Does taking a shower then heading outdoors right after that increases your chances of getting a cold or flu?
443829
No. Germs cause infections that cause the cold and flu. If there are airborn germs, you can catch them that way, or if you touch a doorknob after someone else, and they have the cold or flu, you can get it that way too.
431645
No problem.  The hotter the better, according to what your comfort level is.  The humid air might help loosen up your congestion.  And it's sure to make you feel a little better.\n\nJust don't get chilled afterward.
193327
Actually you can pass the flu 7-10 days before you even have symptoms and during the time you are sick. It is passed through droplet form, good hand washing is a preventative. Gestation is also 7-10 days
904653
A cold or sinus infection wouldn't have been brought on by the cold (thats a myth) but that doesn't mean your not getting one. However, having your head submerged or even covered in icy water can bring on a headache all by itself. Take some Excedrin and maybe a bath or shower. Good luck.
160914
I shower just once before I go out to be in the public...\nNow if I happen to go someplace and it rains or I get dirty and didn't expect to, then I will shower again when I get home and get into clean clothes...
298937
I personally think it will make matters worse. I'm sick with a cold my 3 yr old brought home from preschool and chasing after both of the kids is really wearing me down. Usually by this time in the day I have the clothes done, the house cleaned, the kids bathed, and we have you usually done our morning stretches and jogged in place. But guess what none of it is done I'm just wore from the cold and chasing around. So don't work out just lay in bed and relax thats what I would do if I could. I hope you feel better.
798400
It isn't very conventient, but carry a little bottle of hand sanitizer with you wherever you go. Germs are more likely to be transmitted by something you touch and then you rubbing your eyes or nose, not necessarily through the air.\n\nWash your hands when you can and sanitize them often and keep taking the Airborne and hopefully you'll make it.\n\nI have a cold right now, but don't worry, I don't think I can transmit it over the web. Achoo!
217419
Seems like you got a virus infection, each time you feel cold the virus spreads...no chance to stop it within 24 hrs if its just started... the bad part:\nPhysical stress esp. sports during this period of infection can get you killed (heart infection)\nBe smart and stay in bed...take it as sign, try again next time.\nGet well soon :)
73564
You only get sick from germs...but....when your body temp drops due to cold weather and your hair chills you rather than warms you...you make your body more prone to illness as your defenses drop.
905133
I have previously passed on the flu shot because when I have gotten the flu (1 or 2 times) it was mostly cleared up 2 or 3 days later and didn't seem like a huge deal.\n\nHowever, I recently moved to DC where I'm now in contact with a lot more people than before, so I figured my odds of getting it were higher, and I started a job where I can't just take off time, so I got the flu shot.\n\nSo to answer you question, I used the same thinking that you mention.  I don't think that there is any harm in getting it.
1006415
'Wrap up' advice to stop colds\nScientists say cold noses reduce ability to fight virus attacks\n\nMonday, November 14, 2005; Posted: 4:47 p.m. EST (21:47 GMT) \n\nLONDON, England (CNN) -- British researchers into the common cold say "catching a chill" really does help colds develop -- and are advising to "wrap up warm" to keep viruses at bay.\n\nMothers and grandmothers have long warned that chilling the surface of the body, through wet clothes, feet and hair, causes common cold symptoms to develop. \n\nBut much previous research has dismissed any link between chilling and viral infection as having no scientific basis. \n\nNow researchers in Cardiff, Wales, say they can prove drops in temperature to the body really can cause a cold to develop. (Watch what they did to 'chill' people in the study -- 3:24)\n\nClaire Johnson and Professor Ron Eccles, from Cardiff University's Common Cold Center, recruited 180 volunteers, half of whom they got to immerse their feet in ice and cold water for 20 minutes.\n\nThe other 90 in tests during the common cold "season" sat with their feet in an empty bowl. \n\nDuring the next four or five days, almost a third (29 percent) of the chilled volunteers developed cold symptoms -- compared to just 9 percent in the control group, the scientists said. \n\nProfessor Eccles said there was a simple explanation as to why chilly feet could lead to the development of cold virus symptoms. \n\n"When colds are circulating in the community many people are mildly infected but show no symptoms," he said, according to the UK's Press Association. \n\n"If they become chilled this causes a pronounced constriction of the blood vessels in the nose and shuts off the warm blood that supplies the white cells that fight infection. \n\n"The reduced defences in the nose allow the virus to get stronger and common cold symptoms develop. \n\n"Although the chilled subject believes they have `caught a cold' what has in fact happened is that the dormant infection has taken hold." \n\nThe researchers, writing in the UK medical journal Family Practice, said that common colds were more prevalent in the winter than the summer, and this could be related to an increased incidence of chilling causing more clinical colds. \n\nBut they also suggested that another explanation could be that our noses are colder in the winter. \n\nProfessor Eccles added: "A cold nose may be one of the major factors that causes common colds to be seasonal. \n\n"When the cold weather comes we wrap ourselves up in winter coats to keep warm but our nose is directly exposed to the cold air. \n\n"Cooling of the nose slows down clearance of viruses from the nose and slows down the white cells that fight infection. \n\n"Mothers can now be confident in their advice to children to wrap up well in winter." \n\nCardiff's Common Cold Center says it is the world's only center dedicated to researching and testing new medicines for the treatment of flu and the common cold.
589899
no...I think the only way someone can catch a cold by being cold is that the cold weather may slightly lower the immune system so that you are more vulnerable to catch a virus.\n\nHowever, eating ice cream with a cold will not do anything, but the dairy may cause an increase in phlegm production, which would not help your congestion.
235917
because its cold - and you body have to work to keep it's temperature up - there for your body is more tired at the end of the day... and as a result its more apt to getting a cold. It is probably no different than any other virus that you may get in the summer... but they just call it 'allergies' or a 'cold' ... and when it is winter they call it the flu... i mean, think about it... how do they diagnose the flu... you walk in and say im sick, i feel like crap... here's whats wrong with me... they say... you have a cold - in the summer time... and they would say 'you have the flu' in the winter time... they prescribe the same stuff for them... since it's a virus you can't treat them.. they aren't curable... but you can treat the symptoms... which helps you feel a hell of a lot better at the end of the day!
326037
Myth. \ntaking a shower after sex will not reduce your chances of infection\n\nFact\nAids can only be tranfered to a person through contact body fluids  such as semen, blood, and vaginal discharge.\n\nFact/myth/plain dump\n\nunless you could take your vagina out and put it in the wash cycle or wring out your penis after hand washing it.
484476
NO. YOU CAN ONLY CONTRACT IT BY VIRUS (THE OPEN SORES) TO SKIN DIRECT CONTACT (WHICH CAN HAPPEN ON HARD SURFACES LIKE A TOILET SEAT BEING THAT YOU  WOULD SIT DOWN RIGHT ON ANY VIRUS LEFT BY THE INFECTED PERSON. THE WATER KEEPS YOU SAFE FROM DIRECT CONTACT OF THE INFECTED PERSONS OUTBREAK. PLUS IF IT WERE TRUE DOCTORS EVERYWHERE WOULD TELL YOU NEVER, EVER GO IN WATER THAT THE PUBLIC USES-WHICH IS BASICALLY EVERYWHERE-BEACHES, SWIMMING POOLS, HOT TUBS, LAKES, ETC.
746908
Chances are real good you will get sick.
220189
Yes deedee. Your body becomes tense and cramped. It is a form of anxiety and tension building up. Your body is reacting to the cold weather by building up warmth within you. It will release any excess fluids but it will also generate heat as you get up to go to the bathroom.\n\nLove\nBaby Doll