Take care not to get cold (From Gazette Series)

Take care not to get cold

HEALTH chiefs have issued a cold weather warning to older people living across the region.

The South West has more older people than any other part of the country and suffers more than 2,000 unnecessary winter deaths. As colder weather bites the region's director of public health Dr Gabriel Scally is sending out the message Keep warm, keep well this winter.

According to the Meteorological Office the coming winter months may be the coldest in recent years. Ladbrokes has slashed its odds on this Christmas being the coldest since records began.

The freezing weather has health implications for everybody but particularly for vulnerable groups such as the elderly and those suffering from heart or chest problems.

Older people may not sense they are getting cold until their body temperature falls. Additionally, older people live in relatively cold,homes, which are expensive to heat, and which are therefore more risky environments.

Dr Scally said: "The cold kills thousands of people every year in the South West, but many of these deaths can be prevented if older people and those with heart and chest problems know how to protect themselves. Unfortunately people in this country we don't respect the cold as they do in other countries and many people believe that a cold house is actually healthy.

"This is absolutely not the case, and I would urge all people to keep warm, both indoors as well as outside and at night as well as during the day."