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How many times did you hear your mother tell you, "Put on a jacket or you're going to catch a cold!" or "Come in out of the rain before you catch cold!"

It's also a fairly common trope in Jane Austen-esque type movies that someone will be out in the rain and succumb to a high fever as a direct result to the chill.

Is there any truth to being cold directly correlating to fever or general illness?

Nate Eldredge
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Scottie
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  • possible duplicate of [Does being cold increase your chances of catching the common cold?](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/88/does-being-cold-increase-your-chances-of-catching-the-common-cold) – rjzii Feb 19 '15 at 18:55
  • Answers the question about colds, but what about fevers/chills? – Scottie Feb 19 '15 at 19:04
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    fevers and chills are not sicknesses. A "cold's" symptom is usually a fever. your claimed phrases even include your going to catch a "cold". – Himarm Feb 19 '15 at 19:09
  • also, if your cold to long you'll get hypothermia, http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hypothermia/basics/definition/con-20020453 – Himarm Feb 19 '15 at 19:14
  • In a more general sense, living in a cold climate reduces or eliminates the chance of catching many pretty nasty illnesess - Wikipedia has a list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_disease I also think (personal opinion) that spending time outdoors in cold weather reduces the chance of catching airborne communicable diseases. And maybe it's semantics, but I don't think htypothermia should be considered a illness, it's more like an injury. – jamesqf Feb 19 '15 at 21:28
  • @jamesqf Illness = an unhealthy condition of body or mind. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/illness if the OP wants to specifically state a virus/bacterial infection then he needs to fix his post otherwise, hypothermia fits the bill nicely. And you would call it a Disorder, most likely. The "chills" would also be another name for hypothermia, shaking cold, ect. fever is in referance to a bacterial or virual infection, and as rjzii pointed out, cold temp helps viral infections. "cold temperatures and low relative humidity are favorable to the spread of influenza virus." – Himarm Feb 19 '15 at 22:14
  • Also if the op clarifies for viral, then this is a dupe. – Himarm Feb 19 '15 at 22:21
  • @Himarm: So would e.g. breaking your leg while skiing count as a cold-related illness? Also note from the same link that illness is "a specific condition that prevents your body or mind from working normally : a sickness or disease". – jamesqf Feb 20 '15 at 00:05
  • @Himarm: Also note that cases of hypothermia are probably balanced out by cases of hyperthermia, AKA heat stroke. – jamesqf Feb 20 '15 at 04:42
  • @Sklivvz I'm not avoiding a play on worlds, he asked does being cold result in "general Illness". Hypothermia is a direct result of being cold, it disables your body, and can potentially kill you. – Himarm Feb 20 '15 at 14:03
  • I closed this as unclear because the notable claims are about common colds (duplicate) and the first answer was about hypothermia (which doesn't seem to be an answer, but is apparently disputable, showing the question is unclear.) – Oddthinking Feb 20 '15 at 15:35

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