The glass is freezing. Your throat feels cold. And somewhere nearby, there is almost certainly an Indian parent ready to say: Don’t drink that, you’ll catch a cold.It is one of those warnings that has travelled through generations with remarkable confidence. Cold water, ice cream, chilled drinks, they have all been blamed for everything from sore throats to colds. But there is an inconvenient detail in that familiar story: the temperature of your water is not what causes a viral infection.“5 degrees Celsius drinking water cannot cause a throat viral infection, 25 degrees Celsius water can’t either, “ says Dr. Aparna H Mahajan, Senior Consultant, ENT, Amrita Hospital, Faridabad, who points to a distinction that helps explain why the myth has survived for so long: something can make your throat feel worse without actually causing the illness.Cold water does not give you a cold, flu or sore throat. These illnesses require pathogens. Rhinoviruses are among the most common causes of the common cold, but they are only part of a much larger picture. More than 200 viruses can infect the respiratory tract and produce what people commonly describe as a cold.
So why does the warning seem to make sense?
Imagine someone already developing an infection. The virus has entered the body, the immune response is beginning and the throat may already be becoming irritated — but the person has not yet noticed anything unusual. Then comes a glass of iced water.The cold sensation can make an already sensitive throat feel uncomfortable. It may trigger coughing or make someone more aware of mucus or irritation. Suddenly, the timing looks suspicious: cold water was followed by a sore throat, so the water gets blamed.But the infection was already there.“The confusion stems from an interesting biological distinction: cold can cause a symptom without causing the disease,” the doctor says.That distinction is easy to miss in everyday life. We tend to connect events that happen close together, even when one did not cause the other. A chilled drink can produce a noticeable physical sensation almost immediately; a viral infection may have been developing silently for much longer.There is another popular belief that deserves a closer look: that cold drinks somehow “weaken immunity.”The biology is considerably more complicated.Cold exposure produces physiological responses, but that does not mean drinking cold water switches off the immune system. In fact, research examining cold-fluid consumption during exercise has found potential benefits in hot conditions, including reduced thermal strain and greater comfort. For someone exercising in intense heat, cold fluids can be useful rather than harmful.That does not mean everyone has to drink ice-cold water.Some people simply find it uncomfortable. Very cold drinks may temporarily alter sensations in the throat and trigger coughing, particularly when the throat is already inflamed, after prolonged vocal use or in people with sensitive upper airways.And that is where the distinction becomes important.“If you experience pain from cold drinks, frequent coughing, trouble swallowing or severe voice changes, do not repeatedly avoid cold water. Such symptoms can sometimes be suggestive of an underlying ENT, swallowing or airway problem that warrants assessment,” the doctor advises.In other words, discomfort should not automatically be dismissed as proof that cold water is harmful. If a particular temperature repeatedly causes pain or other symptoms, the issue may be the underlying sensitivity rather than the water itself.For most healthy people, there is a much simpler way to decide what temperature their drinking water should be.Drink it at the temperature that allows you to drink enough of it comfortably. There is no scientific requirement for everyone to choose warm water simply because generations of family advice have said so.So, can cold water make an already sensitive throat feel uncomfortable? Absolutely.But can a glass of chilled water create a viral infection?“Is it giving you a viral infection? No. Viruses do that. Ice cubes don’t,” dismisses Dr. Aparna H Mahajan.Perhaps that is the myth worth finally putting to rest: your refrigerator may make your water cold, but it does not make the virus.
