08Aug
As soon as the temperatures rise, we can swear by air conditioning. In the car, in shops and some Dutch people also have such a device at home. But why do we sometimes catch a cold from the air conditioning?
Nothing is as pleasant as the heat hits and you can cool things down at home or on holiday with the air conditioning. But you may also have experienced that you got a runny nose from that cooling device.
That our nose is actually the 'air conditioning' of our body. "As soon as cold, dry air enters through your nose, your nose tries to worry about it. The nose swells the mucous membranes, which causes the air to pass through the nose more slowly. This gives the nose the opportunity to moisten, warm and purify the air. And in this way, it can send the right air to the lungs."
No virus due to air conditioning!
The cold air makes the mucous membrane thicker and swollen, which makes your nose feel blocked. If you go to a warmer room, the swelling goes down again. "Then the fluid runs out of your nose and you have that cold feeling again," says the doctor.
In short, a cold feeling from the air conditioning is due to the function of the nose. You do not have a virus. She emphasizes that such an air conditioning cold goes away quite quickly. If you have a virus, such a cold can last a few days, or sometimes a few weeks.
Our nose just has to work harder when air conditioning is too cold. We emphasizes that it is better not to set the air conditioning too cold. If the difference between the air conditioning temperature and the outside temperature is large, the nose has to work much harder. She therefore advises not to set the air conditioning colder than about 4 to 6 degrees compared to the outside air. Enjoy our summer weather!
Dr. Anne Bakhit
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