What should people with cardiovascular disease pay attention to in the cold season?

SKĐS - In contrast to the hot summer, blood pressure often decreases due to blood vessels dilating to release heat through sweat, reducing circulating volume. In the cold season, blood vessels often contract to avoid heat loss, causing blood pressure to tend to increase, causing cardiovascular disease. What should people with cardiovascular disease pay attention to in the cold season?

People with cardiovascular disease need to measure blood pressure at home regularly.

In the cold season, blood vessels often contract to avoid heat loss, causing blood pressure to increase, which is a leading risk factor for many dangerous cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, etc. Therefore, people with cardiovascular disease need to take good care of measuring blood pressure at home according to instructions so that the doctor can adjust if necessary.

How to measure blood pressure at home:

Patients should measure in the morning after waking up and again in the afternoon or evening when resting. When measuring blood pressure, patients should note:

• Should be measured in a sitting position, back straight against a hard chair.
• Both feet touching the ground, do not cross your legs
• Rest and relax for at least 20 minutes before measuring.
• Hands on the table, level with the heart

Then, record the results to compare and track measurement trends over time.

If there are unusual signs such as chest tightness, difficulty breathing or infection (fever, cough with phlegm, digestive disorders, urinary disorders, etc.), you need to go to a medical facility immediately or contact the doctor who is monitoring the disease for early examination because cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure, coronary artery disease, etc. can develop rapidly and become severe.

In cold weather, blood vessels often constrict to avoid heat loss, causing blood pressure to increase, which is a leading risk factor for many dangerous cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, heart failure, etc.

Diet and exercise for people with cardiovascular disease

People with cardiovascular disease need to eat nutritious, warm foods and drink enough water (in the cold season, the weather is often dry and there is no sweating, so many patients, especially the elderly, often do not drink enough water, causing a decrease in circulating volume, which can cause kidney failure, low blood pressure, etc.).

People with cardiovascular disease need to avoid the habit of eating salty foods to "be healthy", "keep away from cold", ... because in fact, a salty diet with a lot of salt will increase the circulatory volume, increase blood pressure, and cause atherosclerosis and calcification of blood vessels. According to the STEPS survey of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2015, Vietnamese people currently consume about 9.4 grams of salt/day, nearly twice as high as the recommended level.

For most people with cardiovascular disease, moderate exercise of about 30-60 minutes/day, most days of the week (4-7 days) is recommended. However, in cold weather conditions, some adjustments may be needed such as postponing exercise time to early morning, avoiding outdoor exercise on cold days or days with air pollution, lots of fine dust, and especially keeping the body warm.

Many studies have demonstrated the beneficial effects of influenza vaccination in reducing cardiovascular events such as IVVE, IAMI or DANFLU-1... Therefore, people with cardiovascular disease should consider getting the influenza vaccine to help stimulate immunity, increase resistance and limit the risk of severe disease progression.

Source: https://suckhoedoisong.vn/nguoi-benh-tim-mach-can-luu-y-gi-trong-mua-lanh-169251031190054811.htm