“Coffee does not help you get sober. If you’re plastered, you’re going to have to wait several hours for the alcohol to leave your system on its own. Drinking coffee won’t make your body metabolize alcohol faster. However, coffee can affect your drunken state by tricking your mind into thinking you’re close to sobriety. It turns out the caffeine in coffee is a stimulant, which can make you feel like you’re ready to handle certain potentially dangerous activities — like driving.”
Discovery.com
New Year’s season is one of the most fun and joyous holidays of the year. However, did you know that it is also one of the most dangerous holidays of the year?
It is estimated that during Christmas and New Year’s season, almost 95 million Americans will be on the road traveling to visit family and friends. People are much more likely to drink and drive around Jan. 1 than during any other major holiday of the year. Almost half of all car accidents on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are due to drinking and driving.
When planning New Year’s Eve, the majority of people aim to celebrate as best they can and create one of the most memorable nights of the year. This often involves lots of alcohol. While it is hoped that most make responsible plans, many often do not. By not ensuring the safety of yourself and others around you during this night, you put yourself at a higher risk of the biggest dangers surrounding this holiday. Make sure you take the proper precautions to ensure your own safety as well as the safety of those around you. Here’s what you should know to avoid some of the biggest dangers and to stay safe and healthy during the New Year’s season:
Don’t drink and drive. Jan. 1 is the No. 1 day of the year with the highest percent of deaths related to alcohol, according to Insurance Institute for Highway Safety data. Between 2007 and 2011, alcohol accounted for 42 percent of all traffic deaths during the holiday. The more alcohol we consume, the slower the activity of the brain, heart and lungs. Before you celebrate, plan ahead. Aim to have a designated driver, or at least to take a cab or an Uber. Beware of other drunk drivers as they are probably more of a worry than yourself. And as always, wear your seatbelt!
If you will be drinking, pace yourself. What many people don’t realize when drinking is that our bodies absorb alcohol faster than we metabolize it. Therefore, the faster we drink, the more time the toxins from the alcohol spend in our bodies. As a result, we have harsher hangovers. Aim to drink no more than one drink per hour. Our livers metabolize about one alcoholic drink per hour. Know the difference in the amounts of the types of alcoholic drinks you are consuming, and that one beer does not equal six shots (12 oz. beer = 4-5 oz. of wine = 1.5 oz. of hard liquor). When drinking, sip slowly. Melted ice will dilute drink, so order drinks on-the-rocks. Add more club soda or tonic water to your drinks than alcohol.
Know what to mix, and what not to mix. Make sure to stick with the same drink all night. While it is a myth that mixing drinks causes greater intoxication, is remains true that it can often makes people sick and experience worse hangovers. To avoid this, choose light liquors such as vodka. Dark liquors have a higher concentration of toxins which make hangovers more severe. Instead of mixing with soda, use non-carbonated fruit juice or water instead. Carbonated mixers speed up the rate of absorption in the blood. Avoid diet mixers such as Diet Coke. With less sugar and calories, the alcohol goes directly into your bloodstream.
Alternate alcoholic drinks with water. Alcohol is a diuretic. This means that the more you drink, the more you have to urinate. More frequent urination leads to dehydration. Dehydration causes hangover symptoms such as headaches and dizziness. Aim to drink at least one large glass of water before and in between drinking alcoholic beverages. You should drink one glass of water for every alcoholic drink you consume. This will also keep you from getting too drunk.
Eat before you drink, and snack while you drink. Never drink on an empty stomach. Make sure to eat a full meal before drinking, and continue snacking while drinking. Eating while drinking will slow down the absorption of alcohol in the digestive track. This gives the alcohol more time to metabolize in the body. Aim to eat foods high in protein such as cheese, meat, and nuts. Fatty carbs work well too, however these are not as healthy.
