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Enjoy the great outdoors, but be careful. People who are outside when it is very cold and windy tire quickly. Also, body heat is lost fast. If you must go outdoors, take extra care.
Cold weather itself, without any work on your part, puts an extra strain on the heart. If you add to this the strain of hard work, you are taking a risk. Hard work includes shoveling snow, pushing a stalled car, or even just walking too fast or too far.
If you do go out, be sure to dress warmly. Try to wear light wool clothes that do not fit too tightly. Outer garments should shed water. wear a wool hat. Protect your face and cover your mouth to keep very cold air from your lungs. Wear mittens instead of gloves. They allow your fingers to move freely and will keep your hands warmer.
Watch out for frostbite and any other signs of danger from being in the cold too long. Frostbite causes a loss of feeling in the fingers, toes, tip of the nose, or ear lobes. These areas may become white or pale. If you see such signs, get help right away. Do not rub them with snow or ice. This treatment does not help and could make matters worse.
Do not drink alcohol when you are out in the cold. This makes you lose body heat even faster. You may feel warmer at first, but you will end up colder than before.
Try to keep your clothes and yourself dry. Change wet socks right away. Remove all wet clothing as soon as you can to stop loss of body heat. Wet clothes do not help you to keep in body heat.
If someone with you shows signs of illness from the cold, take action quickly. Even if someone claims to be all right, you should still act. Often the person will not realize how bad off he might be. Get the person into dry clothing and into a warm bed. Use a hot water bottle which should not be hot but warm to the touch. Use warm towels or a heating pad or any other source of heat to warm the bed. Put the heat on the drunk of the body first. Keep the head low and the feet up. Give the person warm drinks. If symptoms are very bad, call for a doctor right away.
