On a cold day, taking a hot bath is really a comfortable thing to expel the cold and relieve fatigue.
However, there are rumors that elderly friends who wash their hair and bathe in hot water when the temperature is low will cause stroke. Is this true? Can you take a safe bath in cold weather?
Don’t panic, Dr. Huang from the Department of Neurology of the People’s Hospital of Wuhan University will answer your questions.
First of all, what suffered a stroke.
Stroke, also known as stroke, is an acute cerebrovascular disease, which can be divided into ischemic and hemorrhagic diseases and is caused by cerebral vascular obstruction or rupture.
The main manifestations are sudden numbness and weakness of limbs, skewed corners of the mouth, slurred speech, dizziness, etc.
Common inducing factors of stroke include: hard defecation and urination, emotional excitement, overeating, exercise overload, drinking, and inappropriate bathing methods.
Besides, bathing may lead to stroke.
As mentioned above, bathing is one of the inducing factors of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events.
The reason may be hemodynamic changes caused by elevated body temperature, increased heart rate, vasodilation, decreased blood pressure and accelerated blood circulation.
However, this does not mean that taking a hot bath is particularly dangerous. Stroke occurs mostly on the basis of its own pathological changes (such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, etc.) and under the action of various factors.
If there are some basic diseases, if the body temperature changes too much, it can lead to large blood pressure fluctuations. However, excessive fluctuation of blood pressure is an important risk factor for stroke.
Because the blood pressure fluctuates too much, it can lead to atherosclerotic plaque falling off, which may block blood vessels or rupture the already fragile cerebral vessels, thus causing stroke.
Later, he said that what should be paid attention to when taking a bath.
In fact, the occurrence of cerebrovascular accidents during bathing does not lie in bathing itself, but in improper bathing methods.
Step 1 Before taking a bath
(1) Don’t take a bath on an empty stomach,
A lot of heat will be consumed during bathing. If you take a bath on an empty stomach, hypoglycemia will easily occur and even hypoglycemic shock will occur in severe cases.
(2) Avoid taking a bath immediately after meals
Gastrointestinal blood flow will increase after meals to help digestion. At this time, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular blood supply is relatively insufficient. If you take a bath immediately after meals, dizziness and other conditions are more likely to occur.
(3) Avoid excessive ambient temperature difference
Turn on the hot water in advance before entering the bath, and take a bath after the bathroom is warm, so as to avoid blood pressure fluctuation caused by excessive temperature difference and reduce the probability of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular accidents.
Step 2: In the bath
(1) Suitable water temperature
When a person is drenched or immersed in hot water at once, the heart rate will increase reflexively and the blood pressure will rise in a short period of time. However, with the expansion of the whole body skin and subcutaneous blood vessels, the blood pressure will drop suddenly. Such blood pressure fluctuation will increase the probability of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular accidents.
For middle-aged and elderly friends, especially those who have chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes, it is a more appropriate choice to have a bath water temperature slightly higher than the body temperature, usually 37 ~ 41 degrees.
(2) The time should not be too long
Taking a bath for too long or soaking in water for a long time, skin capillaries dilate and cerebrovascular blood supply is relatively reduced, which easily leads to temporary ischemia and hypoxia of the brain and fainting in severe cases.
Therefore, it is best to control the bathing time within half an hour.
Step 3 After taking a bath
Pay attention to keeping warm and rest for a while after taking a bath before other activities.
Finally, I would like to emphasize again.
Patients with hypertension and diabetes should adhere to stable control of blood pressure and blood sugar at ordinary times. Patients with heart disease and hyperlipidemia should adhere to taking medicine according to doctor’s advice to control blood lipid.
Develop healthy and good living habits in daily life, keep happy, and keep warm in late spring cold days.
To sum up, when the temperature is low, friends, especially the elderly friends, should pay attention to the method. More importantly, we must control the basic diseases at ordinary times. Only in this way can stroke not be easily found.