Winter is coming, is your blood pressure still good?
When the winter is approaching, why is it cold? Nesting at home, three or five friends, eating a hot pot to drink a little wine, playing cards and numbness in the afternoon after eating, this sounds really the warmest thing in the cold winter.
When the winter is approaching, why is it cold? Nesting at home, three or five friends, eating a hot pot to drink a little wine, playing cards and numbness in the afternoon after eating, this sounds really the warmest thing in the cold winter.
However, everyone with high blood pressure should be careful. Blood pressure usually rises during the cold season. There are several risk factors for cardiovascular disease in the above scene.
Increased risk of cardiovascular disease in winter
After the weather turned cold this year, several celebrities left us and they were embarrassed. In fact, every winter is the season of different ghosts. The number of people who died of diseases in the cold season increased significantly. Compared with summer, the cardiovascular disease-related death rate increased by 41% in winter, and stroke-related deaths increased by nearly half. Sexual heart disease deaths increased by one-third [1].
There are multiple mechanisms associated with the relationship between cold and cardiovascular disease, one of which is that cold causes elevated blood pressure, leading to high cardiovascular disease and increased mortality.
Low temperature in winter makes blood pressure rise
Many hypertensive patients will find that blood pressure is lower in summer and higher in winter, and sometimes it is necessary to increase the drug to stabilize blood pressure. There are many reasons for the increase in blood pressure in winter, and the most direct factor is temperature. At low temperatures, the skin will feel cold. In order to reduce heat loss and avoid excessive temperature drop, the blood vessels will contract under the regulation of the nervous system and hormones, causing blood pressure to rise.
Such an adjustment not only increases blood pressure and heart rate, but also concentrates the blood, increases the burden on the heart, and reduces the blood supply to the heart muscle. When the blood pressure rises too fast, the blood vessels contract strongly, the plaques in the blood vessels are easily broken, and the risk of myocardial infarction is further increased [2]. Studies have shown that for every 10 °C reduction in outdoor temperature, systolic blood pressure (high pressure in blood pressure) increases by 6.2 mmHg, and for every 10 mmHg increase in systolic blood pressure, cardiovascular disease-related mortality increases by 21%. And at the same low temperature, the increase in systolic blood pressure in patients with cardiovascular disease is more than twice that of healthy people [3], so it is more prone to accidents.