Top Winter Myths

Here's the REAL truth to some of the things you grew up believing.

Despite what you THINK you know, here are the facts:

-- Cold weather DOES NOT cause colds and flu. Viruses multiply in warm, dry climates...meaning INSIDE is where you're more likely to catch something nasty. Furthermore, a study from Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine finds that cold weather may actually STIMULATE your immune system.

-- Eighty percent of your body heat does NOT escape from just your head. Heat escapes from ANYWHERE your skin surface is exposed to cold. So cover your head...AND everything else.

-- A shot of alcohol is actually one of the WORST things you can do to warm yourself up. Drinking alcohol can give you the sensation of feeling warmer, but it actually LOWERS your core body temperature. That temporary warm feeling you get is from your blood vessels dilating. That causes blood to move closer to your skin's surface and leads to more heat loss.

(New England Journal of Medicine)