It’s the confusing month where Tuesday is 75 degrees and then Wednesday is 41 degrees: March, the transition between winter and spring. When people are getting sniffles and unsure if it’s a cold or allergies season starting. That being said, this change of weather is resulting in a lot of people getting sick. In some classes, half the students are out from sickness. Many people may not be aware, but the rapid and fluctuating change of temperature may be partly to blame.
The most basic explanation is that the changing weather weakens your immune system. The immune system is your body’s defense system and is what keeps out sickness and disease. So with a weakened immune system, people are more susceptible to falling ill, catching a cold, or in terms of the current sickness spreading around SPFHS, catching the stomach bug.
The reason why our body’s immune system weakens during the changing of seasons is because it gets used to functioning normally at a certain temperature. So when that temperature suddenly changes our body has to try and readapt. Since the temperature is fluctuating so much at the moment, our body is in a way “confused”, and has trouble readapting, thus leading to the weakened immune system.
It’s also not uncommon for people who didn’t have allergies previously to acquire allergies, and are unsure if it’s a sickness. At this time of year especially, different pollens and other allergens are surfacing and floating through the air. This can irritate nasal passages and lungs and cause coughs and mucus. Not only is this bad enough, but it can make you more susceptible to the flu and colds.
The weather changing also has added negative impacts on people with specific conditions, such as asthma, where it can lead to more coughing and wheezing.
Now that you know all this, here’s how to prevent it.
First, be sure to always dress warm. It’s not uncommon for people to start feeling the weather getting warmer and wearing short sleeves, shorts or skirts in anticipation for spring. However, it is often not warm enough yet to wear such attire, which leads to people falling sick. Always better to be safe than sorry, and, around this time, if you’re going to wear short sleeves or skirts be sure to keep a sweater handy.
Second, wash your hands. It’s something that we’ve been taught since kindergarten but unfortunately, may it be because of rushing back to class or just forgetting, not everybody does. Since our immune systems aren’t as strong during this time, be sure to prevent the spread of these harmful germs and don’t let them get spread to you by washing your hands. On top of that, it would even be beneficial to keep some cleaning wipes in your bag to wipe down tables and chairs that could hold the germs.
Lastly, avoid excessive physical contact. The way that many students have caught the stomach bug is from sharing food, hugs, etc. Especially right now, try to keep physical contact to a minimum in order to, again, prevent the spread of these harmful germs.
Stay healthy SPF!