Possibly.

According to several reports, this year (so far) is actually the third coldest winter on record in the U.S. That means when you complained about how this is the coldest winter you can ever remember,  you were absolutely right.

It’s been a brutal season, folks. Not only for Boston but for the rest of the country as well. And, unfortunately, it looks like these frigid temps might be worse for you than we imagined. Besides being simply an inconvenience, the cold weather could also be killing you.

A recent Wall Street Journal article outlined how the “cold and snow can have strange, often negative effects on people.” Not good news considering the current snowflake situation outside of our Boston windows right now.

The article goes on to explain that, “Economic research looking at weather shows that extreme cold can increase mortality, reduce spending on food among the poor, increase spending on food among the rich and boost sales of sport-utility vehicles.”

All-in-all, the bitter cold leads to a pretty unhealthy lifestyle. No surprise there.

Cold weather outside “exacerbates cardiovascular and respiratory diseases,” with the elderly and poor especially vulnerable, according to the report. The Wall Street Journal also cites a study regarding cold weather and mortality:

“‘We estimate that the number of annual deaths attributable to cold temperature is 27,940 or 1.3% of total deaths in the U.S.,’ Olivier Deschenes, an economics professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara and Enrico Moretti, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, found in a 2007 research paper.”

Bottom line: Layer up, stay warm, and help those (homeless, elderly and the poor) who need shelter, blankets and/or assistance.

Image via crysannetimm.wordpress.com