Since Medco and Express Scripts have come together as one company to manage your prescription drug benefit, the information Medco had on file for you is now available to the merged company.
Frigid winds make you shiver; dry air chaps unprotected lips and hands; and a lack of sunshine can even cause depression. Cold weather also puts immense strain on the heart. Low temperatures cause your blood vessels and arteries to narrow, restricting blood flow and reducing oxygen to the heart. Your heart must pump harder to circulate blood through the constricted blood vessels. As a result, your blood pressure increases. A sudden spike in blood pressure â especially when paired with outdoor exertion, such as shoveling a snowy sidewalk â can cause serious issues such as: 1  Unstable chest pain.
As a consequence, the blood pressure usually increases by 20 to 60 mm Hg, which helps sustain the increased blood flow through skeletal muscle blood vessels. In response to sympathetic stimulation, some decrease in the blood flow through the skin can occur at the beginning of exercise. However, as the body temperature increases in response to the increased muscular activity, temperature receptors in the hypothalamus are stimulated. As a result, action potentials in sympathetic nerve fibers causing vasoconstriction decrease, resulting in vasodilation of blood vessels in the skin.