Ebola and climate change.

[rs]

I have a question that occurred to me last night. The Cs have stated that being cold can help protect against Ebola. They have also said that we are on the verge of an ice age that will come upon us "much, much, much" faster than our current science expects. I wonder if the two are somehow related. Perhaps the Ebola outbreak is setting the stage to bias the gene pool towards tolerating colder weather? Could this be part of a "natural", albeit somewhat unfortunate, process?

Yes, its probably a little "out there" but it occurred to me nevertheless.

 

[syldan]

In relation to your question 'rs', it made me wonder if Ebola might be a lot less virulent under cold temperatures such as in North America?

Question: Is it possible that Ebola will have a harder time spreading and infecting hosts under cold temperatures such as in North America during winter?

 

[s-kur]

I think that immunity is weaken when you in cold being NOT cold-adapted. Therefore, it easy for Ebola to attack you in the cold. Also, cold-adaptiton strengthens your immunity even in warm environment. Thus, if you're doing something like diet\cold adpatation you are protected doubly. OSIT

 

[syldan]

THANK YOU k-sur!!

 

[Keit]

I think that immunity is weaken when you in cold being NOT cold-adapted. Therefore, it easy for Ebola to attack you in the cold. Also, cold-adaptiton strengthens your immunity even in warm environment. Thus, if you're doing something like diet\cold adpatation you are protected doubly. OSIT

Yep, it's not the cold that makes us sick, but the lack of sufficiently resilient immune system. When in case of bacteria external temperatures can have some impact, for viruses it matters much less if at all. After all, both bacteria and viruses can survive a ride on a meteorite in the vacuum of space and when it enters Earth's atmosphere!

What does matter, is the general state of the immune system. Imagine it as an army with a specific amount of resources and fortifications. The more challenging external circumstances are, the more effort requires to keep everything protected. Also, the more versatile the virus, the harder is to be protected from it.

Take the common cold for example. It's not particularly harmful or lethal, but you can get it pretty easily, because there are so many strains and versions of it! Also because in a lot of cases its etiology is probably psychological and stress related. It can become harmful when it acts as a window to much more serious "weapons", though.

In any case, the point is, that when your immune system is compromised (by chronic inflammation as a result of gluten, casein and sugar consumption) and doesn't have a lot of "soldiers" or fortifications, even a small ambush can damage its defenses and make it wide open for the main attack. And since viruses need to enter the cell in order to reproduce, one need to work on strengthening the cell's membrane. And this can be done by eating a lot of fat. And cold adaptation can help with making the immune system more resilient, i.e., it wouldn't need to spend so much resources on keeping the body warm as much as it would need without the cold adaptation. Therefore, those resources can be used for the anti-viral protection.

But it easily said than done, and as a personal experience shows, it may take a while for the extra-protection to kick in, and also that stress, the pace of everyday life and a state of mind play a crucial role. But, hey, one must try to at least give the immune system the best chance to do its work!

 

[jsf]

I think that immunity is weaken when you in cold being NOT cold-adapted. Therefore, it easy for Ebola to attack you in the cold. Also, cold-adaptiton strengthens your immunity even in warm environment. Thus, if you're doing something like diet\cold adpatation you are protected doubly. OSIT

Have you read "return of the Black Death: The World's Greatest Serial Killer" ?

In this book you'll find that in 1666 and during the cold years, the plague epidemic was very much slowed.

 

[s-kur]

I think that immunity is weaken when you in cold being NOT cold-adapted. Therefore, it easy for Ebola to attack you in the cold. Also, cold-adaptiton strengthens your immunity even in warm environment. Thus, if you're doing something like diet\cold adpatation you are protected doubly. OSIT

Yep, it's not the cold that makes us sick, but the lack of sufficiently resilient immune system. When in case of bacteria external temperatures can have some impact, for viruses it matters much less if at all. After all, both bacteria and viruses can survive a ride on a meteorite in the vacuum of space and when it enters Earth's atmosphere!

What does matter, is the general state of the immune system. Imagine it as an army with a specific amount of resources and fortifications. The more challenging external circumstances are, the more effort requires to keep everything protected. Also, the more versatile the virus, the harder is to be protected from it.

Take the common cold for example. It's not particularly harmful or lethal, but you can get it pretty easily, because there are so many strains and versions of it! Also because in a lot of cases its etiology is probably psychological and stress related. It can become harmful when it acts as a window to much more serious "weapons", though.

