Cold weather: discomfort or danger? Know the difference.

Hello everybody. All this recent political talk about Trump and America has been really depressing - so please allow me to switch back to another very popular topic on my blog: winter wear. Now I am sick and tired of Singaporeans telling me, "I'm very afraid of the cold". Like good grief, nobody is asking you to go swimming in freezing cold water when it is snowing outside - why the heck are you people afraid of the cold? I have a theory: in Singapore, thee the common misconception is that the cold can somehow make you fall sick - which simply isn't true. I also believe that Singaporeans are simply not a very tough lot who are unable/unwilling to put up with any kind of minor discomfort. I shall tackle that today - know the difference between conditions that discomfort and those that cause injury/illness.

It was -6 degrees and I am walking around in a T-shirt.

Cold weather can cause some degree of discomfort. Yes you will feel the effects of cold weather on your body - but in the vast majority of cases, you will not experience any kind of injury or illness as a result. Let me start by talking about something you can all relate to: the hot weather in Singapore. Now sweating is a very common form of discomfort that you will experience in Singapore - all you have to do is to walk around for just a few minutes during daylight hours in Singapore and sure enough, you will start sweating. This is because your body is trying to cool itself down under such hot and humid conditions - however, this can prove to be quite an uncomfortable process, especially if you start sweating profusely. I'm sure Singaporeans experience this fairly regularly in your kind of climate - but would sweating cause any kind of injury? Would sweating make you fall sick? No, it wouldn't - it is treated as quite a natural process, just another bodily function. As long as you stay hydrated of course, sweating is a perfectly natural process for your body even if it is unsightly, uncomfortable, undignified and possibly even quite smelly. Yucks.

The fact is even people like my parents can quite happily work up a sweat in Singapore and not worry that sweating will make them sick. By the same token, folks in the UK know that they can experience cold weather and experience some degree of discomfort as a result, but it will not make them sick. Going jogging for example will bring on some discomfort pretty quickly - you feel tired, short of breath, your legs ache, lactic acid kicks in, you sweat, you feel hot, you may also feel thirsty. But do joggers stop the moment they experience any of these symptoms? No, the regular, experienced runners learn to put up with the discomfort and they keep running. Those who give in to the discomfort are the weak ones who will probably be fat, because any kind of exercise will involve some degree of discomfort. Sitting on the sofa, watching TV is very comfortable, but that will make you fat. Allow me to give you two quite different scenarios to illustrate the difference between an activity that causes discomfort and another that causes an injury.

Any kind of exercise will involve discomfort.

Scenario 1: John had not been jogging in years, but when he was on holiday in Greece, he stayed with some friends in a beautiful beach villa. His friends suggested going jogging at sunrise to take in the beauty of the magnificent coastal scenery - John thought it was a good idea and joined in. However, he had not taken into account of the fact that his friends jogged regularly and were a lot fitter than him. He was fine for the first 20 minutes but then got extremely tired after that. Because he was in an unfamiliar part of the beach, John was afraid of getting lost if he didn't keep up with his friends - so he ignored the pain and fatigue and pressed on until they had completed their jog. John was totally exhausted and the next day, he felt his leg muscles ache a lot after the grueling jog.

Scenario 2: Jane was on holiday in Greece where she stayed with some friends in a beautiful beach villa. One evening, her friends decided to go for a walk and she decided to join them. As they were climbing down some stairs to get down to the beach, Jane missed a step and fell down the stairs. She initially thought she was okay, but found it increasingly hard to put any weight on her left ankle as it began to swell. She was helped into a nearby hotel when a member of staff administered first aid on Jane's swollen ankle. "I think you had better go to the hospital for an X-ray, it looks pretty seriously damaged because it really shouldn't be swelling up like this," Jane was told. Sure enough, she had a small fracture in her ankle as a result of that fall and it was going to take a few months for that ankle to heal.

When I was in beautiful Greece 2 years ago.

Okay, in scenario 2, Jane was clearly injured from the fall, no question about that, but in John's case, well there's no doubt that he definitely experience a lot of discomfort during and after his jog with his friends, but did John fall ill as a result? Was John injured? No, he wasn't, he was merely experiencing discomfort and even that soon passed - unlike poor Jane, who clearly was injured. You see, anybody who does any kind of sport will realize that there will always be some degree of discomfort associated with any kind of sporting activity and we simply accept it as part of the process. As a gymnast, I do a lot of stretching to maintain my flexibility during my warm up - sure it hurts each time I force myself down into the splits, there is a lot of discomfort associated with stretching but that's simply not the same as injury. Discomfort doesn't always lead to injury and it usually doesn't bother you for long.

