Maybe you love winter for its sparkling, romantic, beautiful snow -- presuming it’s not the knee-deep brown slush of a Midwestern city. Maybe you love it for the many sports opportunities it provides anyone who owns a coat. (Get out there and enjoy it, folks; the only weather that matters is the weather next to your skin.) Or maybe you hate winter but can’t tear yourself away from your roots, or your only trade is outdoor ice sculpting.
That about covers the rational reasons for living up north. Otherwise, move. Try sunny California and its constant 70 degrees and clear, blue skies. Oops . . . never mind. No place is perfect.
But, seriously, folks, winter offers health hazards everywhere from Barrow to Brownsville. Some hazards are worse up north, some worse in the south, but all are manageable. Read, heed, and make your winter easier wherever you live.
An obvious hazard is hypothermia. It’s forewarned by a shiver, starts with serious shivering and blurred speech, numbs your mind so you don’t realize it’s happening, and can progress through a variety of mental and physical symptoms to end in rigor mortis if not averted. It happens to infants, old people, and the ill most easily, even in moderate surroundings such as an overcooled room, because their temperature control mechanisms are compromised. Alcohol exacerbates cold’s effects and blottos our minds so we don’t care that we’re freezing to death. At a certain core temperature our body just stops producing heat and we’re doomed if no one gives us dry clothes, applies moderate external heat to our torso and head, and lets us drink warm alcohol-free fluids.
But hypothermia kills “only” about 600 Americans a year. What really nails people in the winter is heart and brain attacks (strokes) and congestive heart failure (CHG), which often peak dramatically in the winter, especially around the holidays. Even moderately cold weather raises blood pressure, which overworks the heart and ultimately may erode our arteries. It also changes blood chemistry so it clots – and clogs arteries – sooner. The holidays’ increased stress and excess fat, food and alcohol add a major hit to the cold weather, even where “cold” means 65 rather than LA’s summertime 75 or Phoenix’s 115 (seasonal daylight cycles are suspected as an additional factor).
Which brings us to SAD. Seasonal affective disorder renders one or two percent of us virtually inoperative with serious clinical depression. It’s probably due to oversensitivity to diurnal light cycle variations -- short days -- abetted by cultural factors (Russians and Icelanders don’t bother much with SAD). $pecial $AD therapy lamp$ help, but a walk in the sunshine is far more effective. Modern anti-depression meds are helping with SAD, but may introduce their own set of problems.
Maybe you love winter for its sparkling, romantic, beautiful snow -- presuming it’s not the knee-deep brown slush of a Midwestern city. Maybe you love it for the many sports opportunities it provides anyone who owns a coat. (Get out there and enjoy it, folks; the only weather that matters is the weather next to your skin.) Or maybe you hate winter but can’t tear yourself away from your roots, or your only trade is outdoor ice sculpting.
That about covers the rational reasons for living up north. Otherwise, move. Try sunny California and its constant 70 degrees and clear, blue skies. Oops . . . never mind. No place is perfect.
But, seriously, folks, winter offers health hazards everywhere from Barrow to Brownsville. Some hazards are worse up north, some worse in the south, but all are manageable. Read, heed, and make your winter easier wherever you live.
An obvious hazard is hypothermia. It’s forewarned by a shiver, starts with serious shivering and blurred speech, numbs your mind so you don’t realize it’s happening, and can progress through a variety of mental and physical symptoms to end in rigor mortis if not averted. It happens to infants, old people, and the ill most easily, even in moderate surroundings such as an overcooled room, because their temperature control mechanisms are compromised. Alcohol exacerbates cold’s effects and blottos our minds so we don’t care that we’re freezing to death. At a certain core temperature our body just stops producing heat and we’re doomed if no one gives us dry clothes, applies moderate external heat to our torso and head, and lets us drink warm alcohol-free fluids.
But hypothermia kills “only” about 600 Americans a year. What really nails people in the winter is heart and brain attacks (strokes) and congestive heart failure (CHG), which often peak dramatically in the winter, especially around the holidays. Even moderately cold weather raises blood pressure, which overworks the heart and ultimately may erode our arteries. It also changes blood chemistry so it clots – and clogs arteries – sooner. The holidays’ increased stress and excess fat, food and alcohol add a major hit to the cold weather, even where “cold” means 65 rather than LA’s summertime 75 or Phoenix’s 115 (seasonal daylight cycles are suspected as an additional factor).
Which brings us to SAD. Seasonal affective disorder renders one or two percent of us virtually inoperative with serious clinical depression. It’s probably due to oversensitivity to diurnal light cycle variations -- short days -- abetted by cultural factors (Russians and Icelanders don’t bother much with SAD). $pecial $AD therapy lamp$ help, but a walk in the sunshine is far more effective. Modern anti-depression meds are helping with SAD, but may introduce their own set of problems.