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The human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to the cold

267 points by evo_9 7y ago

JSeymourATL 7y ago
Surprisingly, no mention of Wim Hoff - The Ice Man > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6XKcsm3dKs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6XKcsm3dKs
- gHosts 7y ago
  That stuff actually works... basically if, like me, you're overweight... you've got a ruddy big log to burn strapped to your middle. The trick is to get enough air in and bump your metabolism to start burning it.
  - rapnie 7y ago
    Wim Hoff doesn't carry a log, though :)
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- allovernow 7y ago
  All the videos I've seen about Wim are incredibly frustrating - none of them are remotely technical and none of them go into any kind of depth as to how to actually practice the method - just a bunch of montages of Wim doing Wim stuff and talking about his magic breathing. 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.
  - nbardy 7y ago
    A lot of his techniques come from Tummo(Inner Fire Breathing) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tummo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tummo
  - UniverseHacker 7y ago
    I felt the same until I realized that is all it is- a breathing technique, coupled with gradually adapting yourself to cold over time. The breathing mostly just serves to keep you calm while your body activates it's natural cold responses such as uncoupling the mitochondria in brown fat.
  - leto_ii 7y ago
    > none of them go into any kind of depth as to how to actually practice the method Wim is selling his technique (https://www.wimhofmethod.com/experience-wim-hof 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 ;))
    - superpermutat0r 7y ago
      This is not true, the breathing technique is pretty simple. 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.
      - allovernow 7y ago
        I dunno...I was doubtful at first but I had a thought that perhaps what the doctor said about raising adrenaline while lowering cortisol has something to do with activation of the vagus nerve. 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.
        superpermutat0r 7y ago
        The breathing technique is a no BS technique. You just need to get the air in. You have to keep inhaling until you start feeling the effects of raised blood ph levels (dizziness, passing out, tingles etc.). You can breathe through nose or mouth, you can take as many breaths as you want, they have to be deep inhale, not that much of an exhale and that is it. 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.
  - rapnie 7y ago
    I didn't read further, but there is some mention of science on his page, with references: https://www.wimhofmethod.com/science https://www.wimhofmethod.com/science Search gives other articles with links to studies e.g https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-explains-how-iceman-resists-extreme-cold-180969134/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-explai...
stared 7y ago
There is a lot of interesting information. However, is it only me, or the style of writing is chaotic (almost as if every paragraph was shuffled)?
- fzeroracer 7y ago
  You're not alone. The article tends to leap from one story to another in a way that's not really fully clear or consistent at times.
- rabboRubble 7y ago
  Though you were exaggerating, but holy cow batman, thought I was reading about an Icelandic fisherman, then a multi-paragraph divert into cold weather effects on the body, to emerge in more multi-paragraphs talking about an off-the-grid Alaska guy whose house burned down. I had forgot that the article wasn't about the Alaska guy by the time the meandering story returned to Iceland~
- use-net 7y ago
  true! I skipped 85% of the trash verbiage. You cannot expect anything from "journalists" these days anymore.
- eveningcoffee 7y ago
  This is just the style of modern story writing. Words, a lot of words. Just too many of them. I have tried to read such stories and most of the time there are just words and not much substance.
  - starpilot 7y ago
    It's amazing how we used to read entire stacks of bound leaves of paper. Some contained dozens of events and interwoven narratives. I don't have time for that.
    - lobotryas 7y ago
      There’s a difference between reading for pleasure and for extracting some information. Some people might read this article for pleasure and that’s fine, but for most they just want the bare facts. An executive summary, if you will, because we have a lot more information vying for our attention than at any previous moment in history.
LeifCarrotson 7y ago
> A man in the cold is not necessarily a cold man,” says Tipton. “If you keep moving and you are reasonably insulated you will produce enough heat to stay warm. At maximum exercise, it is like you are running a 2kW fire. When you exercise reasonably hard you can do that in shorts and t-shirt in the cold... 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-build-a-fire.pdf https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/to...
- js2 7y ago
  Fellow runner here. For God's sake man, carry an emergency blanket with you at least. https://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Blanket/s?k=Emergency+Blanket https://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Blanket/s?k=Emergency+Blank...
  - vaultconsulting 7y ago
    also a great make-shift Faraday cage for those pesky non-removable-battery phones
    - allovernow 7y ago
      I don't know if that's true. In the nonideal world a Faraday cage must have a minimum thickness to function, which is a factor of the wavelengths you are trying to block and the conductivity of the material, I think.
clktmr 7y ago
Another interesting read about effects of hypothermia is the Dyatlov pass incident: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident
magic_beans 7y ago
> Gasping and panicking, they inhaled water. Friðþórsson, by contrast, managed to control his breathing. He later described remaining clear-headed throughout his swim. 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.
