Winter Woes  For Patients suffering from winter related ailments

With school vacations, Christmas and New Year around the corner, most of us are gearing up for the holidays. Unfortunately, during the colder months, i see many patients suffering from winter related ailments. Last week, Samina, a young mother brought her four-year-old son who has lost his appetite and kept wheezing through the night. Anxious, as mums tend to be, she said, ”he doesn’t have a fever or any ither symptoms of flu, so what’s wrong with him?”   the checkup revealed that the boy had severe congestion and incubated hay fever. My advice to her was: ”Get him a flu shot; in the meantime, antibiotics for a week will take care of the fever, while an expectorant will clear out the mucus.” i then told her to make sure that he wore a windbreaker whenever he stepped outside, and to mix a teaspoon of honey to his milk every day, adding, ” If you do this, he will bwl his usual bubbly self for the rest ogdc the season”.

Another patient, Mubashir, a middle-aged banker who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, called. ”My fingers have swollen so much that i can’t type and my knees have ‘locked’ so i can’t even walk! If this continues, i will lose my job!”

I tried explaining that ” all joint diseases worsen with the winter chill; inflammation, morning stiffness and increased pain are common. Take your tablets on time, have a massage and do low-impact exercises to keep your joints supple. And if you can afford it, buy an electric blanket to snuggled in, to keep your joints warm.”

At the end, a word of advice for cardiac patients: winters are hard on your heart – arteries constrict, blood thickens and hormonal imbalances are triggered, increasing chances of complications. So avoid foods rich in fats and sugar, load up on veggies and don’t exert yourself too much.

By Dr Waqar Saeed. The writer is a physician.

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