Protect your heart during winter with 5 simple daily habits
Winter's chill silently strains your heart. Cold weather constricts blood vessels, raises blood pressure, and thickens blood, increasing cardiac workload. Combined with reduced activity and unhealthy eating habits, this season poses a significant risk. Simple daily practices like staying active, keeping warm, eating well, staying hydrated, and maintaining a consistent sleep schedule can effectively protect your cardiovascular health.
Winter health concerns usually revolve around colds, flu, or seasonal fatigue, but the season's subtle impact on heart health is seldom talked about. The cardiovascular system is essentially the outerwear of the body, and as the temperature drops, it goes through a series of changes to maintain the core heat and circulation.
Vessels constrict and dilate, heart rate varies, and in some cases, ordinary activities become more physically demanding. However, at the same time, habits also change. People typically become less active, consume more calorie-dense foods, and stay indoors for longer periods of time, with their sleep being affected. Individually, these changes may not be drastic, but together they provide a plausible explanation for why cardiovascular events are more common during the winter season. Cold weather is not the culprit causing heart disease, but it has the potential to exacerbate it, silently and subtly.
Why your heart could be in danger during winter
When exposed to cold weather, the cardiovascular system goes through several changes. A study published in the International Journal of Cardiology describing the winter cardiovascular disease phenomenon cites that lower ambient temperatures are linked to increased blood pressure, altered circulation, and changes in blood that favour clotting. These changes happen gradually and can even go unrecognised; nevertheless, they are putting additional pressure on the heart, especially in people with some kind of risk factors.
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Some common factors that increase winter-related cardiac strain are:
- Blood vessels narrow to conserve heat, thus increasing resistance to blood flow
- Elevated blood pressure levels during extended cold exposure
- Blood becomes thicker due to an increase in the number of blood cells, thus circulation slows down
- A drop in physical activity levels as a result of less time spent outdoors
- Winter diet habits, which are usually high in salt and processed foods
Five simple daily habits that help protect your heart in winter
The effects of winter on the cardiovascular system build up over time rather than happening all at once. They are the result of how the body reacts to cold, less movement, and disruption of the daily routine over and over again. Protective habits work best when they are a natural part of daily life rather than depending on short bursts of motivation. Helping circulation, warmth, nutrition, hydration, and sleep keeps most of the cardiovascular system stress away during the whole season.Daily habits that support heart health in winter include: