A Taipei doctor yesterday cautioned people, particularly smokers, to dress warmly in the winter months, citing a 30 percent increase in emergency-room visits for heart problems related to the cold.
In one case, a 43-year-old man was rushed to the emergency room after experiencing tightness in his chest and cold sweats while exercising in the evening, Taipei Medical University Hospital emergency services director Kao Wei-feng (高偉峰) said.
“He was quite lucky. In half the cases, the patient’s heart stops completely when they have their first heart attack,” Kao said.
Photo copied by Wu Jen-chieh, Taipei Times
Emergency personnel in Taipei and New Taipei City responded to 37 calls involving cardiac arrest on Friday and Saturday, with 29 of those cases ending in death, information from the cities’ fire departments showed.
The majority of the patients were older than 60.
While cold weather alone cannot be blamed for the heart attacks, the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions are particularly at risk when temperatures plummet, as it causes veins and arteries to constrict, the Taipei City Fire Department said.
Smokers and those who have the so-called “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids and high blood sugar — are also more at risk of having a heart attack when temperatures drop, Taipei City Hospital Renai Branch emergency services director Chien Li-chien (簡立建) said.
Not only the elderly are at risk, Chien said, adding that everyone should dress warmly before going outdoors in winter.
Taiwan Hypertension Society director Wang Tzung-dau (王宗道) said it is not uncommon to see up to a 50 percent increase in the number of patients treated for a heart attack or stroke in winter.
The reason smokers in particular are at greater risk is due to the way nicotine contracts the veins and arteries, further exacerbating the effects of cold weather, he said.
Taoyuan Chang Gung Memorial Hospital deputy director Huang Chi-jen (黃集仁) said cases of influenza also increase in winter, which could easily lead to heart problems in those with the “three highs.”
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching