The human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to the cold
bbc.com
bbc.com
I think about this a lot as a runner in the Midwest US. I regularly go out in 20-30F weather in wool socks, running shorts, a long-sleeve shell, and a hat and gloves. I add running tights and a bit of vaseline on my cheekbones and nose if it's under 20. This last weekend it was 45 and blissfully sunny; it felt like spring, I left my hat and gloves at home and did my first shirtless workout of the season.
The article reminds me of the quote from Jack London's "To Build a Fire" (full text at [1]):
> His idea of running until he arrived at the camp and the boys presented one problem: he lacked the endurance.
Guðlaugur did have the endurance! Good on him.
It does make me think, however, what would happen if I were to sprain an ankle or break a leg and be unable to run to generate heat. If I could only hobble, would I be able to, say, sit down to do sit-ups and push-ups until I could warm up and resume hobbling? Fortunately, I'm not far from from shore on a dark sea, my routes never take me further than about two miles from civilization.
[1]: https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/to...
https://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Blanket/s?k=Emergency+Blank...
My luggage had been lost by the airlines, so I didn't have my rain shell, just the most basic running clothes that I wisely chose to put in my carryon.
I ended up running the race in t-shirt and shorts covered by a free plastic poncho handed out by a restaurant. I quickly saturated my clothes from a combination of sweat and rain getting in, but it functioned like a wet suit in that it prevented the fresh rain and wind from cooling me evaporatively, while my body kept my wet clothes warm.
While it was a bit stuffy, I was afraid I'd get cold very quickly in the wind and rain if I took it off (which I did in the last few miles, and yes, it got cold quickly). As soon as I stopped running, even with a space blanket, even going indoors, my temperature plummeted EXTREMELY rapidly.
At 45f in the dry I'd typically use long sleeves (and I repeated this experiment this past weekend in Napa) although, again, it's really just to keep you warm while you wait to start; once you're running, it's no problem to get by with only short sleeves and shorts.
Not sure why people here think that they don't block moisture and allow evaporative cooling...
It'd be tough. The muscles in your arms are much smaller than your legs. They produce less heat and induce less cardiovascular activity when working.
Try getting your heart rate up without using your legs. It's hard.
Hope you're not doing this someplace isolated.
As for light/fast: I’ve worn a small running fanny pack with an emergency blanket and whistle at times.
Every liter of water lost through breathable clothing is 2.3MJ of lost heat. So one would presumably prefer to have non-breathable clothing, keep that water in and potentially get 'clammy', yet stay warmer.
Yet nobody seems to do this. Is there a physics based reason other than 'it feels icky and is uncomfortable'?
Perhaps because even when in very cold environments there are occasions when the body is too hot and needs to loose heat?
Intentionally venting excess heat is common and not at all a concern for snow walkers.
Any temperature above 40 is pretty warm though, assuming you have a sweater and a jacket of course. Anything below that starts to feel cold.
This is a big fear of mine as well. If I'm going out of cell coverage, I always bring the 10 essentials and at least one extra layer. Even if my legs are cold, at least I'll have a fleece jacket.
Winter conditions in the continental US are, by comparison with the Icelandic conditions in this article, rather clement. The worst I've been in here has been -15 F (-26 C) though that was before the wind...oh the wind! But I have friends who camp out and work in northern Canada, Alaska, and Antarctica. They have to deal with real cold! Me, I go out for a week with my dog and a friend and then presto I'm back in toasty civilization. Not really rugged at all. But it is why I drive a dinosaur-burner.
Thinking you know what to do is a recipe for disaster. Its the same thing that causes you not to check the return value from a system call "hey, this can't fail".
I teach adults how to be out there safely and how to train and look after kids who of course don't yet have appropriate judgement.
When the weather is warm, a bunch of experienced snow campers can have a really fun trip.
I was standing there in relatively dense clothing, since it was cold, and I was out there for maybe 1-2 minutes.
It was the first time I really felt and could believe that standing out there in that temperature would cause me to simply die in not very long. I could feel the bite through my thick coat, through my boots, through my hat. I could feel the heat leaching out. Cold like that is no joke.
