When it’s very cold out, the blood decreases to your skin and your extremities, so you are at some risk of frostbite in the fingers, toes, nose; areas that tend to be exposed.
So if you are going to go out in very cold weather, and you plan to be out there for a long time ... what you want to do is cover your skin ... .
If you do think that you may have frostbite, for example, the skin starts to get very red. When it’s severe, the skin can even tun slightly purple. It gets painful as you star to warm it.
What you want to make sure is you don’t rub the area ... don’t put hot water on it, don’t warm it very fast.
The best thing you can do is get into a warm environment and let it re-warm relatively slowly.
Diane Dahm, MD
Fitness for Everybody
Physician, educator, researcher
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