Cold weather problems - #2

Please enjoy this edition of the Family Survival Evening Post, a completely free comprehensive survival and preparedness publication sent to give you the knowledge and skills you'll need to be always safe and secure no matter what happens.


In cold weather, the biggest and most obvious challenge is staying warm. Staying warm is essential to health and wellness during the winter. Getting too cold sets you up for all kinds of problems, including but not limited to headaches, heart attacks, colds, pneumonia and depression.
Staying warm requires understanding two scientific principles: conduction and convection.

Conduction is the transfer of heat between two solid surfaces that are in direct contact with each other, such as when you stand on icy pavement.
Convection is the transfer of heat between a mass (such as your body) and a moving fluid or gas (such as an icy wind that whips around every square inch of you).

You lose heat through conduction whenever your body comes into direct contact with something cold, like when you sit on chilly ground. Wind steals your body heat through convection. But you can insulate yourself against both types of heat loss by wearing layers.

Your base layer — think long underwear and thick, wool socks — keeps you from losing heat through conduction. Wearing an external, wind- and water-proof but breathable layer will protect you from heat loss though convection.

Think of shivering as a warning sign that you need to get yourself someplace warmer, fast. When your skin temperature drops, shivering kicks in to keep your core temperature from falling, too. The spasmodic contracting and relaxing of your muscles consumes calories and generates heat to replace the heat your body is losing. But that means once you start shivering, your brain is telling your body it's time to get to a place where you're warmer. 

People with mild hypothermia will shiver, but those with moderate hypothermia may not. The body stops shivering when the muscle contractions are no longer effective in producing heat. This means as you get colder, shivering stops, so then your core body temperature just plummets.

Being well-fed — meaning consuming more calories than you're burning — will help your body handle the cold better. It always helps to be well-fed in the backcountry when it's cold. This is all-important, to keep your blood sugar up enough to provide the energy you need to keep warm in a cold situation.
Staying hydrated is also key. Your body will tolerate the cold much better if food and water balances are maintained.

You can acclimatize yourself to cold weather. People who are outside a lot and spend time in the cold can reduce their 'set point,' it's called, before they respond to cold.

The mechanism through which this reset happens is not fully understood, but a type of body fat called brown fat may play a role, recent research suggests. Unlike regular "white" body fat, that stores extra calories, brown fat consumes calories, and releases the energy as heat.

Newborns and hibernating mammals have lots of brown fat, which is thought to generate heat in animals that cannot shiver. And studies in animals and humans have shown that cold acclimation increases brown fat's heat-generating capacity. Some research also suggests that exposure to cold boosts the amount of brown fat in the body.

Being physically fit also makes it easier for people to cope with cold. But being too thin can be a disadvantage, because body fat helps keep you warm.
Be prepared, all the time. Heed weather warnings, and stock your car with water, calorie-dense foods, warm blankets and extra sets of dry clothes just in case. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates 25 percent of winter-related fatalities occur when people are caught unprepared out in a storm.

Know your risks. Drugs to treat high blood pressure, including alpha-blockers, beta-blockers and direct vasodilators, can make you more sensitive to the cold, as can some medical conditions, such as hypothyroidism.

Age also affects the human body's cold-coping mechanisms. Children under age 2 have not developed the ability to shiver to raise their body temperatures, and people over age 60 are less able to generate heat though shivering.

Avoid alcohol. While a warm beverage will indeed raise your core temperature and help you withstand a chill, don't spike it. Alcohol is absolutely the worst thing that somebody could consume if they are already cold. It drops core body temperature.

Always Safe, Always Prepared

Frank Mitchell
Founder

P.S. A must-have for preparing for cold is an emergency rescue blanket, or even multiple ones.

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You can check them out here.