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DALLAS -— Many people think January is a great time to get a fresh start on a new fitness routine, while many of us in Illinois use the cold weather as an excuse to huddle under the covers on the couch. No matter how you approach the new year, the American Heart Association has some important information about how to get healthy – and stay healthy – when the temperatures start to dip.
"There’s actually some advantages to working out in cold weather – with no heat and humidity to deal with you may be able to work out longer in cold weather which means you can burn even more calories. It’s also a great way to get much needed vitamin D from the sunlight, which can help elevate your mood," said John A. Osborne, M.D., Ph.D., FACC, FNLA, Founder and Director State of the Heart Cardiology, Metroplex Cardiology.
It doesn't matter if you are in downstate Illinois or the northern part of the state, getting out and exercising is good for you.
"Research shows that exercise also boosts your immunity during the cold and flu season, which can be especially important in dealing with possible COVID infection."
Osborne said if you can’t exercise outdoors, there are many online resources available to assist in developing a workout at home, or athletes can still visit a gym or even walk the mall if they use the appropriate precautions to protect against COVID.
If you are heading outdoors for exercise, winter sports like skiing or skating or if you have to shovel your car out of a snow drift, Osborne has some warnings. Aside from some of the well-known cold weather dangers such as frostbite or unsafe driving conditions, there are cardiovascular risks to consider. The cold causes blood vessels to contract and coronary arteries to constrict, which can raise blood pressure, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.
"Strenuous activities such as walking through heavy snow or snow shoveling can add stressors to the heart that people aren’t normally used to," said Osborne "Our hearts also have to work extra hard in cold weather to keep a healthy body temperature." Here are some tips to keep your heart in check during coat season:Stay active safely: Make sure you wear layers to keep warm while exercising outdoors to avoid cold weather hazards like hypothermia and frostbite and take breaks. It’s important to stay active year-round but make sure you’re not overexerting yourself in winter months. When in doubt, ask your doctor. Here are some tips on how to stay active in cold weather.
Stay hydrated: Just because it’s cold and you may not feel thirsty, it’s just as important to drink water like you would during a warm weather workout. Thirst isn’t the best indicator that you need to drink, even if you aren't sweating as much you still need to hydrate.
Watch out for the added calories in cold weather drinks: Comforting drinks like pumpkin spiced lattes and hot chocolate can be loaded with unwanted sugar and fat.
Get vaccinated: COVID-19 and the flu are especially dangerous for people with cardiovascular disease.
Learn CPR: EMS response times can be slower with inclement weather. More than 350,000 cardiac arrests happen outside of a hospital each ear. If administered immediately after cardiac arrest, CPR can double or triple a person’s chance of survival.
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"Strenuous activities such as walking through heavy snow or snow shoveling can add stressors to the heart that people aren’t normally used to," said Osborne "Our hearts also have to work extra hard in cold weather to keep a healthy body temperature." Here are some tips to keep your heart in check during coat season:
No doubt life is always changing. If you don’t like the weather it will change, eventually. It’s been hot most all over but cooler weather will come. In most of the country, cooler weather will be welcomed sooner rather than later.
An Arizona friend told me last week, “One hundred degrees is actually nice in our area. One hundred and twenty degrees is unbearable.” Across our country, Europe and Asia record temperatures have been recorded and for the longest periods of time.
When it’s icy cold weather we hope and wish for warm weather. The problem in many of our areas is that we don’t have much moderately cool weather or moderately warm. It seems to either be blazing hot or freezing cold.
It’s hard to be satisfied. We get too hot and then we get too cold. Triple digit heat is insane and so is below zero. No one wants either one.
Have you ever been satisfied with your Ife? When were you satisfied? Were you happy when your parent was telling you what to do and how to live? Do you still have them telling you what to do? The day comes when they are no longer around. Most likely you didn’t take as much advice from them as you should have.
We don’t pay much attention to old people when we are young but we wish we had. They knew more than us but we thought we knew everything. We now know how smart they were. We learn the hard way and by the time we figure it out life has greatly changed.
Life is always changing. Children grow into adults. Our bodies change. We get old if we are very fortunate and blessed.
If possible, try to be happy and content today with what you have, where you are and what you are doing. Life changes and while it may get better and better, it can always become worse.
Enjoy the sunshine and enjoy the rain. Enjoy the car ride or sitting in your swing. Enjoy whatever labor you have to do. The time is coming when all will be through. Live your life the best you can and there will be times you don’t understand. So, make your schedule, make your plans and always do the best you can. After all is said and done, it’s all in God’s hands.
To examine the impact of extreme temperatures with and without high levels of fine particulate pollution, the researchers analyzed 202,678 heart attack deaths between 2015-2020 that occurred in Jiangsu province, a region with four distinct seasons and a wide range of temperatures and fine particulate pollution levels. The deaths were among older adults with an average age of 77.6 years; 52% were older than age 80; and 52% were male. Particulate exposure on the day of each death and one day before death were included in the analysis.
Extreme temperatures were gauged according to the daily heat index (also referred to as apparent temperature) for an area, which captures the combined effect of both heat and humidity. Both the length and extremeness of heat waves and cold snaps were evaluated. Heart attack deaths, or case days, during these periods were compared with control days on the same day of the week in the same month — meaning that if a death occurred on a Wednesday, all other Wednesdays in the same month would be considered control days. Particulate levels were considered high on any day with an average level of fine particulate matter above 37.5 micrograms per cubic meter.
"Our findings provide evidence that reducing exposure to both extreme temperatures and fine particulate pollution may be useful to prevent premature deaths from heart attack, especially for women and older adults," Liu said.
Compared with control days, the risk of a fatal heart attack was observed at the following levels:
