"Wrap Up" to avoid catching a cold

Your mother always warned you to wear a lot of clothing to stay warm...she had a point.

In a 180 volunteer study at the Common Cold Centre in Great Britain, researchers asked half of them to keep their bare feet in icy water for 20 minutes. They found 29% developed a cold within five days, compared with only 9% in the control group not exposed to a chill.

According to the study, if one becomes 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.

Of course, given how small the study was, more research is needed.

BBCnews.com