'Coming in with heart attacks:' Health experts on staying safe in dangerously cold temps
Staying safe in the extreme cold
It’s blistery cold. So bundle up, bundle up, bundle up. That’s advice from Dr. Candace Kimpson over at DMC Sinai. She says you can get frostbite when you see changes in blood flow and changes in color of your extremities, or "frost nip," which isn’t a medical term, but it’s when you feel a sensation in your extremities.
DETROIT (FOX 2) - With temperatures dropping to single digits over the next few days, it’s more important than ever to bundle up.
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It’s blistery cold. So bundle up which is advice from Dr. Candace Kimpson over at DMC Sinai. She says you can get frostbite when you see changes in blood flow and changes in color of your extremities, or "frost nip," which isn’t a medical term, but it’s when you feel a sensation in your extremities.
So cover up head-to-toe, especially if you have any underlying health issues like asthma or COPD.
When it gets this cold, people can even suffer a heart attack.
"Especially when people are outside kind of doing the maintenance of winter," said Dr. Kimpson. "We see a lot of people who say they were outside attempting to shovel their snow, and this extra exertion, especially in the cold temperatures, can cause quite a bit of stress on already fragile people. And we see people coming in with heart attacks, over-exertion. Just as sometimes you can overheat in extreme temperatures, extreme cold as well can be detrimental for fragile populations."
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She says what happens in the body is all your heat moves to your organs, leaving your fingers and other extremities to get cold.
So keep them warm, including your feet.
"That’s why it is important to cover your head, cover your hands, cover your feet as well," she said. "People might have on their boots, but they need to make sure they have on socks as well, that their socks are not wet because that can lead to additional damage, tissue damage when it’s exposed to cold. So dry socks, warm socks, hands and feet, head covered. And don’t forget the nose as well."
She says people don’t always think about the nose, which can get frostbite, so cover that too.