Myth: Coffee sobers you up. Many people believe that coffee sobers you up in that the caffeine will speed up alcohol’s metabolism. As a result, many think it is helpful to drink a quick cup of coffee before hitting the road. However, this is a MYTH. Coffee may help you wake up a bit, but will not sober you up. The only cure for being drunk is time. If you need to get home and don’t have time to wait, get a ride from a sober driver or call a cab. You don’t want to risk getting into an accident and hurting yourself, or someone else.
“If not treated quickly, hypothermia can cause severe health problems, including death. Heart problems. Cold weather can increase your risk of a heart attack. When you’re outside in the cold, your heart works harder to keep you warm — leading to increased heart rate and blood pressure.”
Harvard Health Publishing (www.healthharvardeducation)
There are workers and people at home working around the house outside who are exposed to extreme cold or work in cold environments for a long period of time may be at risk of cold stress. Extreme cold weather is a dangerous situation that can bring on health emergencies in susceptible people, such as those without shelter, outdoor workers, and those who work in an area that is poorly insulated or without heat. What constitutes cold stress and its effects can vary across different areas of the country. In regions relatively unaccustomed to winter weather, near freezing temperatures are considered factors for “cold stress.” Whenever temperatures drop decidedly below normal and as wind speed increases, heat can more rapidly leave your body. These weather-related conditions may lead to serious health problems.
When exposed to cold temperatures, your body begins to lose heat faster than it can be produced. Prolonged exposure to cold will eventually use up your body’s stored energy. The result is hypothermia, or abnormally low body temperature. A body temperature that is too low affects the brain, making the victim unable to think clearly or move well. This makes hypothermia particularly dangerous because a person may not know it is happening and will not be able to do anything about it.
The symptoms you see with this hypothermia (body exposed to freezing temperatures) are: SHIVERING, LOSS OF COORDINATION, FATIGUE, CONFUSION OR DISORIENTATION.
When the hypothermia gets severe the symptoms go to NO SHIVERING, BLUE SKIN (CYANOTIC), DILATED PUPILS, SLOWED PULSE AND BREATHING, AND LOSS OF CONCIOUSNESS.
Another problem secondary to cold weather is cold water immersion creates a specific condition known as immersion hypothermia. It develops much more quickly than standard hypothermia because water conducts heat away from the body 25 times faster than air. Typically people in temperate climates don’t consider themselves at risk from hypothermia in the water, but hypothermia can occur in any water temperature below 70°F. Survival times can be lengthened by wearing proper clothing (wool and synthetics and not cotton), using a personal flotation device (PFD, life vest, immersion suit, dry suit), and having a means of both signaling rescuers (strobe lights, personal locator beacon, whistles, flares, waterproof radio) and having a means of being retrieved from the water. Below you will find links with information about cold water survival and cold water rescue.
Another problem due to cold weather is frostbite is an injury to the body that is caused by freezing. Frostbite causes a loss of feeling and color in the affected areas. It most often affects the nose, ears, cheeks, chin, fingers, or toes. Frostbite can permanently damage body tissues, and severe cases can lead to amputation. In extremely cold temperatures, the risk of frostbite is increased in workers with reduced blood circulation and among workers who are not dressed properly. Signs or symptoms of frostbite are reduced blood flow to hands and feet (fingers or toes can freeze), Reduced blood flow to hands and feet (fingers or toes can freeze, numbness, tingling or stinging, aching, pale to blue and even waxy skin.
Another problem from long exposure to cold that can arise is trench foot, also known as immersion foot, is an injury of the feet resulting from prolonged exposure to wet and cold conditions. Trench foot can occur at temperatures as high as 60 degrees F if the feet are constantly wet. Injury occurs because wet feet lose heat 25-times faster than dry feet. Therefore, to prevent heat loss, the body constricts blood vessels to shut down circulation in the feet. Skin tissue begins to die because of lack of oxygen and nutrients and due to the buildup of toxic products.
Symptoms of trench foot include: Reddening of the skin, Numbness, Leg cramps, Swelling, Tingling pain, Blisters or ulcers, Bleeding under the skin, and Gangrene (the foot may turn dark purple, blue, or gray).
