Drinking alcohol doesn’t protect against hypothermia. It actually increases the danger.
Well, before long winter will be making its yearly debut here in the northern hemisphere.
And that of course means bitter cold temperatures will soon be making their way back to this part of the world.
When you're exposed to the cold there are many things you can do to keep warm and avoid being stricken by hypothermia, but there's one widely trusted method that doesn't really work.
In fact, it can actually hasten your body's descent into hypothermia!
Many folks believe drinking alcohol can help protect the human body from hypothermia, but that isn't really the case at all.
According to experts at the Mayo Clinic, alcohol consumption expands the blood vessels, which in turn causes you to feel warmer.
The problem is that warm feeling is literally only skin deep.
Although your skin feels nice and warm, your core body temperature is dropping at a rate faster than it would had you not ingested the alcohol.
If the ambient temperature is cold enough, that rapid drop in core body temperature can quickly spiral out of control, causing your body to begin losing more heat that it can produce to replace the heat it's losing.
What's more, that warm feeling your skin is experiencing can trick you into thinking the ambient temperature is warmer than it actually is, prompting you to shed your jacket or even some of your clothing.
And that of course just causes your body to lose heat even faster.
Before you know it you're suffering from hypothermia.
Bottom line: If you know you're going to be exposed to the cold for a long period of time, drinking an alcoholic beverage won't keep you warm and ward off hypothermia. It'll do the exact opposite!
And now, let's finish up with a little food for thought...
Having said all of the above, in some situations hypothermia can actually be a good thing.
While accidental hypothermia can be deadly (and it often is), medically induced hypothermia can be a powerful treatment tool for stroke and heart attack victims. Go figure!
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