The less sun we get and the farther north we live, the lower our blood levels of vitamin D get. Read more about that in our October, 2003 column. Your heart and bone health are strongly influenced by your vitamin D levels, and their best source is sunshine on your skin.
Falls on ice crack wrists, hips, and heads. To avoid them, widen your stance, bend your knees slightly, and lean forward slightly to keep your weight on the balls of your feet and prevent blind backward falls. Make sure any walking stick or cane you may use has a sharp point to penetrate the ice. Button your coat up snugly and be ready to toss that laptop or big purse aside so you can use both hands for balance or grabbing a railing if you slip. When getting in or out of your car on ice, hang on and make sure of your footing. When you do fall, do it incrementally – thigh, then hip, then shoulder – to spread the fall over several light impacts.
A great equalizer – and killer -- is snow. Shoveling is a particularly enormous strain on any heart, very quickly exceeding the safe limits for aerobic exercise. The heavier and wetter the snow, the faster the morgues fill up. Unless you’re a serious competitive athlete in need of a world-class workout, scrape it off rather than lifting it. Those opposed to or restricted from exercise can always use snow blowers or neighborhood kids. Shoveling’s level and duration of upper body exercise are extremely demanding; shovel much less snow and much less vigorously than you think you should. And don’t forget that a jammed snow blower can kick back and maim you even when it’s turned off. Clear a jam with a stick and stay out of the line of fire.
Bronchitis is usually a winter threat, and can usually be avoided. We discussed it in February, 1999. The bottom line: a bedroom humidifier may banish your bronchitis for good.
Flu’s even easier. Unless you know for a fact that you’re allergic to eggs, get a freaking flu shot, you wuss. Most people can’t feel the needle or any soreness afterwards, and influenza is AWFUL stuff. Those sniffles or”24-hour flu” things aren’t flu; they’re just “generic bugs” in your respiratory system or your gut. Once you get influenza, you’ll never again be afraid of a little flu shot. Besides, flu kills tens of thousands of Americans every year and may even lead to many of those winter heart attacks and strokes. In fact, flu shots may cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes by 50%.
