's immune response to the virus“, said Akiko Iwasaki, professor of immunobiology and lead author of the study, who „world“ according to.

Wear warm in the cold
It even seems that the lower temperatures have more of an effect on the defense in the cells than on the multiplication of the viruses themselves. The researchers assume that the same applies to the mouse cells as to cells from human airways, and recommend warm clothing in cold weather. You should cover your nose better if you do not want to catch a cold. It is still unclear whether the results of the study are applicable to other viral agents of respiratory infections or whether they are only for common cold viruses. A general immune protection against colds does not exist anyway. (Ad)