It is almost always the correct decision, no matter what the situation. At his home he had access to all sorts of materials, and was clearly visible from the air.
And a shelter in the snow is pretty warm -- regardless of how cold it is outside it will pretty much stay at 0 C. The problem is that you can't be seen from the air (or by someone walking by!) when you're in the shelter and little sound will likely get through either. So you need to make a useful marker, which is slightly touched on in this article.
I have taught numerous people to make these emergency shelters out of material at hand (I'm a wilderness and snow survival instructor) and have been told that it has saved at least one life.
> In the military Krebs was taught to use the letter “V” to request general help or an “X” specifically for medical assistance. The long straight lines stand out on a hillside. It also takes less time to create two straight lines 30 feet long compared to two loopy Ss and one O, each 10 feet high.
Destroy the signal when you are rescued of course!
This story is actually not bad at all because it is well backed with interesting information.
* A personal anecdotal account to provide human interest and color.
* A relatively dry scientific narrative that explains the larger context.
And then you weave the two together. The human interest side keeps readers engaged enough to wade through the otherwise tedious sciency part. The sciency part makes readers feel they are learning something more practical than just one person's story. The jumps between the two narratives can be done well but often it's pretty arbitrary.
In this case, the problem is not with the balance between facts and narration (for my taste, it is fine) but with stories being shattered. I read a paragraph and need to guess if it is a new story, if it relates to the previous one, did it happen before or after, etc.
BTW: I did enjoy Memento the movie. But in this one the order was designed carefully.
Just a few weeks ago I was snowboarding in deep powder snow with temperatures down to -20 C and I was overheating to the point of being seriously worried about heat stroke. I had just a ski jacket and a thin under-layer.
A few days before that I was "freezing to death" while standing still in a queue outside. It was +3 C and I had three layers on!
The level of exercise makes all the difference...
The trick is to get enough air in and bump your metabolism to start burning it.
Granted, I haven't searched in a few years now, perhaps things have changed....
I want to believe but I don't have enough information to try anything and I don't want to pay for his retreat to find out.
Wim is selling his technique (https://www.wimhofmethod.com/experience-wim-hof), so that's probably why he doesn't go into much detail. Turns out even the transcendence of human boundaries has a well specified monetary value ;))
You just breathe very deep and just relax and breathe out (not fully, just as much as comfortable). You breathe with a rhythm, faster or slower, anyway you like.
After breathing for a while you'll feel tingles or warm/cold sensations all over and then you breathe out and hold. After about 90-180 seconds (some people do more) you inhale, hold the breath for 15 seconds and start breathing normally.
You can immediatelly start another round of breathing.
That's it.
Breathing techniques are of course used in various relaxation techniques, this could be an extremely refined version. Perhaps each person has a particularly optimum frequency of breath that must be discovered.
I've noticed that if I hold my breath and flex my core muscles to send blood pressure to my head, while relaxing my upper body, if I breath out after holding that for a few seconds I get a euphoric light headedness on exhaling. But I feel like I'm going to pass out and it's terrifying every time.
Maybe I should try it while jumping into an ice cold lake.
Optimum frequency is mostly just finding the breath rhythm that will get you to the state you need. You can experiment and try to go further and see what happens (worst case you pass out or start having some seizures).
I also experience a euphoric light headedness after one round. Sometimes I need to do a second round to experience it.
https://www.wimhofmethod.com/science
Search gives other articles with links to studies e.g https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-explai...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C3%B0laugur_Fri%C3%B0%C3%BE...
I remember watching a program where they interviewed him afterwards and from what I remember he had lost an incredible/insane amount of weight during the ordeal.
My ancestry is Celtic (Scottish on one side, Irish the other) and I have a high resistance to cold, until I lived with my partner I’d have the the windows ajar even in winter and rarely put the heating on, I’m rarely cold even when cycling long distances on days with the temperature around zero and I wear t-shirts year around, I find jumpers and shirts stifling in any normal temperature room.
I joke that my ancestors evolved for cold drizzle.
Incidentally, we also use the word "pullovers".
