Do Humans Change in Winter?
Last week saw a England being blanketed in snow. The angelic flakes fluttered down from the sky all through Sunday night making Monday look nothing short of a dream. My miserable Monday morning mood was replaced with a smile as I walked the crunchy footpath as the clear white landscape glistened all around me. It truly was “Beginning a lot more like Christmas.” The songs on the radio hit a different spot when the lyrics matched your mood, yes please just do “Let it Snow.”
I am a through and through summer girl and I hate the cold but I have a big soft spot for snow. Growing up in Moscow, snow there had an entirely different meaning. It was transforming, it was mesmerising, it was magical. The hard terrain was basked daily in a fresh new covering of white flakes that glistened immaculately in the streetlights. Every day was snowman day and everyday was sleigh down the slopes in the park day. My tiny legs that couldn’t normally reach the swings in the summer time had no difficulty in the winter as the layers of impacted snow brought the ground a good few inches higher.
The country was better equipped, and the transport and life just didn’t just halt because of snow. Everybody had snow boots and winter tyres. Russia’s heating comes centrally from the authorities – meaning the government turns your heating on and it remains largely on through the winter meaning your home is a toasty warm temperature in every room! In England, the reality of the snow is a very different one.
The country grinds to the halt just as the it snow takes it in city with the lightest envelope. The trains are cancelled, the schools are closed. As the temperatures hovers between plus and minus, the crunchy white snow can become grey and slushy only to freeze over again making you slip, trip and break your bones. When I was working in A&E and the number of wrist fractures coming through the front door skyrocketed in the snow.
But aside from accidental injuries the icy weather can sometimes cause, can the winter affect the human body in other ways?
Every year, tens and thousands of people in the UK die as a result of conditions that can be linked to exposure to the cold. The hospitals are heaving as a result winter pressures – beds are full and waiting rooms are overflowing.
Our internal thermostat or the “hypothalamus” is leading and co-ordinating a constant battle in conjunction with the rest of our soldier organs to maintain a core body temperature of around 37 degrees. This is regardless of the outside temperature. We all know we sweat when it’s hot and shiver when it’s cold. As the sweat evaporates from your skin, it takes the heat with it leaving you cooler. And as you involuntary shiver or voluntarily stamp in the cold, the work your muscles are doing is releasing heat injury. But you knew all that! However, the winter can affect our bodies in more profound ways.
Let’s start with the most light-hearted of the body effect…..You pee more in the winter
You must have noticed this – winter make you pee more. Yes you lose fluid from sweating in summer which you don’t in winter and have to get rid of the fluid through passing water but it’s not all it. Your blood gets redirected away from your extremities to the core of the body in a process called “peripheral vasoconstriction”. While this boosts the insulating power of the skin due to less heat lost from the circulating blood near the surface, more blood is concentrated in the core of your body, increasing your blood pressure. The kidneys response mechanisms then kicks in “the RAAS system” and goes ooh, I need to reduce this blood pressure and it does it by trying to reduce circulating blood volume by removing water into the bladder. This is called “cold diuresis”.
To one of the most serious body effect….Winter can kill you with heart attacks and strokes
Our blood becomes thicker in the cold making it more prone to clot. When these clots happen on the major blood vessels to the heart or the brains heart attacks and strokes occur which are some some of the biggest killers in the medical world. Coincidence that we see more heart attacks and strokes in the days following cold weather? A study by Keatinge found that with mild surface cooling, whole blood viscosity increased by 21 and arterial pressure rose on average from 126/69 to 138/87 mm Hg. It also saw increased the packed cell volume by 7% and increased the platelet count and usually the mean platelet volume to produce a 15% increase in the fraction of plasma volume occupied by platelets. This may phsyiosologically explain why there is an increased risk of coronary (heart) and cerebral (brain) thromboses (clots) in the winter.
Winter Weakens you Immune System
The cold also affects your body’s ability to fight infection. We all know the sniffles and flu and chesty cough are commonly tied to the winter months. The cold weather could suppress the immune system so the opportunity for infection increases. Flu seasons comes almost exclusively in the winter. This is because the colder temperatures makes viruses more stable structurally and infectious for longer. Lower temperatures slow down the chemical reactions that lead to viruses to break down for example. biologic, molecular explanation regarding one factor of our innate immune response that appears to be limited by colder temperatures.
Cold air rushing into the nasal passages makes infection more probable by diminishing the host immune responses. In fact, a study published in the journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology showed that reducing the temperature inside the nose by as little as 5 degrees Celsius kills nearly 50% of the billions of virus and bacteria-fighting cells in the nostrils.
Winter dampens your mood
S.A.D. Seasonal. Affective. Disorder or “Winter Depression”
My mood is always worse in winter. It’s cold, it’s dreary, the days are shorter with barely any sunlight. If I could, I always do try and book a winter escape, either to southern Spain or back home to Pakistan to heat my bones and better my temper. There may be a few explanations of this “winter depression.” Maybe it’s the reduced level of sunlight withs shorter days resulting in reduced levels of Vit D. Vit D boosts serotonin activity which is the “happy hormone.” Your internal body clock is also out of sync with daylight leading to further feelings of tiredness and depression.
How to keep healthy and happy in Winter
One of the best ways to stay warm and fire up your inner furnace. While salads and cool cucumbers maybe a delight in the summer, in winter herby soups and hearty stews and hint comfort foods to fuel your body for the extra energy it needs to keep you warm. Try and keep active and maintain winter hobbies, plan to see family and friends. Find and catch the limited sun as possible.
Winter Depression can affect 2 million people in the UK, so if you feel like you are struggling, so seek help. Helplines like the Samaritans, SANEline and Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) are there for any who need it.
And looking on the brighter side, an blanket of snow does look gorgeous and evokes the warm gurgly feeling especially when you have a hot drinks warming you hands. We had snow last week, there is still time and who knows we may just finally have the “White Christmas Dream” come true after all.