Winters: Need to take proper care

Kashmir Valley is presently gripped in cold wave conditions as the temperature at almost every station has plummeted below the freezing point. All the stations across Kashmir are recording sub-zero temperature every night amid the persistent dry spell. However, the intense cold as per the experts always leads to health hazards. It has been observed that several people die due to heart attack in winters. According to the health experts, the cold weather triggers many medical problems like influenza, asthma, sore throat, joint pains and heart diseases, in particular heart attacks. Heart attacks are the most concerning of these problems. The reasons for this fact are multifactorial. They believe that people with underlying risk factors like, diabetes, high blood pressure (BP), smokers, high bad cholesterol levels, over weight and obese people are more prone to get heart problems in this chilly season. Therefore, one has to take proper care to prevent such tragic incidents. In this way, influenza vaccine once a year before the onset of winter must be advocated to help reduce the number of heart attacks in winters. Moreover, these problems can be avoided to a large extent by healthy heart checks and timely preventive measures. It is imperative for one and all to ensure regular exercise and intake of plenty of fruits and vegetables are very cost-effective solutions as per the experts. There is also a dire need to put an end to the unhealthy habits that produce a risk to such problems.