Hugo Hernandez Garcia, director of the Specialties Hospital of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) in Jalisco, suggested protecting against the cold in this season and not falling into excesses to prevent heart attacks.
The purpose, he said, is to avoid an increase in the incidence of ischemic events such as heart attack or angina, because it is common that people with heart disease do not follow properly their treatments during this season.
“It’s likely that [cardiac patients] commit excesses regarding the intake of caloric foods and even consumption of alcohol and tobacco,” said Social Security specialist.
He explained that historically there have been certain “peaks” or increases in the care of patients with heart diseases in the last months of the year, and also between the months of March and April.
According with Hernandez Garcia, there are several factors linked to these peaks, such as the mentioned seasonal excesses and treatment disobedience, plus cold weather per se that promotes contraction of blood vessels.
Cold weather makes our body temperature to drop, forcing our organisms to increase and maintain our body temperature, which requires the heart making more effort to pump blood. This may cause an anomaly in the cardiovascular system.
This is why is really important of no neglecting medical checkups, especially for those who are hypertensive or diabetic. Hence, Hernandez Garcia urged people to protect themselves from cold temperatures and not consume too many calories.
He said that at the beginning of the year is a common practice to set goals and purposes as quitting smoking, so he urged society not to wait any longer and quit smoking now, because it is one of the most important and harmful risks factors favoring heart attacks.
Through: Notimex
