Did you know that cold weather could affect your heart?
Your body adapts to cold temps by constricting your blood vessels, which helps to preserve your body temperature.
But, this response to cold weather could pose a health risk to people with underlying heart conditions or high blood pressure.
Fortunately, there are several ways you can stay warm and keep your blood pumping freely, even in the chilliest weeks of winter.
In this article, you will learn:
- How the body adapts to cold weather,
- How cold weather may affect health or contribute to heart attacks,
- How exercise can help you adapt to cold weather more effectively,
- The importance of being properly dressed and avoiding bitterly cold temps,
- And how BloodFlow-7, a uniquely formulated supplement, can help boost blood flow to your entire body.
Effects of Cold Weather on Your Body
Surprisingly, seasonal climates can have a huge impact on your health and wellness. When you step outside into extreme temperatures (either hot or cold), your body goes through a number of immediate and unconscious changes. The goal of these changes is to help regulate your body temperature in order to maintain homeostasis, or balance — keeping your body functioning optimally.
The key short-term changes that occur when you are exposed to cold temps include: [1]
Cutaneous vasoconstriction: a tightening of the blood vessels that helps to prevent body temperature losses through the skin
Shivering thermogenesis: causes you to shiver, which helps to increase body temperature
The effectiveness of these changes at regulating body temp can be affected by several other factors, like age, body composition, sex, physical fitness level, and race. For instance, the older you are, the more at risk you are of hypothermia, or excessive loss of body heat — because the body doesn’t respond as well to temperature changes as it once did.[1, 2]
Another important thing to consider is how this automatic vasoconstriction may affect your health if you already have vascular insufficiency or heart problems.[3]
Researchers have found that cold temperatures are associated with an increased risk of heart attack, hospitalization, and death.[4, 5, 6]
This may be because, in people who already have conditions that limit blood flow (like atherosclerosis or high blood pressure), the additional vasoconstriction caused by cold weather could be enough to cause a heart attack.[3]
If this is the case for you, it’s important to follow your doctor’s advice regarding diet, lifestyle, and medications to help manage your condition. However, there are also some ways that you can help promote healthy blood flow so that your body’s cutaneous vasoconstriction adaptation in cold weather doesn’t worsen any health complications.
Tips to Improve Blood Flow in the Winter
Here are some research-based strategies that may help to support healthy blood flow, even in cold weather.
Regular exercise
One small study found that exercising regularly could help the body adapt more effectively to cold weather. Additionally, it noted that fitter people were able to better maintain their body temperature in cold weather. [7]
This is in addition to all of the other heart healthy benefits of exercise, along with its positive effects on bone health, muscle growth, and mental health.
Don’t pass on the exercise and make it a goal to stay active no matter your age.
Dress appropriately for the weather
While this one may seem obvious, it’s vitally important to dress for the weather. Even if you’re only hopping out of the car briefly to go to a store, you still need to dress appropriately.
Vasoconstriction is an acute, or short-term, reaction of the body to cold temperatures. This means that it occurs almost immediately after cold exposure, so that your body is able to minimize heat losses as much as possible.
Try dressing in layers to make it easier to stay comfortable in a variety of settings, such as when you’ll be entering buildings or cars and exiting to the outdoors regularly. Long pants and a long-sleeved shirt should be comfortable indoors, and the addition of a coat — heavy enough to insulate you against the average winter temps in your area — along with a hat, gloves, and a scarf is a good idea to protect against frigid outdoor temps.
Limit exposure to cold weather
Finally, especially if your age or heart health puts you at risk, you should aim to limit your exposure to cold weather as much as possible. One study showed an increased risk of a heart incident once temperatures reached freezing (32℉) meaning it’s a good time to stay indoors. [8]
If you do need to go outside or want to attend an outdoors activity, bundle up and try to do it during daylight hours when the temps are higher.
In frigid temps, try to stay indoors when possible, and even consider indoor workouts like using a treadmill, elliptical, stationary bike, or weights to maintain your normal activity level.
Try Juvenon’s BloodFlow-7
BloodFlow-7 is a revolutionary blood flow supplement that can help support healthy circulation by activating the body’s nitric oxide pathway. Nitric oxide is naturally produced by your cells and helps to promote vasodilation (or flexibility and widening of the arteries, allowing for increased blood flow and oxygen delivery).
However, many factors — like aging or lifestyle choices — can interfere with the nitric oxide pathway. We carefully chose the ingredients in our blood blow supplement to help overcome this.
