Why snacking could be GOOD for your waistline

NIGHTS are drawing in, the clocks go back this weekend and the shops are already packed with thermals. Yes, winter’s definitely knocking at the door.

But it needn’t bring with it the usual litany of coughs and sneezes, dry skin and cold hands. Here, we bring you our ultimate winter survival guide — with 20 simple tricks to keep you warm and well . . .

Blink more — or wear sunglasses

THE colder the air, the less moisture it contains, which can mean dry eyes — and in turn this may lead to blepharitis, painful inflammation of the eye. Central heating, which dries out indoor air, can have this effect, too.

‘When the environment is dry, our tears evaporate more quickly, so we need to blink more to compensate because this helps produce more tears and keeps those tears flowing,’ says Julian Stevens, a consultant ophthalmic surgeon at Moorfields eye Hospital.

But if your eyes become dry, they can become irritated, causing the stem cells that produce tears to shut down to protect themselves from the irritation. The tears we produce are less effective at lubricating the eyes. The inflammation can spread and cause red, itchy, sore eyelids, which stick together and become crusty or greasy — blepharitis.

If you are prone to streaming eyes in cold weather, Julian Stevens suggests trying sodium hyaluronate eye drops (‘artificial tears’), which until recently were available only on prescription for severe medical dry eye, but can now be bought from chemists (Hycosan Fresh, £8.95).

‘Spectacles and sunglasses can also help reduce the airflow — and evaporation — around the eyes,’ he adds.

Eat with your left hand at parties

HANDS can carry illness-causing bacteria and bugs such as campylobacter, e.coli or norovirus. Using a different hand to greet people and to eat reduces the chance of those bacteria being transferred to your mouth, making you ill, says dr Lisa ackerley, a food safety adviser to the Royal Society For Public Health. ‘If I am at a social occasion, I make a point of shaking hands with my right hand — and eating with my left.

‘I always wash my hands before leaving or use an antibacterial gel to kill off any cold or flu viruses that may have been transferred — particularly at this time of year,’ she adds.

Say no to hot toddy

ALCOHOL might make you feel warm at first because it causes warm blood to rush toward your skin (where most of your ‘heat sensors’ are located), but you may end up feeling colder because this action can take blood away from the internal organs, causing body temperature to drop.

alcohol is a vasodilator, meaning it causes your blood vessels to dilate, particularly the capillaries under the surface of your skin, so the blood cools rapidly.

Studies have shown drinking alcohol in cold weather also reduces the body’s ability to shiver (where the rapid contraction of muscles produces heat), taking away another method your body uses to keep warm.

Get a flu jab if you’re overweight

ASK your GP surgery whether you qualify for a free flu jab (those who do include the over-65s, pregnant women, children aged two to six, who get it as a nasal spray, and anyone with impaired immunity or health conditions such as asthma).

If not, pharmacies offer a walk-in jab service from around £12.99. The flu season starts in november and it can take three weeks for the jab’s protection to kick in.

Professor Wendy Barclay, an influenza specialist at Imperial College London, says the jab could be particularly useful if you are overweight. She says obese people have been shown to be more likely to get flu and suffer complications.

Walk round the shopping centre

WINTER weather really can trigger joint pain, according to a study of patients in six european countries published in the Journal of Rheumatology this year.

This found a correlation between j oint pain in patients with arthritis and a drop in temperature. It also demonstrated a link between pain and humidity — cold plus damp are the worst conditions for arthritis sufferers (experts believe this may be related to t he difference in density of muscles, tendons and bone, which contract at different rates).

The problem is often compounded by the fact that our pain thresholds are generally lower in cold weather (because cold wet weather has a negative effect on mood), so the same problem will be perceived to be more painful in winter than summer, says Jonathan Miles, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Royal national orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore and Spire Bushey Hospital. as well as wearing warm clothing, he recommends heat packs or warm baths and keeping active (40 minutes each day) to keep the joints mobile — and if the weather is not too bad, go for a walk outside, or if it’s inclement, a stroll around a shopping centre.

Sit next to a lamp in the morning

‘MY MUST-Have winter health aid is a light therapy lamp, which mimics natural daylight, that I am convinced helps me to cope with the short winter days,’ says dr Sarah almond, a consultant paediatric surgeon at alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool. ‘The lack of light and vitamin d, which our bodies produce in response to sunlight, make me more tired and sluggish, especially when I get home from work in the dark. So I really need a boost and the lamp does that.’ dr Irshaad ebrahim, a consultant neuropsychiatrist at the London Sleep Centre, recommends use of a daylight lamp for 30 minutes each morning for patients who don’t sleep well in winter (a common symptom of Seasonal affective disorder).

daylight helps trigger the production of the hormone melatonin, which helps regulate our mood and sleep patterns.

Light therapy lamps cost from £99.95 from lumie.com

Change seats on the bus

GERM-FILLED droplets can fly as far as 3.5 metres through the air, according to a 2014 study by Massachusetts I nstitute of Technology. So if someone close to you is coughing or sneezing, turn your head away for ten seconds while the air clears, and — if you’re on a bus or train — change seats if you can.

a sneeze can send 100,000 virus-containing droplets into the air — you only need one to 30 particles to be infected — and the cold virus can survive on a doorknob or Tv control or handrail for 48 hours.

Stomp around to avoid falls

ICE and snow can be treacherous, with as many as 7,000 hospital admissions a year being due to people falling over on snow or ice. For the elderly, a serious fracture could be fatal. ‘Hip fracture rates are much higher in the winter months,’ says Jonathan Miles. He recommends wearing firm shoes with good grip and walking in a way that maximises the foot’s gripping surface area — strike the ground with heels first, but try to stomp your whole foot down, rather than rocking from heel to toe.

Scientists i n Canada are developing plastics embedded with microscopic glass fibres (like fine sandpaper) to give shoes better grip, but in the meantime, you can buy a set of spikes on rubber bands to slip over your shoes (around £5 from outdoor shops or amazon.co.uk).

Wear a scarf over your nose

COLD weather can make asthma symptoms worse. not only will colds and flu inflame the airways, but cold air itself can irritate the airways, causing them to constrict, triggering coughing and wheezing, according to Cher Piddock, a nurse for asthma Uk.

She says hospital admissions for asthma peak during periods of particularly cold weather.

dr auldric Ratajczak, a GP and deputy medical director for wellbeing at nuffield Health, recommends taking one or two puffs on your blue (reliever) inhaler before going outside or starting exercising.

Wash your pillow case every week

CHANGE your pillow case once a week to prevent germs festering — and daily if the person you share a bed with is under the weather. Use a 60c hot wash.

Don’t drain the bath straight away

STUDIES show the flu virus lives longer when air is cold and dry — cold, dry air can aggravate skin conditions such as eczema and