This is the Cold That Never Ends
Photo by Alan Thornton/Getty Images
Global warming is giving Britons (and presumably the rest of the world, as well) a never-ending case of the sniffles because milder temperatures mean that the common cold is hanging around longer and longer, according to Professor Ron Eccles, director of the Common Cold Centre at Cardiff University. (My inner fangirl is squeeing, “Cardiff! Where there is a rift through space and time!”)
From an article in The Daily Mail:
Warmer winter temperatures are causing people to catch milder infections, he argues. But far from being the good news this might sound, it means the body doesn’t produce enough antibodies to fight off the virus completely and prevent it coming back.
So you’ll get the same cold over and over again, and in some case, never actually be rid of it. Deja-voodoo.
If you do catch a cold, counterintuitive as it may sound, you actually want it to be severe because serious infections kickstart your body’s antibody-defense system, which gives you longer-lasting immunity.
If temperatures continue to rise, a “longer but less severe cold season” could “merge into autumn and spring. We could end up like the tropics, where they have colds all year round.” Good times.
(If you’re nursing a cold, check out Ideal Bite’s all-natural recommendations.)
Related articles:
1. The Warming of Greenland
2. Manhattan in January
3. CO2’s Double Identity
4. Your Carbon Diet
5. Global Warming Will Alter Character of the Northeast
6. Lick Global Warming
7. The Canary Project
8. Kids Starting to Feel the Heat
9. It’s Getting Hot In Here: Act Now
Online resources:
1. Undo It
2. StopGlobalWarming.org
3. An Inconvenient Truth
