Medical expert of the article
New publications
Winter is a dangerous time for the cores
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
People suffering from heart disease can not compensate for their body's increased oxygen demand when inhaled by cold air. And this means that for some, cleaning snow and other activity in the frost can be dangerous.
This is the opinion of scientists from the College of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (USA), who conducted the study and figured out why cold air often provokes coronary attacks.
Inhalation of cold air during isometric exercises (this is the cleaning of snow, walking with a briefcase or with a laptop in a bag) can cause uneven distribution of oxygen through the heart. A healthy organism corrects this problem and redistributes the blood flow so that the heart continues to function normally. However, in those who have heart problems, the body can not cope with such a task. At a low temperature, the load on the heart increases significantly, so the peak of death from cardiac arrest falls precisely on winter time.
In the course of the study, the specialists studied healthy young people at the age of more than 20 years and a group of healthy patients who were over 60. Each participant checked the activity of the lungs and the heart.
To assess how the heart functions during exercise, experts asked the subjects to perform isometric (static) hand grips: such actions increase blood pressure. The participants squeezed the object they gave out and held it for two minutes, thus ensuring a consistent load on the heart. The obtained data showed that in the left ventricle, where oxygenated blood enters, there was a mismatch between the "supply and demand" of oxygen, although the heart still continued to function normally.
The work, according to its authors, demonstrates that a healthy organism adequately redistributes blood in the endocardium (inner shell of the heart cavity) during the combined stimulating effect of inhaled cold air and isometric exercise.