Winter a cruel month for heart patients

•The changed daylight hours adversely affect the hormone balance. Cortisol levels in the blood are altered. This is one of the possible reasons for increase in heart attacks.

•The low temperatures lead to tightening or constriction of blood vessels. This reduces the blood supply to the heart. This can aggravate angina and lead to blockage of an artery leading to heart attack.

•The oxygen demand of the heart increases because the heart has to work harder to keep the body warm.

•The early morning surge of blood pressure is an important reason for heart attacks being more common in the morning. In winter because of shorter day light hours, people often have a tendency to do outdoor work in the day. The combination of cold and hard work leads to higher blood pressure.

•The shift of activities to morning hours leads to an addition to the normal circadian rhythm leading to increase in heart rate, blood pressure and cortisol levels. This combination reduces the threshold of events like heart attack and brain stroke etc.

Migrating to warmer places not a great help

It has been seen that people at risk who migrate to relatively warmer places during the colder months can get caught with cardiac problems there too, due to infections. Inflammation produced by illnesses like influenza can lead to swelling in arteries of the heart and lead to heart attacks.

The smoke and smog in the winter months too is unhealthy for the heart.

People over 65 years of age, diabetics, patients with past history of cardiac illnesses can take influenza vaccine under medical supervision.

How to prevent a heart attack this winter

• Exercise

If you are not a regular, or want to change the hours of exercise, start slow. The heart can adapt to slow and progressive changes. It has much more difficulty in adapting to sudden changes.

Keep yourself warm when starting exercise. Patients with angina should avoid going for exercise on a very cold windy mornings. Wait for the temperature to come up.

• Heart healthy diet

Watch what you eat and drink. People eat more, drink more and gain more weight in winter. Watch your weight. Remember to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables.

• Blood pressure

It is a good practice to check your blood pressure in regularly in winters when it tends to be higher. The need of medication in high BP patients often needs a revision in these months.

• Remember the “Rule of 100”

a. Maintain a systolic blood pressure around 100 mms (at least less than 130 mms).

b. Keep your fasting blood sugar less than 100 mgs

c. Keep your LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) around 100 mgs/dl.

d. Keep your triglycerides around 100 mgs/dl (at least less than 150 mgs).Let this winter be a healthy one for all.

The author is Executive Director, Cardiology,Fortis Hospitals & Director, Cardiology, Escorts Heart Institute, New Delhi