“They're almost like normal humans, except they have no knowledge of what it means to be cold.”
— http://absurdnotions.org/F1992.html
Of course, there are those other people as well…
> Comic strip characters have a tendency to wear the same clothes all the time, for the ease of both artist habit and reader recognition. But with Jay, there's a reason. He's one of them. You personally know at least one. They're almost like normal humans, except they have no knowledge of what it means to be cold. Jay doesn't even own a coat.
I wonder what genes regulate adaptability or comfort to different climates? How much is simply environmental (perhaps epigenetic)?
Yes, I am also a morning person, why do you mention?
We put it on something like 3:3:4 3:3:4 to preheat for a toasty bed to climb into in the winter and then turn one side off. I like to have 0:0:2 to keep my feet warm.
You've already solved the problem with the pillows. You don't fight over a shared pillow. Come on, you can figure out how to solve the problem with the blanket as well.
"You can have two blankets in a double bed?"
Yes. There you go. You're welcome.
But the crazy thing is that every single goddamn store that sells bedding, will sell you solutions to your problem. It's not like you go to one store for single-person beds and their matching single-person bedding, and then a different store for double beds with matching double bedding. No, the same store that sells pillows and sheets and blankets sells them in different sizes and you can mix and match as you please.
This phrase will help me remember a very important concept.
Yeah, if you have the fine motor skills of a two-year-old. Come on!
I know your situation allllll too well!
I thoroughly enjoy riding my bike to work at and beyond -40(C/F), and am always out snowshoeing, snowboarding, ice fishing, bison hunting etc when it's in range of -25 to -40C.
The coldest I ever saw was -48C (-54.4F) as a daytime high (before the windchill). It was about a degree colder overnight. It was glorious, and I hope to crack -52C so I will have seen a 100C temperature swing (it was once +48C in my hometown in Australia)
Went to Greece last year which was amazing but I spent a lot of time lurking in the AC areas because more than an hour at 34C and I felt exhausted.
No free lunch I guess :).
Something about tropical heat will do that.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00421-014-2962-2#...
Then again, the other half of my ancestry is from Ireland & England. Am I fine with cold because it's more about where you grew up and became accustomed to, or because I got my mom's genes? It's a good question, but the rest of my dad's family (currently living in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal) seems to do okay.
I hate the cold. I prefer to sweat from too much heat compared to shivering from too much cold. So I emigrated to a tropical country.
Perhaps part of the reason why I hate the cold, is that it makes it harder for me to do my work. If my fingers are cold, typing is more difficult, for example. And in the cold I think too much about staying warm.
I want a place that's always Sunny but doesn't get too hot. Ideally here you can ski in winter and climb in summer.
Although, looking at timezones, you probably want a place that is more West-skewed for the timezone in order to get more daylight in the evenings.
I feel similar and for me elevated cities (at ~2000m) in sunny climates are perfect. For example Mexico City, Bogota or Arequipa (Peru). I know, the total list of suitable cities is probably narrow but it is by far my favorite climate.
He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell...
I do marginally prefer the cold to the heat though, for what that's worth.
I occasionally swim in lakes and don't like to swim below 15C, even with a wetsuit. But some people who swim all year round can handle much colder.
I remember having a BBQ with some British and Brazilians guests here in the UK. The British people were wearing t-shirts and shorts and saying how lovely it was. The Brazilians (who came from the very hot North of Brazil and were only visiting the UK briefly) were wearing jackets and shivering.
When I first started doing this, I found the water in summer (around 6°C warmer) incredibly cold. I'd shiver if I was snorkelling for a while because my activity was too low. I struggled with that because being so cold would ruin breath-holds. Now I kind of prefer winter dives, because in summer I get unbearably hot. I constantly need to let water into my suit, and I can swim without it for around 1.5 hours.
That adjustment only took a year or so. People are awesome at adapting to environments in that way.
"This practice was common to the Gauls Aul Cellius Lib ix cap 13 quotes the account of the Gaul who fought with Manlius whom he describes as nudus practer soutum et gladi's duos torque atque armillis decoratus; and Plutarch in Mario tells us the Cimbri went naked among the snow of the Alps to shew their enemies how much they defied the cold."
