20/01/2014 Inside Out South West

Tonight, and Inside Out special. As temperatures drop and energy bills

soared, the times and is `` be consequences for us all. Dying to be

worn ` the experiment which shows why cold is a killer. When he goes

outside there is an increase in his blood pressure reading and that

shows the effect of cold temperatures.

And cutting off the power thieves that cost honest customers millions.

I would have thought that these people could afford to pay for their

energy and yet they have done something to get energy for nothing.

This is Inside Out Southwest. It has been called a national

scandal ` the tone of winter deaths among pensioners. Last year the

number soared to 31,000. Why are so many old people at risk when cold

weather bites? We have been investigating.

Outside, it is a cool nine degrees. Inside Pamela Tilney`Ellis's mid

Devon cottage, it is just 15 degrees, a temperature experts warn

is verging on to called for old people to live in comfort. Thank you

for the soup. You are welcome. What is your approach to heating the

house? I don't believe in keeping it very hot, I think it is unhealthy. I

prefer to put more clothes on. Why do you think it is unhealthy?

Because you go out to a great change of temperature when you go outside.

The room here is 15 Celsius. According to this, it is between

cold and cool. I do not feel cold, but I have been busy all morning.

Pamela's heating and cooking is oil fired. It is not the expense she is

worried about. What about the cost of you will? It does not worry me.

It is not because of cost, it is because it is what I comfortable at.

Much of the afternoon will be dry and temperatures will be about two

degrees. Keith Massey's house is also chilly, at 15 degrees. But not

by choice. We had the heating on four and are in the morning. If it

is called, we put it to 20, and then in the evening, from nine o'clock

until ten o'clock we have it on. At 82, retired postman Keith says his

pension does not stretch Foreign Office to let him keep his heating

on longer. `` does not stretch far enough. House insurance, gas,

electric, council tax, it works out at ?98 a week, and that is without

food and luxuries. When you take that out of your pension you have

not much left. Professor James Goodwin advises the Met Office on

the health impacts of cold weather on the elderly. He is also head of

research at Age UK. He says that there is a clear link between being

cold and the number of excess winter deaths in the UK. Nearly 3 million

people in the last 60 years. It does not have to be below freezing before

people's health is affected. For every one degree that the present

winter is at a 30 year average, there are 8000 extra deaths. The

cold can thicken the blood and push up blood pressure. In older and

vulnerable people, but can lead to strokes, heart attacks and breathing

problems. If we look at causes of death in death certificates, less

than 1% are from hypothermia. The statement I normally give is, the

cold will kill you before your body gets that cold. In Yakutsk in

Siberia, where the average temperature is `30, there are no

excess winter deaths. And here we are in Britain, with the mild 10

Celsius of Devon, and we see XS winter deaths. Pamela keeps fit and

active. She is convinced she suffers no ill effects from the cold. But

while Keith gets out and about, he is wondering whether his living

conditions might affect his health one day. I think it would, yeah, but

you can do nothing about it. You can't get money out of thin air.

Both Pamela and Keith are in homes that are too cold, in the

Professor's view. We asked them to take part in an experiment to find

out what effect their lifestyles are having on a vital indicator of

health ` their blood pressure. To do that, they will wear a blood

pressure monitor for 24 hours. The body has to do something about the

cold, so it shuts down the blood vessels in the skin to save heat. As

the body does that it ramps up the blood pressure. Older people cannot

slow down their heart rates in the same way that young people can, so

they have raised blood pressure and a sustained heart rate. That places

the heart at