I have found myself in a situations in Singapore whereby I end up sweating profusely - a very uncomfortable situation indeed, but as soon as I sit down, preferably in a place with air-con and have a cool drink, I'm fine again as the discomfort dissipates rapidly.  Likewise,  I have found myself in situations where I am very cold - a classic example is when I am skiing and I take the chair lift. That's when you could end up sitting on an exposed chair lift in temperatures as low as -20 degrees, being blasted by the wind and snow. Anyone will feel cold and uncomfortable in those circumstances, but once I get off the chair lift, the physical exercise of skiing usually warms me up pretty quickly, or if necessary, I may decide to have a break and have a cup of hot coffee in a warm restaurant. Either way, I can make the discomfort end pretty quickly. The bottom line is that short periods of discomfort do not lead to injury or illness.

Sweating is uncomfortable but not harmful to health.

I get the impression that too many Singaporeans these days are just so afraid of any kind of mild discomfort because they are just not tough enough, that they are so incredibly pampered. For example, I know of Singaporeans who will not exercise because it will make them feel tired (erm, hello, isn't that the whole point of exercising?) and thus they will avoid exercising altogether. This is of course, very bad as those people who do not exercise will usually end up quite overweight! Okay to be fair, it's not just Singaporeans, but so many people all over the world are afraid of even very mild physical discomfort that they start coming up with statements like, "I am very afraid of the cold". I swear this woman left me a question about being afraid that her nose will run if it is very cold when she goes to Japan and I'm like, so what? Have some tissues ready, it's a bit of mucus. Just blow your nose, wipe your nose. It's not pretty but it's no big deal. It's not like a massive nosebleed, duh. Seriously, if you manage to cope with having a period every month, surely you can cope with a little mucus coming out of your nose if the air is very cold? Time for another analogy:

Scenario 3: John was invited to a Thai restaurant with some Thai friends, he told them to order for him as he is unfamiliar with Thai cuisine. They order the Tom Yum soup which turns out to be quite spicy - John is unaccustomed to spicy Thai food and finds the soup really unpleasant to drink. He doesn't like it at all but because he doesn't want to offend his friends, especially since they were all raving about just how delicious and authentic the Tom Yum soup was! So, he forces himself to drink the whole bowl of soup. Well, he didn't enjoy that experience at all, drinking that big bowl of Tom Yum soup was uncomfortable to say the least. Thankfully, he enjoyed the rest of the meal with his friends.

Delicious, spicy Thai food.

Scenario 4: Jane is a restaurant in Bangkok and she doesn't speak Thai. She asks for some warm water but as the waiter didn't understand English, Jane was presented with a cup of boiling water. As Jane was engrossed in conversation with her friends, she drank the boiling hot water and only realized when she swallowed the first mouthful. But it was too late, she had badly scalded her mouth and throat already and had to go to see a doctor.

Again, in both scenarios, both John and Jane experienced discomfort, but in quite different ways. The fact is John's discomfort was quickly forgotten after he had consumed the soup, whereas Jane had to suffer the consequences of the mistake with the hot water for many days, until her mouth and throat had healed. John's discomfort was only temporary whereas for poor Jane, it lasted quite a long time. So there you go, I hope I have shown you that a bit of discomfort doesn't make you ill - it takes a lot more than that to make your body ill. My only conclusion is that whilst the human body is extremely resilient even with challenging conditions (such as very hot or cold weather), modern man is not and people start to complain like stupid whiny little losers the moment they experience just a little bit of discomfort. Sometimes, the only good advice I can give is just to shut the hell up and man up. A little discomfort isn't going to kill you or make you sick. Do you drop everything when you start to sweat in Singapore? Do you stop exercising the moment you feel just a little bit tired? No, of course not. It's just a matter of learning to put up with a little discomfort.

Spiciness is a form of controlled discomfort that we have learnt to embrace.

Really, what is wrong with modern society these days, why can't people just put up with a little discomfort? The fact is most of the time, you don't even need to do anything when you experience the discomforts of cold weather. Most discomfort results when you leave a warm place and enter a cold place - the drop in temperature shocks your system a little and you react to the temperature difference. But after a few minutes, you body adjusts and gets used to the cold - then the discomfort mysteriously disappears. Those of us who are used to winter weather understand this and so we just shut up and wait for our bodies to adjust to the cold, knowing that everything will be fine in a matter of moments. So hat's it from me on this topic. Please let me know what you think, leave a comment below. Many thanks for reading.