Drafts leading to illness

[Nootropic]

What's also important to understand is that viruses are not exactly made up as the same material as we are. The last I've heard is that they haven't exactly had a classification (though I haven't been stringent on viral researching...) of living or dead.

 

If you want to look at the atomic level of things, most living things on this Earth are made of nearly the same stuff. Genetically we are very diverse (interestingly enough we share some of the same genes but in vastly different arrangements). Depends one whether are you a reductionist or a holist, but I find that employing a combination of these theories provides a superior answer (depending on the situation).

[CraigD]

Why do drafts (as in gentle breezes) sometimes lead to illness, as in a soar throat, cold, chest cold, pneomonia, etc? Elderly people seem very prone to this, and I've heard one should keep birds and small pets away from drafts. And for some reason a simple draft seems more likely to cause such illness than a strong breeze would. Does anyone have any insight on this?

One doesn’t need to avoid drafts, or any single “stressor”. One needs to avoid having too many stressors at the same time for too long a time.

 

Though an oversimplification, the system in human and animal bodies that prevent them from being infected by disease pathogens – the immune system - suffers the effects of stress much like a person does – if stressed too much, it “gets tired”, and can fail to defend against pathogens.

 

When one is exposed to a cool or cold breeze, even a gentle one, extra metabolic energy is needed to maintain our nearly constant body temperature. This is an additional stressor, tiring our immune systems more quickly. Elderly people, people with severe diseases (especially ones that specifically attack the immune system itself, such as HIV/AIDS), can have “always tired” immune systems.

 

Usually, the greatest immune system stressor is lack of rest/sleep, especially combines with exposure to chilling conditions. Recreational drugs, especially vasodilators like alcohol, are additional stressors. Staying out all night drinking in a cold rain can cause even a young, healthy person to become ill.:shocked: ...(next day)... :) :hammer:

 

Not every condition that feels like illness (eg: sore throat, runny nose, cough) is. Dehydration – failing to consume enough water – or reaction to irritants and/or allergens such as dust and pollen can cause these symptoms without the significant presence of disease pathogens. Ones immune system can respond to these stressors as if they are diseases – (though not all immune system “false alarms” are due to allergy) a good definitions of allergy is “inappropriate immune system response to non-pathogens”.

[CraigD]

Do atoms hold onto something such as a cold or flu? Could this possibly have something to do with catching a cold?

I think this question indicates some misunderstanding about the relative size of physical things.

 

Atoms are, for practical purposes, the smallest things there are. All of the tissues in our bodies are made of them – mainly carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen (”CHON”) atoms. So are disease pathogens such as viruses and bacteria.

 

The smallest virus contain about a hundred million (10^9) atoms. A single bacterium is typically made of about a hundred billion (10^12). A big animal like a human being has about 10^28 atoms, while the biggest one, a blue whale has about 10^31. So the smallest disease pathogens are over a thousand times bigger than an atom than a blue whale is to a human being! An atom “holding onto” a virus is like a fly “holding onto” a truck – because of their difference in size, it just doesn’t make sense.

 

Illness is caused by small organisms made of at least 10^9 atoms. Individual atoms, although ones like lead and mercury can be toxic, can’t cause infections

In some hospitals they wear face masks and in some cases have their pacients wear face masks, so it's obviously something to do with your breathing.

Very true.

 

Most pathogens are transmitted by touch – someone sneezes into or gets feces on their hand, smears it into an invisible film on a railing or door knob, where another person touches it, gets it on their hand, then handles their face, where it get into their nose, mouth, or eye. Some, however, can travel “airborne”, usually within a tiny droplet of water.

 

Though a filter mask such as people wear in hospitals cant’t stop a virus, which is very tiny, it can stop the droplet of water the virus floats in, so a filter mask can stop most airborne pathogens. Frequent handwashing, and learning not to touch your hands to your face, will stop more of the more common pathogens, though.

 

There’s more discussion of this in the ”Pandemic Flu!” thread, including links to some health agency guidelines.