[dpatru]

I get a runny nose if I get cold. Same for my children. From an energy perspective, this make sense. If the body is expending more energy trying to get warm or not get cold, it may not have the necessary energy to fight off germs.

Also, the immune system works better hot, aka fever. Cooling the body can be expected to suppress the immune system.

Before you dismiss proverbs (old wives’ tales), consider that they could persist because they’re true.

[leereeves]

> I get a runny nose if I get cold.

I was curious, so I looked it up, and according to [1] and [2], that's a natural reaction to help the nose turn cold, dry air into warm, moist air.

"When cold air enters the nose, it stimulates the sensory nerves within the nasal cavity to activate a process via a cholinergic reflex or pathway. It causes the vessels in the nasal cavity to expand and become engorged, leading to congestion and mucus secretion which produces a runny nose. It’s a compensatory mechanism that’s trying to maintain ideal conditions inside the nose by adding humidity and warmth while filtering the air."

1: https://medicine.uq.edu.au/article/2017/10/why-does-your-nos...

2: https://wexnermedical.osu.edu/blog/is-the-cold-weather-causi...

[kaba0]

I would like to see a source on that, but the human body is orders of magnitude more complex than to reason about things like “it has to expend more energy” and “fever is good”. You could pretty much derive every effect from every input with these low level “conclusions”.

We have evidence-based medicine exactly because even when it would seem logical, biology puts a curve on that and the opposite of the intended effect happens.

[goodpoint]

Dress up.