Acute cooling of the feet and the onset of common cold symptoms

Background. There is a common folklore that chilling of thebody surface causes the development of common cold symptoms,but previous clinical research has failed to demonstrate anyeffect of cold exposure on susceptibility to infection withcommon cold viruses. Objective. This study will test the hypothesis that acute coolingof the feet causes the onset of common cold symptoms. Methods. 180 healthy subjects were randomized to receive eithera foot chill or control procedure. All subjects were asked toscore common cold symptoms, before and immediately after theprocedures, and twice a day for 4/5 days. Results. 13/90 subjects who were chilled reported they weresuffering from a cold in the 4/5 days after the procedure comparedto 5/90 control subjects (P = 0.047). There was no evidencethat chilling caused any acute change in symptom scores (P =0.62). Mean total symptom score for days 1–4 followingchilling was 5.16 (±5.63 s.d. n = 87) compared to a scoreof 2.89 (±3.39 s.d. n = 88) in the control group (P =0.013). The subjects who reported that they developed a cold(n = 18) reported that they suffered from significantly morecolds each year (P = 0.007) compared to those subjects who didnot develop a cold (n = 162). Conclusion. Acute chilling of the feet causes the onset of commoncold symptoms in around 10% of subjects who are chilled. Furtherstudies are needed to determine the relationship of symptomgeneration to any respiratory infection. Keywords. Cold exposure, common cold, infection, nose.