Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, January 1

Winters are likely to bring up more chronic diseases into focus. One of the most prominent is cardiac diseases. According to experts 31 per cent increase in heart attacks in the coldest months of the year has been seen as compared with the warmest.

Dr Mohit Bhutani, an interventional cardiologist, said cold can reduce the oxygen-rich blood supply to your heart muscle. It can put you in situations that force your heart to work harder; as a result, your heart demands more oxygen-rich blood.

Cold can reduce supply of oxygen-rich blood

Dr Mohit Bhutani, an interventional cardiologist, said cold can reduce the oxygen-rich blood supply to your heart muscle. It can put you in situations that force your heart to work harder; as a result, your heart demands more oxygen-rich blood.

This is likely to happen because blood pressure increases during winters as temperatures drop, your blood vessels tighten and blood flow speeds up to help you stay warm, he pointed out.

Another reason could be the increase in blood immunity naturally in winter to prevent you from seasonal flu and cold that can pile the plague in your arterial walls. Flue and fever also increase oxygen requirement thus makes heart beating faster.

One should be aware of subtle signs that may be chest pain with pressure and discomfort in the chest with pain in the upper body and limbs.

Dispelling doubts, Dr Bhutani said the pain is not necessary to occur only on the left side, but can also be on the right side. Fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness, sweating is more likely to show in females than an acute chest pain. The best way to protect yourself is to stay warm, especially people with an old cardiac history and above 65-yr of age.

Dr Raghav Sharma, senior interventional cardiologist at a private hospital, said Covid infection is a disease that causes inflammation by means of the release of interleukins and cytokine storm. It can affect the heart by causing inflammation of heart muscles, known as myocarditis. Hence, patients who are infected with Covid should be treated for heart disease if they show signs.