First, it contains a Nitric Oxide Precursor Blend composed of:
- Citrulline: Citrulline is an amino acid (building block of protein) that converts into arginine in the body, which is a direct precursor of nitric oxide.[9]
- Arginine: As mentioned just above, arginine can directly convert into nitric oxide. Your body can create some on its own, but arginine supplementation has been shown to increase nitric oxide. [10]
- Glutathione: Glutathione is a powerful antioxidant that acts as a precursor to nitric oxide synthase. This is the enzyme that converts arginine to nitric oxide, so it works in tandem with supplement arginine to promote nitric oxide production.[11]
Our blood flow supplement also contains beet root extract, a natural, food-based source of nitrites that your body can use to create more nitric oxide.[12]
Next we developed our S7 Blend, which is an antioxidant rich-blend of whole food extracts designed to prevent free radical degradation of your existing nitric oxide capacity. The S7 blend contains:
- Green coffee bean: Green coffee bean extract may help directly boost nitric oxide production.[13]
- Green tea leaf: Green tea leaf extract helps protect the heart from damage and promotes vascular flexibility and responsiveness to nitric oxide.[14]
- Turmeric root: Turmeric is rich in the compound curcumin, which has strong antioxidant effects to help prevent free radical damage and support nitric oxide pathways.[15]
- Fruit and vegetable antioxidants: Tart cherry, blueberry, broccoli, and kale polyphenols — all featured in BloodFlow-7 — may help improve endothelial function, which allows for more flexibility and dilation within the blood vessels. [16, 17, 18, 19]
Lastly, trans-resveratrol provides another potent source of antioxidants to help protect your cells from damage caused by free radical compounds.[20]
With all of these compounds contained in BloodFlow-7, this blood flow supplement is able to foster nitric oxide production using a three-pronged approach:
- Promote more efficient nitric oxide production
- Provide the raw materials to increase nitric oxide production
- Protect and preserve nitric oxide from free radicals
It can help to keep your blood flowing freely, potentially providing some protection against temperature-induced heart damage.
But that’s not the only benefit of supporting strong and healthy blood flow. Increased nitric oxide levels may help you have more energy, luminous skin, maintain healthy blood pressure levels, fewer aches, and even a better sex life. And, its convenient daily dose is only 3 tablets each day.
Consider it an indispensable part of your winter routine, but know that the effects are so profound you’ll likely want to keep taking it even as the temps increase.
Takeaway
Exposure to cold weather causes two immediate adaptations in your body that help to maintain body temperature: vasoconstriction and shivering.
Unfortunately, though, vasoconstriction — or the tightening of the blood vessels to conserve body heat — may be a catalyst for heart attacks in people who have pre-existing heart conditions like atherosclerosis or high blood pressure.
Researchers have found that the colder months are associated with higher rates of heart attack and hospitalization — which is likely due at least in part to the effects of vasoconstriction when exposed to cold temps.
Fortunately, there are several ways to mitigate your risk for this. First, being physically fit can help your body to adapt to cold temperatures better, and help you maintain body heat when in the cold. So, it’s important to stay active as you age to maintain your physical fitness.
It’s also important to be vigilant about dressing appropriately for the weather, even if you’re just stepping outside to check the mail or walk into a store. This is because your body starts adapting to the cold by promoting vasoconstriction immediately after cold exposure. It’s also important to limit your time outside in cold temperatures as much as possible, especially if you’re at an increased risk of heart problems.
Finally, Juvenon’s BloodFlow-7 is a natural supplement option that helps to boost nitric oxide levels. Nitric oxide dilates the blood vessels, helping to promote increased blood flow and better oxygenation of all of your tissues. It’s made of nitric oxide boosters, natural nitrites, and powerful antioxidants that help to promote nitric oxide production and protect your existing supply of nitric oxide.
This winter, remember to make heart health a priority by keeping warm, staying active, and supplementing wisely.
Have a Heart Warming, Heart Healthy Winter!
