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Leaving outside the icy time can really break your breath, and not in the sense of the country of poetic winter wonders. The cold air breathing can feel like a Mack truck took reside in your respiratory tract. This is what happens, biologically, that makes it happen - and when worrying.

What happens to your lungs

When you take a puff of cold air, your lungs moisten and hear the air because it enters your body. You pass from the nose by breathing the mouth. Cold air is dry and breathe it maybe your respiratory tracts get and become irritated. This causes the familiar burning sensation that makes it slightly painful to breathe. "The main reason you can feel pain when doing exercise in the cold is that lungs do not like cold," saysJonathan Parsons, MD, from the Medical Center of the State University of Ohio State Wexner.

Simply be exposed to cold air increases the number of granulocytes and macrophages-two types of white blood cells that engulf and destroy foreign invaders - in your lungs. At the same time, the drying nature of cold air can slow down the mucocalular function, the self-cleaning lung system that releases particles and gases via mucus, making it more difficult to suppress pollutants,Researchers say.

Why it can be bad

When cold air causes a close from your respiratory tract (called bronchoconstriction), which can aggravate respiratory conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which makes breathing difficult. If you have a cold cold or bronchitis, cold air can aggravate it.

But cold air is difficult on the lungs, even if you do not normally have breathing difficulties. When it's cold, there is almost no moisture in the air, says Parsons, so that your throat and your lungs can dry quickly if you are not properly hydrated - they can even crack and bleed. Researchers found that even winter athletes have higher asthma and chronic cough rates.

When worrying

If you have asthma or COPD, it is advisable to take steps to help protect your cold lungs (read on which).

The experts advise to see a doctor if you have a cough for more than two weeks, you touch a thick green or brown phlegm, or you run a fever of more than 101 degrees. You could have a respiratory infection that requires additional treatment.

And if you have a chronic breathing breathing, wheezing or sealing in your chest, see your health care provider as soon as possible.

RELATED: 30 things you should not do when time gets colder

What you can do

Number one: when you are in the cold, budge you. "It now seems that the grandmother was just after all, to get a cold can predispose a person to a respiratory infection, including pneumonia," saidNorman H. Edelman, MD, a scientific advisor for the American Lung Association. "As she would have recommended, dress warmly, keep the feet dry and head covered."

Two: Try to breathe more often your nose. The cilia of your nasal passages will help warm air, reduce the chances that will irritate your lungs.

Parsons recommends wearing a mask or scarf on your mouth whenever temperatures fall below 32 degrees. This will help heat and moisten the air you breathe, mitigate the strain on your lungs and reduce the burn.

If you exercise in the cold, Parsons also advises taking a hot shower immediately after your workout to humidify dehydrated mucous membranes. And live your happiest and healthiest life, do not miss these70 things you should never do for your health.