RALEIGH, N.C. — A lingering arctic cold front potentially means more prolonged exposure of body parts to freezing temperatures in North Carolina.

Severe cold can result in bad health outcomes depending on career, pre-existing conditions, age, amount of clothing and lifestyle choices.

The medical director of emergency medicine at UNC Rex Hospital said there are reasons your body has to work harder to stay warm.

“The amount of energy your body has to expend in very cold temperatures, in the 20s, is a lot,” Dr. Ryan Lamb said. “You have to eat a lot of calories just to withstand that cold.”

Lamb has practiced medicine in the Triangle for years.

“The key is to dress appropriately,” Lamb said. “I think if you can wear proper clothing, a hat, gloves, a jacket, warm clothes and an underlayer so that you have a distance between, say, your jacket and your inner layer. The more layers that you have, it allows you to insulate better.”

The National Weather Service says the definition of severe cold varies “in different parts of the country.”

Freezing and near-freezing temperatures are enough to be considered extreme cold in the Deep South.

Young children waiting at bus stops and people working jobs outside for long periods of time can be susceptible.

One element Lamb points to for staying well is to stay dry. 

“Trying to prevent it is definitely key,” Lamb said.

Lamb said some of the signs for hypothermia are quickened breathing, reduced cognitive function, a dip in coordination and poor use of motor skills.

“They are trying to unlock a door, open a handle from the outside and they're cold. You'll start to see coordination problems,” Lamb said.

There’s also the element of tracking trends in viral transmissions this winter season.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports low rates of flu and COVID-19 throughout the country at the present. 

“I would suspect as this cold snap is about to occur and we are in it, you are going to see much more people confined into a closed environment, and as we see this slight uptick in the viral load, I suspect next week and the week after we are going to start to see the viruses increase in the community,” he said.

However, Lamb said they are seeing cases of pneumonia at the emergency department. 

The CDC has noted an uptick in the spread of Mycoplasma pneumoniae, cases of which are on the rise in the area.

Pneumonia symptoms can be a cough, congestion, runny nose, fever, cough, muscle aches and shortness of breath.

“In general with pneumonia or walking pneumonia, you're going to diagnose that usually with the (medical) history, the physical, the vital signs and then doing a chest X-ray,” he said.

Lamb offered the following as sound ways to prepare children and yourself this winter:

• Hand washing
• Staying home if you are sick
• Rest
• Layered clothing