Is Korean Fan Death Real or Are Butterflies to Blame?
Fan death is the alleged death or harm caused by running an electric fan in a closed room at night. 、
This folks belief persisted in Korea until the 2000s and to an extent the belief also existed in Japan.
Cooling off or attempted suicide?
The roots of fan death go much deeper than it may look at first glance and are not unique to Korea.
Katie Heany writes in the Atlantic quotes Frank Bures, author of The Geography of Madness. In his book, Bures writes that some ancient Chinese medical texts warned readers of “wind insanity” and even “wind stupidity.” Variations on these beliefs persist today, too; in Italy, people wear scarves around their necks to protect against colpo d’aria (a hit of air), and in the Czech Republic, some people fear the wind from air conditioners and refrigerators, believing they cause rheumatism, among other health issues. Most (if not all) Americans have been told not to go outside with wet hair lest we “catch a chill”
To begin I need to understand what wind is from a traditional East Asian perspective? Does the science support or refute this?
The character for wind in Chinese is 風. It has for worm or bug 虫inside of it. The concept is that wind isn’t just blowing air, there is an image of pathogens or tiny bugs hitching a ride on the wind.
Until recent decades Chinese characters were the lingua franca used for medical literature and scripture from Korea to Vietnam. Chinese characters were used for higher education the way latin is used today in medicine even though it is not what people speak in daily life.
Does research support the idea that air is not in fact empty, but teaming with life? Yes. In fact this microbial relationship to air is called the “aerobiome.”
Each of us has our own microbial cloud which interacts with the climate around us. Pathogens blow in on the wind and fight the microbes which have already colonized the landscape of our skin and organs as well as our personal atmosphere. Your aura is largely composed of fecal bacteria fighting off new microbes coming in on currents of air. It’s an Itty bitty bug beat down.
East Asians observed that temperature changes around Spring and Autumn lead to more wind and more sickness, a phenomena known in the west as “cold and flu” season or “allergy season.”
It was observed that sudden temperature changes weakened one’s resilience to illness.
Do microbes react differently with changes in temperature? Yes. This is why different microbes are in the air by day compared to night. Moss may enjoy the cooler evening compared to sun loving plants and the same variations are found in microbial life.
In the journal of wilderness and environmental medicine, “ Lavoy, Emily CP, et alia write, “Cold temperature and exercise independently impose stress on the human body that can lead to circulatory and metabolic changes, and depress the immune system. Multiple stressors applied together may amplify this immunosuppression, causing greater immune impairment and heightened infection risk than with either stressor alone.”
Let’s look at the Canadian journal of physiology and pharmacology to an article titled, “Cold exposure and immune function.” By Shephard, Roy. J, et al.,
The influence of cold exposure on immune function is reviewed. Data obtained mainly on small mammals suggest that the acute effect of severe chilling is a suppression of several cellular and humoral components of the immune response, including a decrease of lymphocyte proliferation, a down-regulation of the immune cascade, a reduction of natural killer (NK) cell count, cytolytic activity, activation of complement, and the induction of heat shock proteins. However, adaptation to a given cold stimulus appears to develop over the course of 2-3 weeks.”
Clearly we adapt over time, but it is a stressor to the immune system and one that may not be welcome for weaker or immune compromised people. Air is not empty. Microbes in the air change from day and night as do their metabolites. Your immune system also changes based on your circadian rhythms. If you live in a forest in Asia and you have your bed positioned between windows, you may get a cross breeze inviting fungal spores or other antigens inside. This was traditionally seen as bad Feng shui.風水. Literally bad wind and water because it can lead to sickness. The severity of this is less when you have home climate control, but the observation of people getting sick due to wind for the past few thousand years is no less real. If you are living in N. America in a less humid environment with larger houses and climate control this is less of a factor or even might not affect you in any significant way.
No your fan probably isn’t killing you, but trillions of microbes within the garden of your body can use tending so your immune system can stay strong and resilient from changes in microbes carried by fans and the wings of butterflies.
Here are some questions to ask regarding your health and wind:
Does your pain change significantly with shifts in temperature or wind?
Do you feel better in certain climates rather than others?
Does certain weather make you feel brain fog or feelings of depression?
If so, you may wan’t to get our from under the weather and see a TCM doctor.
To be honest I’m not as concerned about the fans as some asshole butterfly 10,000 miles away who’s little wings create tiny current of air that turn into a gentle breeze and later into a deadly typhoon that kill babies and bring tropical diseases. There should be a bounty on them.
Right, anyway, until we can destroy all butterflies for spreading diseases through the wind, let’s just live healthy lives, sweat every day, wear a scarf on windy days, and see TCM doctors for tune ups so we don’t have to worry about it. Cool? Okay, great. Until next time friends!
References: (I can’t read the first few, I stole them from Wikipedia)
"[그것은 이렇습니다] 선풍기를 켜고 자면 질식 또는 저체온증으로 사망한다는데…". 2 August 2020. Archived from the original on 2021-05-13.
"선풍기ㆍ에어컨 바람이 사망원인?". 18 July 2008.
^ "よく聞く「扇風機をつけっぱなしにして寝ると死ぬ」ってホント？". NAVER まとめ. Archived from the original on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2019-05-19.
「扇風機に当たったまま寝ると死ぬ」はホント！クーラーでも. 日刊SPA! (in Japanese). 15 August 2011. Archived from the original on 7 June 2019. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
Ima sugu sore o yamenasai : dokutā morita no yameru dake de kenkō ni naru gojū no hinto. Subarusha. 20 May 2016. ISBN 978-4799105207.
LaVoy, Emily CP, Brian K. McFarlin, and Richard J. Simpson. "Immune responses to exercising in a cold environment." Wilderness & environmental medicine 22.4 (2011): 343-351.
Kong XY, Liu CF, Zhang C, et al. The suppressive effects of Saposhnikovia divaricata (Fangfeng) chromone extract on rheumatoid arthritis via inhibition of nuclear factor-κ B and mitogen activated proteinkinases activation on collagen-induced arthritis model. J Ethnopharmacol, 2013;148:842–850.
Shephard, Roy J., and Pang N. Shek. "Cold exposure and immune function." Canadian journal of physiology and pharmacology 76.9 (1998): 828-836.
Johnson, Claire, and Ronald Eccles. "Acute cooling of the feet and the onset of common cold symptoms." Family Practice 22.6 (2005): 608-613.
Wilderness & environmental medicine 22.4 (2011): 343-351.
Chen, Chao-Wei, et al. "Action mechanisms of du-huo-ji-sheng-tang on cartilage degradation in a rabbit model of osteoarthritis." Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2011 (2011).
Li, R. Z., et al. "Studies of the active constituents of the Chinese drug" duhuo" Angelica pubescents." Yao xue xue bao= Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica 24.7 (1989): 546-551.
Boonarkart, Chompunuch, et al. "Exposure to cold impairs interferon-induced antiviral defense." Archives of virology 162.8 (2017): 2231-2237.
Zheng, Chun‑Song, et al. "Computational approaches for exploring the potential synergy and polypharmacology of Duhuo Jisheng Decoction in the therapy of osteoarthritis." Molecular medicine reports 7.6 (2013): 1812-1818.
Lowen, Anice C., et al. "Influenza virus transmission is dependent on relative humidity and temperature." PLoS pathogens 3.10 (2007): e151.
Liu H, Tian JM, Sun L, et al. Reactions of macrophage and lymphocyte subsets in normal mice to Radix Saposhnikoviae polysaccharide. J Clin Rehabil Tissue Eng Res, 2008;12:3475–3478.