terminal illness related to cold climate?

[evilcoc0nut]

Setting: a fantasy world, but in a land that would be like near the North Pole if it were Earth. Time-wise, probably equivalent to the 16th or 17th centuries

Comments

[madwriter]

Caused? Not sure. Exacerbated? A whole host of lung ailments, including chronic bronchitis and COPD. Cold dry air will constrict your airways.

[curiouswombat]

I'm just agreeing. As a student nurse, in the 1970s in NE England, we saw a lot of patients with 'chronic bronchitis with cor pulmonale' on the chest ward - although many were smokers and/or miners - but it was a common condition which became acute regularly in the winter

[evilcoc0nut]

Ahh, fires, now I didn't think of that. Obviously there would be fires lit quite a lot. This is probably what I'm looking for, thanks.

[curiouswombat]

So pleased it helps.

[madwriter]

Also found in the abstract of a 1995 article: "Chronic exposure to cold environments results in morphological changes such as increased numbers of goblet cells and mucous glands, hypertrophy of airway muscular fascicles and increased muscle layers of terminal arteries and arterioles. These latter two factors may play a role in the symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and bronchitis, high altitude pulmonary hypertension and edema, and right heart hypertrophy."

Aviat Space Environ Med. 1995 Sep;66(9):890-902.
The respiratory system in a cold environment.
Giesbrecht GG.

[mundungus42]

Tuberculosis/consumption has a long and glorious tradition of cutting people down long before their time gradually, but then suddenly not. Before antibiotics were used to treat it, there was a belief that cold, dry mountain air would prevent people from becoming sicker, though later warm dry climates were more popular places for sanitoriums. What actually kept people from getting sicker faster was more likely the good nutrition and lack of stress in the fancy sanitariums. If your character lives in a harsh climate, limited food, a labor-intensive lifestyle, and/or other difficult conditions that get worse inwinter could be easily blamed for her death.

[anonymous]

Definitely TB, but also consider scurvy. It's not caused by the cold directly, but rather by the lack of fresh fruit (vitamin C) in cold climate (unless your people compensate by eating raw liver and kelp). Also rickets, from a vitamin D deficiency, if their cold is related to lack of sunshine.

[reggie11]

I agree with TB. Other than that, if she were to have heart disease, extreme cold can worsen the condition enough to cause a heart attack.These increase in frequency during the winter months usually affecting those who already have an underlying health problem. A drop in temperature increases blood pressure so placing more strain on the heart, also your body works harder to generate additional heat when it is cold.