Lifestyle by Gabrielle Bauer BETTER BLOOD, EASIER BREATHING In this second of four articles exploring how snowbirding can benefit your health, we zero in on two all-important organs: your heart and lungs Among the numerous rewards of snowbirding, the benefits to the cardiovascular and respiratory systems surely make the short list. Even if you already have heart or lung disease, the warm air may keep it from getting worse. Let’s start with your ticker. Simply put, cold weather puts a strain on the heart − think of trudging through all that wet snow. The older you are, the less effective your “internal thermostat,” so the harder your heart has to work tomaintain your body temperature. The cold also bumps up the risk of developing blood clots, which could lead to a heart attack or stroke. And did you know that your blood pressure rises immediately when you put your forearm in ice-cold water? Enough said. A large study of people of retirement age confirmed that the heart and blood vessels fare better in warm weather. In the study, investigators looked at the effect of ambient temperature on well-known risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol. What they discovered: for every 5°C increase in temperature, total cholesterol decreased by 0.1 mmol/L, LDL (bad) cholesterol decreased by 0.05 mmol/L, and systolic blood pressure decreased by 1.1 mmHg. Even when lifestyle factors such as physical activity and alcohol consumption were thrown into the analysis, these climate-based differences persisted. If you’re taking statins to lower cholesterol, you can take added comfort in the research suggesting that statin users are more likely to achieve their target LDL in the summer than in the winter. A 2018 study published inThe Journal of the American Medical Association − involving more than 250,000 people − looked not just at cardiovascular risk factors but at actual heart attacks. The results left little room for doubt: for each increase of 7.4°C, the risk of a heart attack dropped by 2.8%. Sunshine also brought down the risk. Snowbirders who choose winter nests in lowlying areas get a further advantage: when you live at or near sea level, the higher levels of oxygen in the air fill up your red blood cells, taking some of the burden off of your circulatory system. 48 | www.snowbirds.org
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