Somebody is running in Central Park and it's 6 degrees. Good luck to you. I wonder how many layers this person has on. Of course, when it's cold out, we all wanna bundle up, but is it the right move? Is it the best way to stay warm and healthy? Just one of the myths that we're going to tackle this morning as we take a look at how keeping you both warm and healthy in this extremely cold temperatures. Joining us to help separate that fact from fiction is Amy Brightfield who is health director of Woman's Day Magazine. Good morning!

Good morning!

So, we did just see-- we see this person running--


in Central Park. One would hope that they have some layers on.


And is that really the best way to stay warm in these kind of temperatures?

It is the best way to stay warm, but you wanna be careful not to layer up too much so that you go outside and you start so sweat because then you get chilled because the water on the surface of your skin. So, the layers you wanna wear, you wanna try something that has a wicking ability to wick--


the moisture away from your body so it doesn't settle in your skin and then you can get chilled.

Okay. So, that's a fact. Dressing in layers does keep us warmer.


Now, fact or fiction on this one. Does the cold give you a cold?

Well, it could. You come with them and it's true that you get a cold by being exposed to the cold virus and then it enters your body and you-- you-- you touch it and you touch your hand, your face, your eyes, your nose, your mouth, but some research shows that actually the cold weather when your body is shivering that all your body's resources is going to keep you warm--


and not going to fighting off whatever virus you might be exposed too. So, it does dampen your immune system and they did an experiment where they put people's feet in ice water for 20 minutes and they put people's feet in nothing for 20 minutes. And the people who had their feet in the ice water, actually, 29% of them developed cold symptoms and then--


of much of the lower percentage of the non-water people developed nothing. No cold symptoms.

And-- And in that short of a period of time? That's-- That's really interesting and this is another reason probably then to layer up especially make sure your head is covered.

Your extremities.

Your extremities.

Definitely your head. You lose about 50% of your heat through your head.

So you're not doing all that shivering. Okay. So that's a maybe on that one. Frostbite. Can you really get frostbite in as little as 5 minutes?

You can especially when the weather is as cold as it is outside right now. When it's 10 below and it's really windy, it can happen as-- in as little as 5 minutes. So, whenever their temperature dips below 0, you won't-- you don't wanna go outside if you don't have to. And when it's above-- about 10 degrees above and it's really windy, you can get it in as little as 30 minutes. No, it's not that long if you're standing outside sitting in the city wing for the bus.


And what happens is is that your body diverts blood away from your extremities--


to keep your core warm because it senses that you might be in danger for getting hypothermia and your skin actually freezes.

So-- And so that's why you see it most often then on your finger tips or your nose--


as that's heat going away--

The toes are the-- that's the places that you're exposed. If you're gonna go outside, you wanna cover up. That's when you see people wearing face mask--

Uh-huh. because you get any piece of skin that's exposed, it could-- it's at risk for--

I go around wrapping my head in scarf when I was at school in Boston because of that-- wind is so cold that you really feel it on your face.

The wind chill factor effects that--

Gets you every time. Lastly, fact or fiction on this one. A lot of people-- You know, in the summertime, we close our drapes to keep the heat out. Should you close them to keep the heat in in the winter?

Well, on a sunny day, that's false because on the sunny day, if you leave them open, it can actually warm-- the sunshine can warm up the house and maybe put a little bit of a dent in your [unknown], but also remember at night to close them back up. It is true that if it's a sunny day--


and you leave your blinds open that it can definitely help keep-- keep your house warm a couple of degrees.

And then it will keep it warmer, as you said, at night as long as we close it to keep that heat it.

Yes. Close them back up.

Amy Brightfield with some great tips for us this morning. Thanks for coming by.

Thank you.

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