Ideas to try to prevent long exposure to cold problems from happening are:
Monitor your physical condition whenever you go outside in the cold and prepare properly for that weather.
“Most of the time there are no obvious symptoms. Certain physical traits and lifestyle choices can put you at a greater risk for high blood pressure. When left untreated, the damage that high blood pressure does to your circulatory system is a significant contributing factor to heart attack, stroke and other health threats.”
American Heart Association
“Hearing loss that occurs gradually as you age (presbycusis) is common. About 25 percent of people in the United States between the ages of 55 and 64 have some degree of hearing loss. For those older than 65, the number of people with some hearing loss is almost 1 in 2.”
MAYO CLINIC
“In the U.S., 15 percent of adults over the age of 18, or 37.5 million people, report having trouble hearing.”
simply good hearing (hear.com)
“As chillier weather sets in across the country, certain illnesses rise to their peak and spread throughout schools and workplaces.Due to the evolution from hot to milder air and the piling of children back into schools, a mess of germs sparks the start of a new season of illnesses that sweep through every corner of the country. When the weather turns sharper with icy temperatures, colder air and darker skies in the winter, the threat of catching certain widespread illnesses turns greater.“
Accuweather
Deal with weather ailments.
Learn from this week if you haven’t yet in the North East that this season is not over and to many feeling like their in the North Pole finally ends in about a month or less but this winter has worsened or increased illnesses due to the freezing cold temperatures we have had than into lovely weather back to freezing cold and still do. Some health problems have been enhanced by the freezing temperatures like the common cold with even adding a sore throat trickling on to an attack of asthma Well here’s how to help your body deal with the cold weather ailments.
“It’s your own immune response that makes you feel ill,” says Professor Ron Eccles of the Common Cold Centre in Cardiff, where experts have researched the common cold for more than 20 years.
When you get a cold, the virus attacks the nose and the back of the throat, and it doesn’t take long for the body’s natural defences to start to work.
“The immune system detects the virus and floods the area with white blood cells and chemical messengers, and these trigger various symptoms such as headaches and a blocked nose.”
“Women have more colds than men, and this is probably due to increased interaction with children,” says Professor Eccles of the Common Cold Centre in Cardiff . Children get around seven to ten colds a year, compared with two to three for adults. So people who spend a lot of time with children, such as childminders, nursery teachers or school teachers, are more likely to pick up the viruses.
“During a cold, the lining of your nose is the battlefront,” says Professor Eccles. When your nose feels blocked, it isn’t because it’s full of mucus, but because the blood vessels in your nose are inflamed.
The nasal lining is made from erectile tissue (similar to the tissue in the sexual organs). When you have a cold, the blood vessels swell up as infection-fighting white blood cells flood to the area. This narrows the air passage in your nose and restricts the airflow as you breathe.
A decongestant spray can reduce the swelling and allow you to breathe more easily.
The cold is not unusual if a sore throat comes along with it also. They are common in winter and are almost always caused by viral infections. There’s some evidence that changes in temperature, such as going from a warm, centrally heated room to the icy outdoors, can also affect the throat.
Cold air is a major trigger of asthma symptoms such as wheezing and shortness of breath. People with asthma should be especially careful in winter. Key steps in helping prevent the asthma attack to occur:
Continue to be careful in this winter weather and stay healthy at your optimal level. in dealing with this freezing cold.
“Getting sick is a part of everyday life, and being on the road doesn’t exempt you from that fact, especially when travel itself it exposes you to a whole new range of bugs, parasites, and environments. The fact of the matter is the longer you are traveling, the more likely you are to pick up a bug or two.The key to minimizing the chances of this, however, is to actively combat the risk factors of becoming sick in the first place. HANDWASHING is the first key. I know this sounds basic, but it is surprising how many people forget it.”.
Columbia Presbyterian
