From M. H. Kettlewell
Bournemouth, Hampshire
Your 28 June report on Sheldon Cohen’s work on resistance to colds (This
Week, p 5) does not give enough information to prove that a feel-good factor is
boosting the immunity of people with wide social circles. Their background
history of colds also needs to be known.
Assuming that they have had lots of friends for a long time, it could equally
be that these people have been exposed to so many colds during their lifetime
that they have developed immunities to a greater number of rhinoviruses than
people who lead more isolated lives.
This is indicated by the finding that it was the diversity of the social
contacts, rather than their actual number, that was important. This finding
would surely correlate well with the number of diseases of all sorts
encountered, but not necessarily with happiness.
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