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Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland

Scientists finally figured out why you rarely get sick in the summer

It’s to do with genes.

EVER WONDER WHERE colds get their name? Or why we’re all coughs and sniffles during the winter but are rarely sick in the summer?

Turns out our genes change with the seasons, just like the weather.

During the winter months, our bodies pump up the levels of many of the genes linked with inflammation, triggering the tell-tale signs of swelling and discomfort that our bodies use to protect us from colds and the flu.

In the summer, on the other hand, an altogether different set of genes get more highly expressed, including some that help regulate our blood sugar, potentially curbing cravings and helping us burn off excess fat.

A quarter of our DNA shifts with the seasons

Good Sunny Weather Sasko Lazarov / Photocall Ireland Sasko Lazarov / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

All this is the finding, at least, of a study published May 12 that finds that roughly 25% of all the chunks of DNA that code for various behaviors and traits in our bodies, otherwise known as genes, shift significantly with the seasons.

Many parts of our immune system, which kicks into action to fend off an infection or cold, shift too.

“I wasn’t expecting to find that many,” Chris Wallace, a researcher at the Diabetes and Inflammation Laboratory at Cambridge University and an author of the new paper, told Business Insider.

The researchers combed through data from previous studies looking at people’s DNA until they had information on roughly 1,000 people living in six different countries: Australia, Germany, the US, the UK, Iceland, and Gambia, a small West African country between Senegal and Guinea-Bisseau.

This way, they could get a look at people’s genes and how they changed (if they did at all) over time and according to their location and exposure to sunlight.

Our changing gene expression likely helps us fend off illness

In Europe they found the expression of inflammatory genes got ramped up during the winter months. Here’s a chart showing the difference in gene expression during the winter and summer months from a sample of German children whose data was gathered in 2013:

PastedImage-87362

But in Gambia, where there is virtually no winter, these inflammatory genes followed a totally different pattern: They were amplified in the rainy months, when mosquitoes are virtually everywhere and the risk of malaria is the highest.

Previous research has found similar seasonal changes in various components of the immune system. A study from last year, for example, found gene expression in red blood cells shifted with the seasons. This study, however, is one of the first of its kind to look at the whole picture, looking also at white blood cells and genes that play key roles in our immune response.

Good Sunny Weather Mark Stedman / Photocall Ireland Mark Stedman / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

Wallace and her team think this finding might shed some light on how evolution affected the way we respond to potential sources of infection or illness.

“It could be that our inflammatory response developed as a means of fighting things that are more abundant at certain times,” said Wallace.

So perhaps we’ve evolved that immune response in response to those threats of certain seasons — activating those inflammation-associated genes — and making us more likely to feel sick in the winter, but also making our immune system more active to fight off threats.

Read: Here’s why cold weather doesn’t mean global warming isn’t real

Read: Drone footage from the harshest place on earth will take your breath away

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    Mute Mogh Roith
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:04 AM

    Needs to be read by every gobdaw who says “what can government do, there is a war on” when discussing cost of living crisis.

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    Mute Gerard Carthy
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:26 AM

    @Mogh Roith: Yes if oil was intrinsically more expensive their turnover would be up but not profits. Price is speculation and profiteering on markets.
    Ditto grain. 2022 will be the second largest grain production year on record, and demand is falling somewhat. We’re quite likely to have to much grain this year.

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    Mute Lee King Buckett
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:52 AM

    @Mogh Roith: You have to split it out though, there is bugger all the Irish government can do about BP profits – they’re a UK based company and only the UK can do anything on that front.

    There is, however, something the Irish government can do about domestic utility providers by introducing caps or linking any increase in prices to the size of profits being made.

    Be aware though, that it needs to be done right – the UK have run a system of energy price caps for years now and the entire system there is now in turmoil with bankruptcies and now, in October, projected doubling of consumer costs.

    The caps won’t work unless there is a strong legislative framework to deal with price rise requests.

    Ireland does not do string regulation very well unfortunately.

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    Mute Jerriko17
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:10 AM

    Absolutely scandalous that the fossil fuel industry and also utilities including our own Bord Gais are posting huge profits at a time when us the user are faced with huge fuel bills…. Time to hit these guys with huge windfall taxes and start trying to switching to renewables. And not a dickie bird about this scandal from our politicians across most parties but when there’s a mention about a miniscule carbon tax, or someone questions turf cuting, they’re up in arms!!!! Maybe there’d be no need for carbon taxes if we had the cahones to take on the fossil fuel industry, bankers, multinationals… Etc etc etc.

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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 10:31 AM

    @Jerriko17: Is it ‘scandalous’ though? It’s been happening forever

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    Mute Michael Nolan
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 10:55 AM

    @Jerriko17: they have finally found a way to have a war without effecting profits what a world

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    Mute Jerriko17
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 3:07 PM

    @thesaltyurchin: No problem with companies making reasonable profits but this is a two fingers up to the rest of us trying to cope with the damage the fossil fuel industries has, and continues to cause. I’d call that scandalous!!! But those profits are probably funding part of our pensions so who wants to rock that boat!!! More than ever we need people with ethics and principles in politics but sadly they are very scarce.

