The winter season is often seen as a season of comfort, warm drinks, slow mornings, cozy blankets, heavy meals, and fewer outdoor plans. But beneath that cozy surface, colder months quietly add strain on the heart, even in young adults who consider themselves fit and healthy. Winter creates a perfect storm where subtle symptoms are easy to dismiss, and serious warning signs are often overlooked. This can raise various problems ranging from narrowed vessels to disrupted routines, and more.
Winter Pushes Your Heart Without Warning
“Winter places a particular kind of stress on the heart, even in young adults who believe they’re otherwise healthy. Cold air narrows the blood vessels, raises blood pressure, and pushes the heart to work harder with every activity, including something as simple as walking briskly to the car. When dehydration, poor sleep, or sudden, intense workouts enter the equation, the heart is pushed beyond its comfort zone without warning. I often remind younger patients that chest tightness, breathlessness, or unexplained fatigue should never be ignored just because they’re ‘too young’ for heart issues. The season demands a little more care: regular hydration, slow warm-ups before meals. And if a person has a family history of cardiac disease, winter is the right time to get a basic check-up done rather than waiting for symptoms to appear.” Cardiology, Arete Hospitals.
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Jaw Discomfort Or Shoulder Heaviness Can Also Signal Heart Risk
“We tend to associate winter heart events with older adults, but the data tells us otherwise. Young adults today carry multiple silent risks, stress, erratic sleep, smoking, high caffeine intake, and long hours of sitting. When you layer winter physiology on top of that, the risk rises sharply. Cold weather increases sympathetic activity, which means a faster heart rate and higher blood pressure even at rest. For someone already living on the edge metabolically, this can trigger rhythm disturbances. or even small vessel spasms that mimic a heart attack. What worries me is the tendency to overlook symptoms; shoulder heaviness are all early signs. Winter is not the season to respect them,” says Dr.
Winter Can Disrupt Your Heart’s Rhythm
“Young adults often underestimate how sensitive the heart is to temperature changes. Cold mornings, skipped breakfasts, and sudden intense workouts can create a ‘perfect storm’ for the cardiovascular system. The heart likes predictability, and winter disrupts that rhythm. If I see more young people coming in with palpitations, chest discomfort, or elevated blood pressure around this time of year, not because they have a major disease, but because their lifestyle and the weather are pulling in opposite directions. I could give one piece of advice, it would be to listen to your body early. Slow down your warm-up, stay well hydrated even if you don’t feel thirsty, and avoid extremes, whether it’s fasting, heavy lifting, or too much caffeine. Winter doesn’t have to be dangerous if we respect its impact on the body, especially for those juggling stress, long workdays, and limited sleep,” says Dr PRLN Prasad, Consultant, Interventional Cardiologist, Gleneagles BGS. Hospital, Kengeri, Bengaluru.
The biggest danger of winter heart risk isn’t dramatic collapse, it’s complacency. Subtle signs like fatigue, jaw discomfort, palpitations, or breathlessness are the body’s early alarms, not inconveniences to push through. As experts stress, winter is not the time to test physical limits or ignore warning signals. Small adjustments, hydration, steady routines, warm-ups, and timely check-ups can protect the heart and prevent the stress of one season from spilling into long-term damage. Sometimes, listening early is what keeps problems from becoming permanent.
(Views expressed by experts in the articles are their own; Zee News does not confirm or endorse the same. This article is meant for informational purposes only and must not be considered a substitute for advice provided by qualified medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about heart health, diabetes, weight loss, or other medical conditions.)
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