It ’s Going to Feel like 50 Below in the Midwest This Week. Here’s What Extreme Cold Does to Your Body

Parts of the Midwest are bracing for their coldest temperatures in decades this week, with Tuesday night conditions predicted to feel like 50 degrees below zero or colder in areas of the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa, according to AccuWeather. Temperatures in Chicago are also predicted to dip below negative 25 for the first time since the mid-1980s, AccuWeather says. Health officials have warned residents to stay indoors as much as possible, since the brutal cold can become dangerous in just minutes. But what actually happens to your body in the frigid air? TIME asked Dr. Ronald Furnival, a pediatric emergency physician and a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Right away Almost as soon as you step outside, your body starts to siphon blood flow away from your extremities to focus on keeping your brain and internal organs warm. That’s why your fingers, toes and ears tend to get cold before your core, Furnival says. “The blood vessels would start to contract and reduce blood flow” to areas including the face, ears, nose and fingers as a “defense mechanism” against extreme cold, Furnival says. For most people, at least in the short-term, this adjustment is pretty harmless. But Furnival says people with preexisting heart conditions may be at risk of complications associated with these blood pressure changes, especially if they try to do strenuous outdoor activity like shoveling snow. After a few minutes In extreme cold, frostbite ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthytime onetime weather Source Type: news