- buserror 7y ago
  You get used to that cold shock, I take a cold shower every day for many many years, and quite frankly I don't feel a "cold shock" anymore, even in winter. It's really just requires a bit of training to get less sensitive to cold; on the other hand I also have a tendency to get warm a lot quicker, which can be a bit annoying sometimes. I keep my house at 18C and no warmer, when many people I know want 21C or sometime more...
  - guruparan18 7y ago
    I used to take cold showers when I was in moderate temperature zone, now I am in US/Canada, and recently started having cold showers (for the last 2 months) almost after 10 years. 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.
  - Ididntdothis 7y ago
    I have tried to get used to cold showers several times. I always feel great afterward but I always get sick after a few weeks of cold showers. Not sure why that is.
  - marinhero 7y ago
    What's the idea behind getting cold showers? why is it beneficial?
bacon_waffle 7y ago
This isn't really an adaptation thing, but on the topic of human bodies and cold: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_Club https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_Club
hourislate 7y ago
Here is the story about Guðlaugur Friðþórsson. It was an incredible feat of will and strength. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C3%B0laugur_Fri%C3%B0%C3%BE%C3%B3rsson 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.
- exhilaration 7y ago
  A well-reviewed movie based on him is available for rent on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Olafur-Darri-Olafsson/dp/B00CWVEIY4/ref=sr_1_5 https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Olafur-Darri-Olafsson/dp/B00CWVE...
- arifmeticus 7y ago
  Very interesting story. He weighted 125 kilograms (275 pounds). I imagine this is already much better than average human insulation due to the fat.
gumby 7y ago
As it happens I'm leaving for a camping trip in the snow tomorrow morning. It's the sierras (relatively warm) and I'm leading a bunch of inexperienced scouts (so not a particularly grueling trip) but still with opportunities for danger. I was surprised how many of these SV kids signed up and were then pulled by their parents -- 50%! Only a few years ago these trips were immediately oversubscribed, with nobody getting pulled even when it turned out to be blizzard conditions. The kids, at least, are enthusiastic. 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.
- pjc50 7y ago
  Scout trips have been known to go wrong. This discussion brought to mind this very old incident: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/06/fatal-hike-became-nazi-propaganda-coup https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/06/fatal-hike-bec...
  - gumby 7y ago
    Lack of preparation and lack of looking ahead causes most problems. Of the three times I have come close to dying in the backcountry (all of them due to stupidity on my part!) two of them were due to failure to look ahead. Both times I was saved by my dog. 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.
  - hobbyjogger 7y ago
    That's tragic--but let's keep it in context. It happened before WWII. Some of these young boys were wearing shorts and sandals (without hats) in a blizzard, climbing up a mountain slope with a 70% gradient (black diamond ski slopes start at 40%), without any sort of topological or detailed map, no lights, no ability to communicate with the outside world and one adult to supervise 27 students. I can't imagine any of those things are true for Gumby's trip.
dirtyid 7y ago
How much of this is just self-selection bias. Some body's are simply more adapted to the cold. I know people with passive metabolism of furnaces, my smart heater doesn't run as often when the my significant other sleeps over. I've seen steam vaporing off some folks who aren't even working that hard in cold gyms. Me, I sweat profusely when exerting myself, would definitely be one of the first to die in a winter military campaign.
- scarejunba 7y ago
  When I read self-reported stories on the Internet about cold resistance, I remember that ~40% of people are obese. That's a confounding factor. At that amount of fatness, there's substantial insulation.
bllguo 7y ago
I like to think I can stand the cold relatively well, but what always gets me is my ears. The rest of my body will be fine but my ears start hurting in minutes, which then translates into quite the headache.
- nightbrawler 7y ago
  I have the same issue with my ears in cold weather. They start to hurt pretty quick in cold temps, so I try to always either have some small wrap around ear muffs or a beanie. As long as I keep my ears warm and out of cold wind, I'm able to stay comfortable.
gumby 7y ago
> Unable to move far in the deep snow, his plan was to stay put, which under the circumstances was not a bad one. 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.
- Agenttin 7y ago
  What do you think of the V instead of SOS? Is it better? Should someone do both?
