But, do you think the cold is the culprit that you get sick?
With this article I would like to deny this type of assertions and defend the theory that the increase of colds and infections in winter seasons is due more to our short exposure to cold and heat stress weakens us immunologically and makes our adaptations and strength These stressors are nil or very poor.
In our body there is a biological phenomenon called "hormesis", which, basically, is to subject a mild and tolerable stress to our body, resulting in adaptive responses that protect us against more severe stress. On the contrary, a low stress will not be a sufficient stimulus to generate adaptations and a high stress will overcome our tolerance capacity causing negative effects.
Examples of this phenomenon can be found in areas such as medicine, where vaccines of weakened viruses are injected to generate an adaptation that favors our protection against this strengthened virus. Another area where this phenomenon is clearly observed is sports training, since when we go to train we subject our body to a stress with the objective of supporting more and more severe stress, being able to understand how kilograms, kilometers traveled, etc.
However, if this stress is excessive, it may exceed our ability to recover and not generate positive adaptations, or even exceed the capacity of our immune system to cope with it, resulting, therefore, in a greater propensity to diseases, viruses or infections.
THE VICIOUS CIRCLE OF THE COLD.
What happens if, when the cold arrives, we are constantly avoiding it on the basis of heating in cars, houses or public places, as well as layers and layers of clothing or simply avoiding it just because we think it is negative?
First of all, the more we avoid this cold, the less prepared we will be to bear it and the less we support it the more we will avoid it because we think that the cold is the culprit. In the end it is a fish that bites its tail ...
However, the topic of exposure to the cold goes far beyond being a simple stressor or the concept of
hormesis, since it not only affects the ability to bear it but in several other aspects...
INFLUENCE OF COLD ON OBESITY AND GREASE LOSS.
Some studies relate the reduction in exposure to cold with the increase of obesity in places like USA and UK (Johnson, Mavrogianni, Ucci, Vidal-Puig, & Wardle, 2011). Some of the arguments presented by them are that reducing our exposure to cold causes:
- Less need to spend internal energy to keep us warm.
- Reduction of the body's ability to produce heat.
BROWN FAT.
This last argument regarding the capacity of our body to produce heat is conditioned by our amount of FAT.
I'm sure that when you hear fat you're already wishing I could tell you how to eliminate it ... However, you will want to increase its quantity when I tell you the following:
This fat is characterized by having a capacity to burn energy (fat and glucose) to produce heat. That is, it is fat that burns fat and calories.
However, its concentration increases with exposure to cold and decreases with permanent exposure to warm environments.
At this point we have:
↓ Thermal Stress (Cold) = ↓ Energy expenditure (Less brown fat activity) = ↑ Obesity and caloric surplus.
Beyond the brown fat, we find other factors related to health, exposure to cold and obesity, although it is necessary to understand a series of concepts:
LOW-GRADE INFLAMMATION: All major diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders, arthritis and cancers, involve chronic inflammation in the affected tissues and, in many cases, systemically (McDade, 2012 ).
ADIPOKINES: polypeptides produced by adipocytes (fat cells)
- Pro-inflammatory adipokines: they generate inflammation.
- Anti-inflammatory adipokines: decrease inflammation.
ADIPONECTIN.
Adiponectin is an anti-inflammatory adipokine.
Low levels of this adipokine have been linked to:
o Coronary disease.
o Hypertension.
o Left ventricle hypertrophy or
o Cardiac infarction.
o Atherosclerosis.
o Obesity, type II diabetes and metabolic syndrome
o Suppression of thermogenesis (heat production) from brown fat (fat burns fat)
On the contrary, high levels have been associated to:
o Protective effect of cells such as heart cells.
o Increased blood flow in cases of ischemia (blockage of flow)
o Decreases atherosclerosis.
o It promotes thermogenesis (heat production) from brown fat.
Several studies have associated the presence of adiponectin with exposure to cold (Imbeault, Dépault, & Haman, 2009) (Jankovic et al., 2013).
As an additional fact, a recent study shows that, by extracting adiponectin, our thermoregulation is only affected under conditions of thermal stress (cold) and not under normal temperatures in homes or public places (18-22 °), which results in we would only get benefits from its presence under cold conditions. This study also raises the possible use of adiponectin to treat cases of hypothermia (Wei et al., 2017)
CONCLUSIONS:
- Not submitting to cold disconnects us from our evolution as a species and, in addition, will decrease the presence of thermal regulators such as brown fat (produces heat from fat and glucose) and adiponectin (adipokine anti-inflammatory produced by fatty tissue), which seem have a positive effect on our ability to regulate ourselves internally in extreme or stressful external temperatures.
- A low presence of adiponectin and brown fat can cause us to be more vulnerable to thermal stress by having a threshold of tolerance to it very low (therefore at the minimum temperature drops 6 out of 10 people we know fall ill).
- As with any physical ability of our body to improve it we have to train and use it. However, it can be so bad not to undergo thermal stress as to submit excessively. Find your optimal dose and progress gradually with strategies such as cold showers, outdoor physical activity with little clothing, etc.
- We should not see the cold as the culprit of increased infections, viruses or colds in the winter, but our low immune capacity to cope.
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