Why Do We Get Colds When the Weather Changes?

The weather has suddenly changed. Summer has morphed into fall - and I have to adjust to the new reality! It takes a while. Now I often feel too hot or too cold... as I try to figure out how to dress in this in-between season. It will take me a couple of weeks to adjust. In the meantime, I feel as if I'm coming down with a cold. I got chilled outdoors one day, then spent an evening with several sniffling people - who weren't sure if they were suffering from colds or allergies...

So I've been popping pills to build my immunity - but the sense that my body is fighting off illness lingers...

I'm not sharing this to complain - but rather because whenever I feel like this, I think of two ESL students I taught at the University of Ottawa a few years back. My class consisted of a dozen foreign students, among them two research scientists from Iran who had come to Canada for post-doctoral studies. Both had backgrounds in medicine.

Their English improved to the point where we could talk about everyday things. I discovered, for example, that in Iran students have to pass stringent examinations to be accepted into university and that one of these men had not been a serious student when he was younger. He had not bothered to study for the entrance exams... and had failed on his first try.

Realizing that his future depended on attending university, he decided to apply himself - and was accepted his second time round. He went on to excel in medicine, and was now doing post-doctoral research. So academically he was no slouch.

One day I arrived in class with a cold - and I made some comment about wishing I had a magic pill that would take colds away.

My Iranian medical researcher replied: No, colds are necessary... the body needs colds.

Then his English failed him - he didn't have the vocabulary to tell me why this was true.

He went up to the blackboard and drew a series of diagrams with plus and minus signs (ions...?) He tried to explain what he meant - as I and the rest of the class tried to understand. It seemed as if something had to balance something... Gazing at our puzzled faces, he finally put down the chalk in frustration and sat down.

We were all so disappointed! We really wanted to know WHY!

So now - every time I get a cold (or feel as if I'm coming down with one), I think of that student and the knowledge he had to share... but couldn't.

I also scan health sections of magazines and newspapers. Perhaps some journalist has discovered the secret... Doesn't anybody else know WHY colds are sometimes necessary for the body?! Knowing why, I'd probably bear the discomfort more patiently!