References
- Castellani JW, Young AJ. Human physiological responses to cold exposure: Acute responses and acclimatization to prolonged exposure. Auton Neurosci.2016;196:63-74. doi:10.1016/j.autneu.2016.02.009
- Kingma BR, Frijns AJ, Saris WH, van Steenhoven AA, van Marken Lichtenbelt WD. Cold-induced vasoconstriction at forearm and hand skin sites: the effect of age.Eur J Appl Physiol. 2010;109(5):915-921. doi:10.1007/s00421-010-1414-x
- Alba BK, Castellani JW, Charkoudian N. Cold-induced cutaneous vasoconstriction in humans: Function, dysfunction and the distinctly counterproductive.Exp Physiol.2019;104(8):1202-1214. doi:10.1113/EP087718
- Whayne TF Jr. Altitude and cold weather: are they vascular risks?.Curr Opin Cardiol.2014;29(4):396-402. doi:10.1097/HCO.0000000000000064
- Chen TH, Li X, Zhao J, Zhang K. Impacts of cold weather on all-cause and cause-specific mortality in Texas, 1990-2011.Environ Pollut. 2017;225:244-251. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2017.03.022
- Vasconcelos J, Freire E, Almendra R, Silva GL, Santana P. The impact of winter cold weather on acute myocardial infarctions in Portugal.Environ Pollut.2013;183:14-18. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2013.01.037
- Maeda T. Relationship between maximum oxygen uptake and peripheral vasoconstriction in a cold environment. J Physiol Anthropol.2017;36(1):42. Published 2017 Dec 6. doi:10.1186/s40101-017-0158-2
- Mohammad MA, Koul S, Rylance R, et al. Association of Weather With Day-to-Day Incidence of Myocardial Infarction: A SWEDEHEART Nationwide Observational Study. JAMA Cardiol. 2018;3(11):1081–1089. doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2018.3466
- Holguin F, Grasemann H, Sharma S, et al. L-Citrulline increases nitric oxide and improves control in obese asthmatics.JCI Insight.2019;4(24):e131733. Published 2019 Dec 19. doi:10.1172/jci.insight.131733
- Schwedhelm E, Maas R, Freese R, et al. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of oral L-citrulline and L-arginine: impact on nitric oxide metabolism.Br J Clin Pharmacol.2008;65(1):51-59. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2125.2007.02990.x
- Harbrecht BG, Di Silvio M, Chough V, Kim YM, Simmons RL, Billiar TR. Glutathione regulates nitric oxide synthase in cultured hepatocytes.Ann Surg.1997;225(1):76-87. doi:10.1097/00000658-199701000-00009
- Domínguez R, Cuenca E, Maté-Muñoz JL, et al. Effects of Beetroot Juice Supplementation on Cardiorespiratory Endurance in Athletes. A Systematic Review.Nutrients. 2017;9(1):43. Published 2017 Jan 6. doi:10.3390/nu9010043
- Ochiai R, Jokura H, Suzuki A, et al. Green coffee bean extract improves human vasoreactivity.Hypertens Res. 2004;27(10):731-737. doi:10.1291/hypres.27.731
- Agnetti G, Bordoni A, Angeloni C, et al. Green tea modulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase in hypoxic/reoxygenated cardiomyocytes. Biochimie. 2005;87(5):457-460. doi:10.1016/j.biochi.2005.01.004
- Lin X, Bai D, Wei Z, et al. Curcumin attenuates oxidative stress in RAW264.7 cells by increasing the activity of antioxidant enzymes and activating the Nrf2-Keap1 pathway.PLoS One.2019;14(5):e0216711. Published 2019 May 21. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0216711
- Keane KM, Haskell-Ramsay CF, Veasey RC, Howatson G. Montmorency Tart cherries (Prunus cerasus L.) modulate vascular function acutely, in the absence of improvement in cognitive performance.Br J Nutr.2016;116(11):1935-1944. doi:10.1017/S0007114516004177
- Bharat D, Cavalcanti RRM, Petersen C, et al. Blueberry Metabolites Attenuate Lipotoxicity-Induced Endothelial Dysfunction. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2018;62(2):10.1002/mnfr.201700601. doi:10.1002/mnfr.201700601
- Anand David AV, Arulmoli R, Parasuraman S. Overviews of Biological Importance of Quercetin: A Bioactive Flavonoid. Pharmacogn Rev. 2016;10(20):84-89. doi:10.4103/0973-7847.194044
- Šamec D, Urlić B, Salopek-Sondi B. Kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala) as a superfood: Review of the scientific evidence behind the statement. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2019;59(15):2411-2422. doi:10.1080/10408398.2018.1454400
- Xia N, Förstermann U, Li H. Resveratrol and endothelial nitric oxide. Molecules. 2014;19(10):16102-16121. Published 2014 Oct 9. doi:10.3390/molecules191016102
