Preventing Winter Heart Attacks: Your heart health may be affected by cold weather, particularly if you already have a cardiac disease. Numerous conditions, including low temperatures, wind, humidity, and air pressure, can cause it. To avoid a heart attack, you should be aware of how the winter can impact your heart health.
What Happens to Your Heart in Winter?
Though there are numerous ideas and certain risk factors, it is still unclear exactly what negatively impacts our heart health in the winter. During winter, our bodies undergo certain biological and physiological adjustments to function optimally. Your coronary arteries and blood vessels may narrow in the cold, which can raise blood pressure, restrict blood flow, and reduce the heart’s oxygen supply. All of these symptoms can eventually result in a heart attack.
Additionally, your heart has to work harder during winter to maintain a healthy body temperature. Winter can bring on hypothermia, a disorder that damages the heart muscles by causing the body to lose heat more quickly than usual. Additionally, seasonal affective disorder, or mental stress throughout the winter, can raise stress hormone levels, which raises the risk of a heart attack or stroke.
What are the Warning Signs of a Heart Attack?
A heart attack may produce a variety of signs and symptoms, differently in females and males. It usually starts in men with a chest ache that travels down to the left arm. It could feel like a muscle strain and linger for many minutes, with varying degrees of intensity. Females may experience symptoms like shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, sweating, jaw pain, dizziness, abdominal or back pain, nausea, and flu-like symptoms. On the other hand, a symptom or indication might not always be evident. Then, it is also referred to as silent ischemia or silent heart attack. In case you notice any of the above signs and symptoms, consulting with Dr. Ravinder Singh Rao for heart attacks is a prudent and crucial step toward prioritizing cardiovascular health.
Who is at Risk of a Heart Attack in Winter?
Those who are most vulnerable to a heart attack during the cold months include:
- Those with high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
- Those with a prior history of heart problems.
- Heavy drinkers and smokers.
- Those with high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
- Those who lead a sedentary lifestyle.
What Do You Do If You Think You’re Having a Heart Attack?
Give the ambulance a call right away if you think you are having a heart attack. Next, do the actions listed below:
- Take 300mg of Aspirin if you have it within your reach. It is crucial to understand, nevertheless, that using aspirin regularly to ward off potential heart attacks is bad for your health. Do not use Aspirin without consulting your doctor, especially if you’ve never had a heart attack.
- Sit down and rest.
- Wait for the ambulance and try to stay calm.
Does Chest Pain Always Mean a Heart Attack?
Chest pain may also occur due to conditions like muscle pull, indigestion, and pulmonary embolisms (a condition in which one or more arteries get blocked due to a blood clot). Or Angina (a condition caused when your heart muscles don’t get enough oxygen-rich blood).
How Can You Avoid Winter Heart Attacks?
Most of the time, people ignore the need to see a doctor and write off warning signs of a heart attack as simply dyspepsia or a strained muscle. According to the studies, the Urban population is at a higher risk of having a heart attack than the rural population. The main reason for this is our higher levels of stress, sedentary lifestyles, poor and unhealthy diets, and high pollution levels.
- Avoid Excessive Alcohol Consumption or Smoking: Drinking too much alcohol might cause your body to warm up more than is necessary, which can be hazardous if you’re outside in the cold. The body adapts to temperatures slowly, so drink in moderation (not more than two drinks a week). One should fully refrain from smoking. Heart failure or other heart problems are largely caused by cigarette smoking.
- Stay Warm, Especially if You Have Heart Problems: The blood arteries in your body may constrict during cold weather. Thus, wear layers of clothing that are warm before leaving. However, if your body is getting overheated, remove a layer until you release enough heat. Excessive heat can dilate your blood vessels, which will significantly reduce your blood pressure.
- Don’t Skip Exercise, Bring it Indoors: A sedentary lifestyle is one of the key contributing factors towards lifestyle diseases like diabetes and hypertension. Walking outside in the cold early in the morning, though, could be dangerous. Therefore, choose to work out indoors with yoga, pilates, or easy living room routines.
- Try to Manage Your Stress: Take breaks from work, and engage in hobbies or activities like painting or gardening. Try Yoga at home and meditate. Ensure you take regular breaks from work.
- Go For Regular Health Checkups: Even if they have no medical history, everyone needs to get regular checks. This is a list of tests that every person between the ages of 30 and 60 ought to take every year.
Tips to Protect Yourself in Winter Season
The most important thing is to make an effort to keep your body warm. Avoid subjecting your body to cold temperatures. That implies that, whether you’re sitting inside your home or out and about, you need to have enough variety of warm clothing. Heart patients are especially advised not to roam in cold, rough and windy weather. Stay inside if you have experienced any heart-related issues recently. However, avoid going from a chilly to a warm temperature or the other way around.
Some people simply switch on their room heaters and leave the room for somewhere desolate and quite chilly. People who are prone to heart attacks may find this dangerous, and their doctor will encourage them to take all essential precautions to guarantee good heart care. Take advice from your doctor especially keeping winter season in mind.