How to defend yourself from the cold at home – breaking latest news

If we had to summarize with a scientifically proven grandmother’s remedy, one of the ways to deal healthily with the oncoming colder temperatures would be eat warm and sleep cold: hot food at the tablema a few degrees less in the bedroom. An even more current remedy after the decree, signed on 6 October by the Minister of Ecological Transition, to contain gas consumption and which provides for 15 fewer days of heating and a reduction of one degree in homes, going from 20 to 19 C. This variation is in line with the indications of the World Health Organization which recommends that the domestic temperature be 20°C, with an oscillation of 2 degrees more and the same number less.

With the right precautions, the general healthy population does not notice the difference it explains George Sesti, professor of internal medicine at La Sapienza University in Rome and president of the Italian Society of Internal Medicine. There are few rigorous studies on the effect of the variation of 1 degree of temperature in an environment, the only ones are those conducted by the Japanese who pay great attention to the living microclimate. It has been seen that for a reduction such as the one envisaged in our homes, the arterial blood pressure varies by less than 1 millimeter of mercury, that is to say that if a subject has a “maximum” of 120 mmHg, it passes to 121. In general, a variation of this type is therefore not significant from the point of view of possible vascular damage.

Subjects at risk

The discussion can change with categories at risk, it is no coincidence that the rules of the decree exclude schools, kindergartens and places of care (hospitals and nursing homes). At home, some extra precautions must be taken for the very young children who do not yet have an adequate temperature regulation system, continues Sesti. They are for especially the frail elderly, often enticed, those most exposed. These patients not moving suffer from sarcopenia, a reduction in muscle mass and movement, one of the most important anti-cold mechanisms. Muscle contraction can be voluntary, such as when we stamp our feet or hands to keep warm, and involuntary, such as when we feel chills. In any case it requires efficient muscles that frail elderly people do not have. If this type of patient is at home, you have to worry about covering him more and better because a degree could be annoying. An elderly person in good health who prevents sarcopenia by getting advice from an expert on some exercises to be performed at home with one-kilo weights, for example. Carrying light shopping bags is also a great workout. Another more exposed category is that of the rheumatic patientsespecially those who suffer from Raynaud’s syndrome. and’impaired blood circulation which most commonly affects the hands and feet, making them cold, numb and discolored after exposure to cold temperatures. One degree of difference shouldn’t be enough to trigger it, but check with your doctor if you find you’re not feeling well.

Beware of bumps

In general, more dangerous is not the drop of one or two degrees, but exposure to a sudden change of 10-12 C. Going from a very hot to a very cold environment can put a strain on our cardiovascular system, she points out Matthew Cerri, neurophysiologist at the Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences of the University of Bologna. The sudden activation of the sympathetic nervous system, in fact, will ask the heart to increase its work in a more than significant way to distribute the energy necessary to increase the metabolism and therefore the production of heat throughout the body. At the same time, however, there will also be a massive skin vasoconstriction which will involve a greater work effort for the heart due to the increase in pressure that this entails.

Out of the savannah

It is true, however, that since we separated from our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, we have become more sensitive to the cold. When, five million years ago, a small group of chimpanzees abandoned the shade of the forest trees for the beating sun of the savannah, thus giving rise to an adventure that will lead up to us, they had to quickly adapt to the African heat; thus he lost his fur all over his body, except where the sun beats down incessantly, on his head. Millions of years later, however, the descendants of those brave chimpanzees found themselves exploring far more northern regions, and that hairless skin that was advantageous in the savannah instead became a weakness in cold climates, Cerri says. Consequently, since then, to combat the colder temperatures we have had to resort to technology, from clothes to fire and its evolution in domestic heating.

circadian rhythm

There is one room, however, that if you are a healthy adult it is good to keep it cooler: bedroom. Sleep and thermoregulation are deeply linked, concludes the neurophysiologist. When we fall asleep the brain is very sensitive to skin temperature. In this phase, in fact, the skin is sprayed with blood (vasodilation) which warms it up and immediately afterwards the body begins to cool down. The speed of this cooling is important to facilitate falling asleep. On this basis, thermal suits have also been tested which, by modulating the temperature of the limbs, can also help those suffering from insomnia fall asleep. To sleep well, therefore, it is necessary to have an environment that is slightly below thermoneutrality and that follows the circadian oscillation of body temperature during the night, when the body lowers the temperature until it reaches the minimum value in the morning. In this way it is never necessary to activate thermoregulation during sleep which will be of better quality.