We yabancılar get plenty of comedic mileage about what we see as the superstitiousness of Turks, especially when it comes to weather, health, and children -- from the waiter who solemnly warned my friend that she shouldn't let anyone other than herself or her husband kiss their baby on his face lest he develop allergies to the otherwise intelligent-seeming woman who was convinced that walking around barefoot while pregnant will result in a gassy child. And of course there are the old favorites about air conditioners giving you colds and sitting on bare ground freezing your ovaries.
But when I recently rearranged my furniture and then woke up the next morning with a stuffy nose and a scratchy throat, what did I blame it on? Having moved my bed so it was under one of my leaky windows. Now that's assimilation in action.
A discussion a few months ago about these types of beliefs led, as so many discussions often do, to some Googling, which revealed that there is indeed a scientific link, if not a full underpinning, to such ideas. While exposure to cold cannot technically give you a cold, British researchers showed that it can cause someone with a latent infection to develop symptoms:
When colds are circulating in the community many people are mildly infected but show no symptoms. If they become chilled this causes a pronounced constriction of the blood vessels in the nose and shuts off the warm blood that supplies the white cells that fight infection. The reduced defences in the nose allow the virus to get stronger and common cold symptoms develop. Although the chilled subject believes they have 'caught a cold' what has in fact happened is that the dormant infection has taken hold.Now perhaps I am indeed becoming too Turkish, but this distinction pretty much seems like a semantic one to me. If I "have" a cold, but am not sniffling, sneezing, coughing, or any of the rest, well, for all intents and purposes, I don't actually have a cold, now do I? And if avoiding catching a chill keeps from developing those symptoms, well, that seems like a pretty reasonable thing to do. I'm not moving my bed back, though. One has to draw the line somewhere.
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4 comments:
Turks, Mexicans...so different, yet...we called it "resfriar." I remember trying to explain it to Aaron once...we came up with the notion that it was an illness that only Mexicans get :).
And if you're preggers and there's to be an eclipse of the moon? Tie a red sash across your belly to protect the child. No really :).
Oh God, are they obsessed with drafts giving you colds in Turkey too? That drives me crazy here. What's so bad about getting a little cold now and then anyway? Germans are also obsessed with making sure their kidneys are always warm or (yep) they will immediately get a cold. I've tried mentioning that kidneys are bundled up in, um, blood rich membranes, but no dice...
It just seems like arrogance to assume automatically that we have all the right information. I mean some things are just silly and other things I am not sure with.
You and I have about the same notions about the "great draft debate." I have watched plenty of people sleeping with their mouths open all night like trap doors to hell and if there is a draft, then your throat may get dry and maybe that makes it easier for germs to penetrate the natural defenses. Who knows? I know I am no expert and have only my own experience as my guide in most cases.
But how the overcoat brigade can possibly explain closing all the windows on an overcrowded bus in the middle of August will always mystify me.
The little kids bundled up to their noses in snowsuits in April will always mystify me too, @nomad! But I agree that some of these "wives' tales" may have originally descended from something that seemed logical, or even had some basis in fact.
It seems like a lot of these ideas are common throughout at least the eastern parts of Europe, and apparently Mexico too...!
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