12/22/16

By: Rylee Leonard

The first day of winter has finally arrived, and it’s safe to say it’s gonna be a cold one. Compared to last years second-most-mildest winter title, this year will definitely surpass the standards of temperate. With this being said, and the cold temperatures underway, it’s important to know how to escape the seemingly harmless, but deathly cold. As you go outside, you feel the freezing temperatures at your fingers and toes before anything else in your body. This is so your body can protect your vital organs, making your blood vessels constrict to preserve the heat. “What the body tries really hard to do is to protect the most important organs, which are the ones deep inside: the heart and brain and lungs,…The body tries to keep those warm by redirecting heat from the fingers and toes inward, so the blood vessels in the fingers and toes get really small, and not enough blood goes through them” (Dr. Suzanne Salamon, associate chief at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston). This is important for our bodies to do, and quickly, due to the multiple conditions that the cold can bring.

Unaware to the majority of our community, the winter chills can actually bring some health risks, some being fatal. Wintry weather has been commonly associated with heart attacks, asthma symptoms, frostbite and hypothermia, all of which are terminal to somebody if not being treated properly. More specifically, heart attacks are more than likely in circumstances where the temperatures are below freezing, and people are exerting physical exhaustion. Dr. Reed Caldwell, an assistant professor in the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Emergency Medicine at NYU, better explained it by saying that “Snow shoveling is one example where we see people who have heart disease, or risk factors for heart disease, exerting themselves more than they may otherwise. Shoveling is hard work; people who have cardiac disease and back problems are at higher risk for injury or illness while shoveling”. In addition, studies also have shown that the lungs are at risk as well. Even your eyes are a target for something like frostbite. With all the risks that come with an everyday visit outside, how can we protect ourselves from the cold and all its factors?

An obvious way to avoid the cold is through what you put on your body. Wardrobe is the simple way to keep yourself warm. Salamon noted, “It’s really important to dress in layers, so … put on more than one pair of gloves and then a mitten on top of that, because the air that’s trapped in between those layers help to keep you warm”. Not only that, but “Tight-fitting clothes are not a good thing, because you’re not able to get the benefit of the layers. You really need to have looser sweaters, to try to layer up. It helps to have a ski mask to protect your ears and your nose… If you get wet, take off wet clothes, because the wet clothes really make it worse. They make things colder. … Boots should be waterproof.” In addition to wardrobe, alcohol should also be avoided when spending a day outside. Your mental stability is impaired, and your brain may not be able to recognize symptoms of significant cold exposure. With these tips, and knowing all the risks, we can work to make sure that this winter is as warm, and as safe as possible.