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    Mute Shaun Gallagher
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:07 AM

    Read a few headlines to yesterday saying “relief for drivers as fuel goes under €2 a litre” so in other words its going to be always around that price now

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    Mute JedBartlett
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:12 AM

    @Shaun Gallagher: Yep, people are slowly being conditioned to be grateful that petrol or diesel is approx €2 per liter.

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    Mute Colm Coughlan
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:36 AM

    @Shaun Gallagher: Was always going to happen, get used to €2.13 being considered high and then soon as it hits €2 or lower we think we are getting a good price.

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    Mute Dave Barrett
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:03 AM

    Disgusting! When countries are struggling with living costs.

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    Mute FiannaFáilness FineGaelness
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:08 AM

    All of the big companies are making record breaking profits. Yet we’re in a global cost of living crisis. It’s not costs that are pushing prices up, it’s greed, profit hunting to the detriment of their consumers.

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    Mute Derek Lyster
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:27 AM

    @FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: they need to recover the losses they had during covid aswell as build up profits as more and more people move away from oil. We have found the new normal price so profits can be maintained as consumption goes down.

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    Mute FiannaFáilness FineGaelness
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 1:24 PM

    @Derek Lyster: BP supposedly (creative accounting comes into play always) made a loss of $5.7b in 2020. That was completely made back in 2021 when they recorded a profit of $12.85b for the year. In the half year to date for 2022 they have made $14.7b in profit. 1st quarter was $6.2b and 2nd quarter $8.5b. So yeah the only losses they experienced were in 2020 and they’ve already covered those losses and remain in profit.

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    Mute OConnelj
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:51 AM

    Why has my standing charge and unit cost of electricity increased while my provider claims that it is suppling 100% renewable energy? So are they lying or just price gouging?

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    Mute Billy McNamara
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 10:29 AM

    @OConnelj: I’d hazard a guess. Price gouging.

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    Mute Geoff Bateman
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:13 AM

    Was this all part of the Covid Plan???

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    Mute JusticeForJoe
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:33 AM

    @Geoff Bateman: Yep. Wait til they activate all the chips they put into the jabs too. When they turn them on, people will stop complaining and agree to let AIB close their cash branches

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    Mute Peter
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:19 AM

    Well thank god they are ok and made a little profit was very concerned for them that they wouldnt. Those executives need to have the massive bonus and options pack or they could be forced to mingle with the ordinary people.

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    Mute David Corrigan
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:30 AM

    @Peter: The holiday homes on Long Island have to be paid for and maintained!!!

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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 10:32 AM

    @David Corrigan: Even if they’re never lived in.

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    Mute Peter
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 11:05 AM

    @David Corrigan: you left out the pair of Lear jets just so they have a spare and of course the 10 high end sports cars they never use as they get driven around in the rolls.

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    Mute Dr. Emmett Lathrop Brown
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:13 AM

    No worries, our Government is “considering” a Windfall tax…

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    Mute Watchful Axe
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 3:25 PM

    @Dr. Emmett Lathrop Brown: Worldwide newspaper journalists need to get the full list of the big decision-makers on all these companies/international davos type clubs printed onto a deck of cards like the US did with their terrorist list. Send a deck to every journalist in the world.. Dig into every aspect of their lives and make their lives a living hell, 24 hr paparazzi; pay off bank workers; hire private investigators; door stop everything connected to them. The top 0.001% of the world’s powerful need the legs cut from under them, they’re making c you next tuesday out of the rest of us at this stage.

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    Mute Tony Mc Grath
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 12:34 PM

    Where are the figures for the Irish Companies and service providers here. It woul be interesting to see the profits of companies such as Electric Ireland etc. We’re all aware that there is no proper regulation in this country i.e whatever rise in prices they ask for, they get, without many questions being asked. Remember the farce of the Banks regulation.

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    Mute François Pignon
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:09 AM

    That’s gas!

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    Mute MickN
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 2:59 PM

    The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, as designed.. We are getting mugged and we should be electing people to challenge this but we don’t we choose pain, why?

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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 9:09 AM

    Money is a bore, nearly everything else is more interesting.

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    Mute Dean
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 1:37 PM

    There was me thinking inflation wasn’t caused by corporate profits

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    Mute james comiskey
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 4:44 PM

    It says in the article they lost over 20bn in Q1. But I guess most people were happy enough to just get annoyed with the headline.

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    Mute JC O'Connachain
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 7:04 PM

    Greed is a knife and the scars run deep

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    Mute J Mac
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    Aug 2nd 2022, 10:29 PM

    They are curbing inflation by crippling us all

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