Choice of materials, areas to massage, diet… Here are 5 tips to follow to deal with the drop in temperatures and avoid shivering all day as much as possible.
- COVER PROPERLY
It may seem obvious and yet. In cold weather, this common sense advice takes precedence over all others. And we must not skimp. Undershirt, t-shirt, wool or fleece sweater, everything is good to retain the natural heat of the body. But above all, take care to protect the most exposed limbs, namely the hands and feet. They are the first to take the cold.
Under the action of the cold, the blood vessels in the toes and fingers constrict to preserve vital organs. This phenomenon is called vasoconstriction. The blood from the extremities is then directed primarily to the heart or the lungs. That’s why when the temperatures drop, our hands and feet are particularly cold.
To protect them as much as possible, you can wear thermal liner gloves or silk gloves, under your usual gloves, in wool, in leather, or prefer mittens. As the fingers are grouped together, they will generate more heat.
And so as not to have ice cubes instead of tootsies, it is recommended that you move your feet and ankles regularly, a bit like warming up before playing a sport, and opt for wool socks. In addition to keeping feet warm, its fibers do not retain moisture, unlike cotton. Finally, do not forget to wear a hat because almost 30% of body heat escapes through the head.
- DRINK WARM DRINKS
To warm up, we often have the reflex to drink herbal tea, tea, hot chocolate or very hot soup. But it's the wrong reflex. Because if the drink is hot, the feeling of heat will not last. The brain will react by giving the order to rebalance the internal temperature of the body.
This will then sweat, then cool down automatically. To stay warm for the long term, it is better to wait a few minutes for it to cool down and take advantage of this time to warm your hands by putting them around the cup.
- MONITOR YOUR DIET
There are a few recipes to face the cold throughout the day. But it is not the tartiflettes, raclettes and other fondues that will make your body gain degrees.
Choose soups and recipes that combine both protein and slow sugars. By digesting protein, body temperature rises faster than with carbohydrates or fats. This is because the body works harder to digest them and increases its temperature accordingly.
Pasta, rice and other starches will keep your body warm for a longer period of time. Eating vegetables and fruits will also enhance your body's ability to warm up. Finally, consuming dried fruits or almonds is very effective for heating up quickly.
- MASSAGE YOUR BACK, FACE ...
To fight against the cold, it is also advisable to massage your lower back as well as your arms and shoulders for 30 seconds to a minute.
This will indeed stimulate blood circulation and therefore heat production. At any time of the day, after rubbing your two hands together to warm them up, you can also gently rub your face, the area most exposed to the cold, to prepare the skin for lowering the cold. temperature.
To do this, simply pat your skin with your fingertips up and down, from the chin, to the cheeks, through the wings of the nose and eyebrows, then the forehead. Not to mention the front and back of the ears.
- AVOID BATHS
Just as it is recommended not to heat your house too much, it is useless to expose your body to too extreme temperatures in very cold weather. Indeed, moving from the inside to the outside can unnecessarily constrict your vessels and you will feel the temperature difference much more than if you had left your thermostat at the generally recommended 18 or 19 ° C.
So it is with the bath. Taking too much regularly would weaken the upper layers of the epidermis and lead to less resistance to the cold.
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