Healthcare provider shares cold weather safety tips

SUPERIOR, Wis. — With the recent and upcoming low temps, a health care provider with Essentia Health shares cold-weather health tips.

Family Nurse Practitioner Julie Pearce encourages safety during cold temperatures.

She emphasizes the importance of dressing in layers, avoiding extended exposure to cold and not getting wet to prevent heat loss.

With the temps reaching into the negatives this weekend, Pearce said cold-related injuries to children, seniors and people with disabilities are more likely.

It’s also important to be cautious if you’re out drinking in cold weather.

“If you’re going out and you’re going to be drinking at all, that’s an important thing to be making sure you have a plan to get home if you’re going out to the bars or whatnot, because we do see a lot of alcohol related cold injuries,” Pearce said.

During cold weather, hypothermia and frostbite are possible, according to Pearce the areas most prone to frostbite are toes, fingers, nose and ears.

“You might start to get a little discoloration of the skin, a little bit of pink, is okay, but when you start getting into tissue that looks waxy, that looks hard, that’s blanched, that looks blue, then we might be actually talking about some actual frostbite injuries,” Pearce said.

For mild cases of frostbite, putting warm water on the effected areas is recommended.

If it becomes more severe, Pearce encourages seeing a medical professional.