Test Your Knowledge About the Common Cold

*True or False? Being cold increases the risk of getting cold

False: Generations of moms have said, "Bundle up or you'll catch a cold - but the best current evidence indicates that Mom was wrong"

In one well-regarded study, scientists divided volunteers into a "warm" group and a group that was damp and chilled. They exposed people in both groups to cold viruses. There was no difference in the incidence of subsequent colds between the two groups.

Opposing view: In a study recently reported in Journal of Family Practice, scientist did find a increase in colds in volunteers who soaked their feet in icy water for 20 minutes. This wasn't a controlled experiment, however. The scientists didn't know, for example, if the volunteers who got sick had more contact with people who already had colds than those who didn't get sick.

Wrote by William Schaffner, MD, chairman of the department of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a liaison member of advisory committee on Immunization Practices of the CDC. in The World's Greatest Treasury of health Secrets.. Newly Expanded.(2008)