According to many tourists, it seems that we Italians suffer from mysterious ailments. Ailments that strike only our population and are unknown to them.
But is there really such a thing as Italian-only ailments?
According to some tourists, yes. According to Italians no.
It’s time to discover who’s right.
COLPO D’ARIA
I remember that when I was a child, my granny and my mother were always saying sentences like:
Copriti le orecchie o ti prendi un colpo d’aria! – Cover your ears or you’ll catch a colpo d’aria
Non toglierti il cappotto! Sei tutto sudata, ti prendi un colpo d’aria! – Don’t take off your coat! You’re all sweaty, you’ll catch a colpo d’aria!
Now, if you have ever lived in Italy for a while, you’ll certainly know that colpo d’aria, literally a whack of air, seems to be one of the main causes of health problems.
Have you ever had earache, backache, neck pain, sore throat, fever, a cold, headache, stomachache, or maybe the runs? If you haven’t caught the flu, according to Italians, you have most certainly caught a colpo d’aria.
Colpo d’aria is usually caused by cold air. If you’re not well covered up, you’ll most probably catch it. And if you think that you can catch a colpo d’aria only in Winter, you’re wrong! You can catch it in Summer too, especially if you’re blasted by air conditioning.
That’s why, depending on the period of the year, most Italians go around with scarves, hats, maglia della salute – a sort of vest, usually made of wool or cotton – or zipped up to their noses.
Now, for Italians colpo d’aria is absolutely real. So, is it really possible that in some cultures a similar ailment does not exist?
IS COLPO D’ARIA AN ITALIAN-ONLY AILMENT?
Searching on the web, I found out that Italians aren’t the only ones to believe that cold air can cause health problems.
Indeed, it appears that Romanians fear air drafts as much as Italians do. French think that courants d’air and coup de froid are a very real issue! And to my great surprise, I also discovered that Spanish too seem to fear the renowned corrientes.
What about English and Americans?
It appears that in England and in America there isn’t an equivalent for colpo d’aria. In fact, the most similar ailment to a colpo d’aria is a chill. However, according to oxford dictionaries, to catch a chill means only to catch a feverish cold. Instead, as I said above, colpo d’aria can give rise to a series of different symptoms, chills included. So basically, colpo d’aria and a chill are very different.
Now, if the belief that air drafts can cause some health problems isn’t limited to Italians but it’s shared by other countries too, there should certainly be at least a scientific research supporting this belief.
So, I starting surfing the web again. And, it seems that cold air can actually cause a series of symptoms…if you happen to live in arctic regions and aren’t well covered up!
Apart from this, I was rather surprised to find out that, even if on many Italian websites you can read about colpo d’aria and the relative consequences for your health, there seems not to be any scientific paper stating that cold air can cause ailments, neither in Italian nor in any other language.
Even after this finding, my Italian mind doesn’t want to surrender to the harsh reality. I can hear it asking itself: does this put the word end on this topic? No! This just means that there is no scientific evidence…yet, right?
What about you? Can air cause a series of ailments in your country? Or not? I’m curious to read your comments.
Credits
Original image by blickpixel
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At the end of the day I think it broils down to a nation wide lack of confidence and irrational fears about almost everything, a nation wide hypochondriac affliction.This always makes me think of a play written by Molière : The Imaginary Invalid (French: Le malade imaginaire).
Omg, I’ve just noticed your comment…very sorry for my late reply. Thank you for stopping by and share your thoughts with us! There must probably be something going on with irrational fear here if no research seems to have proven that “colpo d’aria” really exist. The thing here is also that this idea is kind of passed down from parents to children and so it’s very eradicated in our minds.
Ps: I love “Le malade imaginaire”
Bulgaria has the term techenie which means cold air draft. Majority of the Bulgarians believe it is a real cause of getting sick of cold, back and neck priblems and chills. They avoid using the ac due to fear of getting sick of the cld draft generated.
Ciao, it’s so interesting to know that you have a similar concept in Bulgaria! So we’re not the only ones in the world, lol! Thanks for sharing this :)
Np not catch a chill in the UK. That was only one thing. It was delays known to wrap up well or not sit in the draft as it would make you ill for a variety of things
From backache to ears he to pneumonia.
I grew up in Turkey, on the Aegean coast, and everyone blames their various ailments on cold air, especially air conditioning in the summer. It is simply impossible to convince Turkish people that this is not the case. So it must be a Mediterranean belief, like the evil eye!
Ciao Zeynep and thank you for finding the time to share your thoughts here. It’s so interesting to hear that even in Turkey there’s this belief! Of course, I know the feeling…growing up in Italy it was the exact same thing! Now I’m really curious to find out if it’s indeed some Mediterranean thing…
It’s definitely a Mediterranean thing! we have it as well in Lebanon! We call it شبقة هواء that literally means hit by air! According to our parents it happens if we shower and go out, if we sleep with our hair damp after a shower, if we go out without many layers in winter.
Ciao Natacha, it’s so interesting to hear that it exists in other cultures too. So, maybe Italians aren’t crazy after all! ;)