Cold weather does more than make you shiver. It impacts your body in different ways.
For example: Your nose keeps running. Health professor, Dr. David King, from the University of Queensland, says breathing in cold, dry air boosts blood flow to your nose and mucus membranes, to help warm and humidify the air headed for your lungs. And that causes “cold-induced rhinitis” – AKA a runny nose.
Cold weather can also trigger a bad back. Research found construction workers working outdoors, were more likely to have neck and lower back pain than those working indoors. That’s because cold air makes us tense up. And the colder the weather, the more pain we’re likely to feel.
Cold weather also raises your risk for blood clots. Our body constantly tries to maintain a core temperature around 98 degrees, to protect our cells and organs. But as our body temperature drops, the stress to maintain that temperature causes our blood to become thicker and stickier, and more likely to clot. And that raises your risk for heart attack or stroke. Health expert Dr. King recommends keeping the room temperature above 65 degrees, the level when blood starts to thicken. Also, wear layers, and keep moving throughout the day to keep blood flowing around your body.