In any case, the point is, that when your immune system is compromised (by chronic inflammation as a result of gluten, casein and sugar consumption) and doesn't have a lot of "soldiers" or fortifications, even a small ambush can damage its defenses and make it wide open for the main attack. And since viruses need to enter the cell in order to reproduce, one need to work on strengthening the cell's membrane. And this can be done by eating a lot of fat. And cold adaptation can help with making the immune system more resilient, i.e., it wouldn't need to spend so much resources on keeping the body warm as much as it would need without the cold adaptation. Therefore, those resources can be used for the anti-viral protection.

But it easily said than done, and as a personal experience shows, it may take a while for the extra-protection to kick in, and also that stress, the pace of everyday life and a state of mind play a crucial role. But, hey, one must try to at least give the immune system the best chance to do its work!

Great, Keit, i'm totally agree with you! thanks for explanation and addition of the information :)

I think that immunity is weaken when you in cold being NOT cold-adapted. Therefore, it easy for Ebola to attack you in the cold. Also, cold-adaptiton strengthens your immunity even in warm environment. Thus, if you're doing something like diet\cold adpatation you are protected doubly. OSIT

Have you read "return of the Black Death: The World's Greatest Serial Killer" ?

In this book you'll find that in 1666 and during the cold years, the plague epidemic was very much slowed.

No,i did not read this bok yet. I suppose that factor of slow epidemic distribution was caused by that population of that time was a lot less "spoiled by warm environment" and cold years strenghtens their immunity more effective and faster. I don't exclude that in the cold virus is less active/dangerous.

 

[jsf]

No,i did not read this bok yet. I suppose that factor of slow epidemic distribution was caused by that population of that time was a lot less "spoiled by warm environment" and cold years strenghtens their immunity more effective and faster. I don't exclude that in the cold virus is less active/dangerous.

From the book :

The disease struggled to survive the winter months in England, particularly during the Little Ice Age. Even in southern France, the virulence of the plague was demonstrably reduced during the colder months. It was generally appreciated by the seventeenth century that it was much less infectious in cold weather. W. G. Bell who in 1924 wrote the definitive history of the Great Plague of London, recorded that on 6th February 1666 [...]

I was probably almost impossible to be infected out-of-doors in a cold winter and even indoors the transmission rate was low, in spite of families being huddled together in their cold and draughty cottages. Evidently, this virus did not enjoy being exposed to cold air.

Tranmission was much easier in warmer climates and this observaiton gives us a clue as the source of the disease [Africa], which is discussed in the next chapter.

[...] We discovered that epidemics could continue in very cold weather but transmission of the disease was much more difficult under these conditions. Infection was probably impossible out-of-doors.

In the other hand,

[...] It is clear that even the exceptionally cold weather of an Icelandic winter did not halt its progress; the infection must have een spread inside the snug farmsteads.

The plague reached practically the whole of Iceland and the mortality was terrible, with 60-70 per cent of the population dying. [...]

So maybe the epidemic was mostly affected by the cold because it broke the "line of infection".

 

[s-kur]

So maybe the epidemic was mostly affected by the cold because it broke the "line of infection".

Or maybe it realated with lack of rains\fog\wet as discrebed here: http://www.sott.net/article/234667-Pestilence-the-Great-Plague-and-the-Tobacco-Cure

It is commonly found that lingering mists in the winter season usher in a wave of flu-like disease. Since, as I have already said, bacteria and viruses can act as condensation nuclei around which water droplets form, this apparent coincidence is not entirely unexpected and may not be a coincidence at all. In situations where rain falls as large drops there is not much chance of direct inhalation of nucleating viruses, whereas misty weather provides the incoming virus with the best opportunity to become dispersed in aerosol form in a way that can easily be inhaled near ground level.

so, when it was absence of fog\wet in winter period the main source of infection was "out-of-doors", i.e. from infected people. This bit has a sense if we suppose that virus has a cosmic origin. But if Ebola is NOT going from upper layers of atmosphere virus? We have a similar death rate as in summer as in winter seasons.

Also here an interesting article: http://www.sott.net/article/228189-New-Light-on-the-Black-Death-The-Viral-and-Cosmic-Connection

Where did these diseases go? Did the Black Death virus mutate, causing other fearsome diseases? What we do know is that a more virulent form of smallpox came to the fore in the 1630s and, just as the Black Death disappeared from the stage of history, smallpox took its place as the most feared of human diseases. We can only speculate. Smallpox virus, as opposed to the causative agent of the Black death, is very resistant to cold temperatures, making it a more viable virus. According to the data collected by Scott and Duncan which describe the disease process of the Black Death, hemorrhagic smallpox is almost virtually identical to the Black Death.