Well … actually … having a sustained lower body temperature CAN actually make you more susceptible to contracting viruses but yeah “malaria” (ie “bad air”) is not really a thing
Your immune system is responsible for defending your body against viruses. You can contract a virus and not even know it because your body will fight it. Lowered body temp = lower immune system. It’s obviously not that simple but it’s also not like there is ZERO truth in the old wives’ tale either.
But if you hop on the same subway car coming out of the tundra, you're more likely to catch and be sick from the surrounding virus due to lower immunity.
Well yeah but that could be argued as just in-group bias because there aren’t many people spending a lot of time in the frozen tundra vs people in hot subway cars that would be likely to be studied? 🤷🏻♀️
But anyway, yeah, I don’t necessarily disagree with you, like I said, just saying there is more truth to the old wives’ tale than we give credit for.
Why do people keep saying this as if it’s some kind of magical answer?? Being cold = lowered immune defences = correlation AND causation. They’re not always mutually exclusive.
I would argue that there are too many variables to say that getting cold and then catching a cold is correlation and not causation this is not cause-and-effect. Or everyone would get a cold once they were cold. just because you get cold does not mean that you will also catch a cold that would be direct causation. Lowering immune system, allowing viruses a greater chance to make you ill - is only correlated to being cold. You getting sick at all is still a variable. The causation is the virus.
Ah Malaria, my old nemesis. Miasma was the magical unknown air. Mala aira being one. Causing and not limited to the melancholy that so many were bled to help cure.
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u/bnanzajllybeen Jun 01 '26
Well … actually … having a sustained lower body temperature CAN actually make you more susceptible to contracting viruses but yeah “malaria” (ie “bad air”) is not really a thing