[0] https://books.google.com/books?id=Wl2jgA9j5UkC&pg=PA800&lpg=...
I wish the article had gone into Friðþórsson's breathing a bit more. It seems like this and/or his body fat are what kept him alive.
I agree to all of the things you said, once you get used to the cold showers, in fact you would want more and more cold water running over you. More cold will get to be fine.
However, one thing I find annoyingly bad, given the time of the year is that I feel by body warmer (and feel that I might run a fever) and had to check temperature couple of times to see it is only normal. Not sure if this is going to be a long term thing or I might get used to it eventually.
Right after the shower, you'll get super warm, even in winter. You're system just gets going to equalise your temperature.
Also, you'll be woken up no dithering about in a stupor until your coffee kicks in, it definitely gives you a kick in the backside to get going, so even just for that, it's worth it in my opinion.
And, I never get cold. I can work outside in a t-shirt in winter (UK winter) without feeling any cold.
Edit: Forgot I also heard about it promoting an energetic response in the body (starting your engine for heat) to wake up for the day ahead and start burning fat before your first meal. I heard Tony Robbins talk about an ice room or something similar in his house that he uses for that. Probably not ideal for night time showers.
I'm currently only taking cold showers, this is the third time I've started doing so. The very first one was quite an experience: my vision turned gray for a few seconds, I couldn't breathe, and I nearly fell over. The next day's was a little jarring but tolerable, and it kept on like that, a little less each day.
Then I fell out of the habit. My second and third times getting back into it, I didn't experience nearly the same drastic physiological effects, it was Day Two over and over again.
They thought for sure I was bullshitting them. To be fair, after living in So. Cal for a few years when it fell to 70º on summer evenings I would get the shivers if I was only wearing a T-shirt.
Spent a few months in the bay area for an internship and was shivering and adding layers at 15c.
Obviously everyone has its own level of resilience in the face of harsh conditions but once you're in, you have to deal with what you have. > “Clothing or equipment is the first line of defense, shelter is second and third is fire,” Preparation is key, for hiking I try to minimize my backpack weight while keeping gear for all kind of weather. During one summer hike with nice weather forecast for the week, I indeed had hot and sunny days but also rain, wind, cold temperatures and even a sudden snowstorm.
- Staying dry really matters, once wet you get cold much faster. - Sleep really matters. If you can't find a reasonable place or shelter to rest after an exhausting day, your ability to carry on the next day sharply decreases. Learned that on my caribbean trip where I got stuck above a waterfall one evening, was raining, got wet, cold, no place to lie down and rest and had to admit I wouldn't have the strength to climb back the next day. - When stuck or in a tough spot, remember that under stress you might not think as straight as you could. Do an inventory of your equipment. My first sleepless night in the rain I used my emergency blanket: such a mild protection, took me a day to realize a had a bigger tarp that proved much more useful as a protection against the elements. - A bright colored jacket helps rescue teams to locate you. (like a red / orange one) - Have a map of the terrain, learn to orient / situate yourself. Being lost is not the same as facing a difficult position, better not combine those issues ;) - Better have some way of communication and people aware of your whereabouts. - When cold, cover your head, you lose up to half your heat there. Extremities (hands, feet) get cold first, waterproof gloves and shoes can really help.
Never give up. Equally, you may be aware, of what is happening, right up until the end.
Ducks for example will sleep on open ice as if it was nothing, then idly waddle over to a hole in the ice to sleep some more swimming on the freezing water, occasionally engaging in a bit of food gathering or social interaction.
But if a human survives those conditions with inadequate or compromised tools for more than a few hours we write long form about their feat! It almost seems as if to a human body deprived of tools (clothing, shelter, fire), a freezing cold environment comes surprisingly close to outer space in terms of deadlyness, hours of survival instead of seconds.
https://www.buzzworthy.com/monks-raise-body-temperature/
Deliberate shivering of more muscle groups is another idea but unlikely to raise extremity temperatures.
The irony was good on these people.