Does weather affect the flu season?

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - Flu season aligns well with the winter weather season. But can the colder weather or changes in weather be blamed for making us sick?

The 22News Storm Team looked into the impacts that weather can have on this flu season.

Coughing, sneezing, fever, body aches; flu season is here just in time for the coldest part of winter.

Most doctors tend to agree that there is little evidence that the weather gets you sick, but it's hard to completely ignore the myths you've been told as a child.

"You see enough anecdotal evidence that people say, I've got a chill and then I got sick the next day, that there may well be something about getting a chill that lowers your immunity, lowers your resistance so that if you're exposed to the virus you're more susceptible to getting sick from it," said Dr. Ira Helfand from the Family Care Medical Center in Springfield.

While the flu isn't directly caused by changes in weather or dropping temperatures, those weather factors certainly don't help stop it spreading.

Colder weather keeps people indoors and in closer proximity to others, making transmission of the illness easier to do.

There's also some thought to suggest that the less snowy the winter, the more you're likely to leave the house and contaminate others.

For Melissa Wojcicki, she's just recently got over the flu and regrets not getting a flu shot.

"It takes a while to get over this one and it took me a good week and a half to fully get through. You're in for staying inside at home with the chills, probably in bed coughing a lot," said Melissa Wojcicki of Ludlow.

Dr. Helfand recommends if you think you have the flu or if someone in your home does, go to a doctor immediately who may prescribe the drug Tami flu to help battle the symptoms.