It’s cold at home in Japan
“The cold puts a tremendous load on the human body.”
I understand that.
When the cold north wind involuntarily says “It’s cold!”
I feel like I’m shrinking.
In fact, the cold not only increases the risk of pneumonia, stroke, myocardial infarction and various diseases.
Recent research has shown that it has various effects, such as accelerating the onset of dementia.
It is now shown in a visible form.
Professor Shunji Ikaga of Keio University specializes in architecture, but over the past 10 years or so, he has been working on the
We investigated the causal relationship between room temperature and health.
As a result, a little interesting data emerged.
The average room temperature in the middle of winter in the living room where the family gathers was the warmest when arranged by prefecture.
It was 19.8°C in Hokkaido. Conversely, the coldest temperature was 13.1°C in Kagawa Prefecture.
In Hokkaido, highly airtight “insulated houses” are becoming more widespread, and even if it is cold outside, the inside of the house
It seems to be warm.
On the other hand, in the south, around Shikoku, there may be many “airy” houses.
Well, the question is the following data:
It has long been known that the number of sick deaths increases in winter, but when we investigated the increase rate,
Hokkaido had the lowest rate of 10.3% in Japan.
The highest was 25.0% in Tochigi Prefecture, and the average room temperature was 15.1°C.
Kagawa Prefecture, where the room was the coldest, has an increase in deaths of 20.8%.
It turns out that if the room temperature is low in winter, more people will die.
According to Professor Ikaga, about 1,000 people die annually from heat stroke, which is often talked about in the media.
However, in fact, the overwhelming number of people who die of respiratory, brain, and heart diseases in winter is about 200,000.
It seems to go up.
When blood pressure rises due to cold, the risk of hypertensive diseases such as stroke increases.
Blood becomes mushy and leads to myocardial infarction.
The lung’s resistance to infectious diseases also weakens, resulting in pneumonia.
In addition, it has been found that cold shrinks the brain.
We examined the “brains” of 32 people each of the residents of cold houses and warm houses.
Measure “volume score”.
Compared to the remeasurement figures after 5 years, there was almost no change in the warmer ones.
The colder one shrank by 3.1 points.
In terms of brain age, it is about 7 years different!
They say that the problem lies in the structure of housing.
About 90% of the houses in Japan do not even meet the insulation standards of 20 years ago, and no matter how much you heat the room,
Heat has escaped through windows.
Moreover, many people themselves recognize that “it is natural to be cold in winter”, and it is because it does not let the heat escape.
There are also circumstances that make it difficult to take action to take measures.
In Europe, since the 19th century, maintaining an appropriate indoor temperature is essential for maintaining health.
The recommended temperature has been set at 18°C.
It is also included in the guidelines of the WHO (World Health Organization), but it clears the standard in Japan.
In addition to Hokkaido, only a few prefectures north of the Kanto region are doing this.
However, since coming here, “cold houses” are becoming a big problem even in Japan.
Behind this is the “super-aging” of society.
Before World War II, the average life expectancy of Japan people was less than 50 years old, but now we are in the era of 100 years of life.
The cold that can be tolerated at the age of 50 becomes more difficult as you get older.
The only fundamental solution is to proceed with insulation renovation of the house.
I heard that even if you heat a room, nearly 60% of the heat escapes through the gaps in the windows and the surface.
A relatively simple thing to do is to make the windows double sashes or turn them into double-glazed glass,
If it’s an apartment, or if it’s a detached house, that’s not all.
It seems that it costs 2 ~ 3 million yen to properly renovate the insulation of an entire house, so this is done by the national and local governments.
I want a subsidy.
There is also the question of whether tax money will be used to renovate private homes, but that will reduce the number of people who get sick.
Wouldn’t it be nice if medical costs could be reduced?
By Admin|2023-01-27|2023,News Release|