  - thedrbrian 7y ago
    Should be pretty good as it’s one of the distress signals that pilots are taught to look for.
    - xenonite 7y ago
      > “The SOS signal is what most people know, but the downside is it is very curvy,” says Krebs. “Most of nature is curvy – it is rounded hills and lakes and streams, so curvy blends in.” > 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.
  - gumby 7y ago
    I think you have nothing better to do with your time and so should do both. Search and rescue pilots are trained to look for the V, but who knows who might be looking. Destroy the signal when you are rescued of course!
jiggawatts 7y ago
Has nobody here done snow sports? 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...
- briankelly 7y ago
  Less is more was definitely one of the first lessons I learned skiing. Overheating on the downhill usually means you'll be freezing from cold sweat at the top of the lift, too.
- sgt 7y ago
  Or how about feeling like you're freezing to death in an office if the AC is set to 19C. Been there, and it gets cold real fast because you're not moving.
- tim333 7y ago
  Snowboarding gear tends to actually be fairly good also. Probably with the three layers you didn't have insulated trousers? It's the non insulated bits that tend to get you.
oblib 7y ago
When I was 14 years old I moved from northern Illinois to Hollywood CA and when I told kids there that on a sunny 40º winter day in Illinois we didn't wear coats because it was "warm out" for us. 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.
- dpbriggs 7y ago
  Same effect here. After months of -20c, 0c feels like summer. Spent a few months in the bay area for an internship and was shivering and adding layers at 15c.
mynegation 7y ago
When traveling Tierra del Fuego (Southern tip of South America) I learned about Yaghan people [1] that survived pretty cold winters not wearing much of an essence. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuegians https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuegians
- anthk 7y ago
  >Tierra del Fuego The irony was good on these people.
  - marcosdumay 7y ago
    The name is because of volcanic activity.
    - sriacha 7y ago
      Not much volcanic activity in Tierra del Fuego. AFAIK it was named after the many fires of the natives.
noir_lord 7y ago
I do wonder how much of this is genetic. 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.
- LukeShu 7y ago
  For any other confused Americans: "jumper" = "sweater"
  - Wildgoose 7y ago
    I think "jumper" tends to be Northern English, I don't think it's used around London, (but I could be wrong). I believe our Viking cousins in Norway and Iceland use "jumper" as well. Incidentally, we also use the word "pullovers".
    - 52-6F-62 7y ago
      It’s used in Ireland as well. There’s a famous pop/rock song that features it in particular. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jxmZZBJQAKM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jxmZZBJQAKM
    - DonaldFisk 7y ago
      They're also called jerseys.
      - opsunit 7y ago
        Or goalposts.
    - GordonS 7y ago
      Brit here. "jumper" is used across the whole of the UK. Nobody British would ever use the word "sweater".
adrianmonk 7y ago
Probably time again to post this old article that makes me feel cold (and a bit terrified) every time I read it: https://www.outsideonline.com/2152131/freezing-death https://www.outsideonline.com/2152131/freezing-death
esotericsean 7y ago
That’s insane to me. Growing up in sunny California, I’ve never experienced anything below 40°F. And 68° is freezing cold to me. Maybe I’m just unhealthy.
hermitcrab 7y ago
You can acclimitize to the cold, up to a point. 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.
- henvic 7y ago
  As a Brazilian from the Northeast who loves cold, this is funny to me because I just moved to somewhere cold (The Netherlands), and my coworkers (many even from Russia) sometimes get surprised to see me going out for lunch (in January/February) without a coat.
- steve_adams_86 7y ago
  I was thinking of this, too. I swim in the water here down to 6 or 7°C in a 7mm wetsuit. It's cold, but it's very bearable and I enjoy it comfortably for the first 45 minutes or so. If I'm diving a lot (I'm usually spearfishing down to 20m or so) I'll often extend that quite a while due to generated heat. I'm not sure what it is, but the exertion of diving combined with breath-holding turns my body into a furnace. 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.
cosmodisk 7y ago
I lived in Stockholm at the time.We had a night out in central part and eventually I ended up on a train(underground,if I remember correctly, but not even the right one).Fell asleep.Woke up when train was approaching the last stop.They would usually ask everyone to get off and then after 5-10 minutes the train goes back. It was a very Swedish winter with at least -15C if not more.So here I am, standing with my 'not so winter' jacket and nike shoes. It's open type platform,so no walls.I stare at the information screen that shows 8,6,5,4,3,2,... eventually 1 minute left...And goes again to 9,8,7,etc..The train isn't going anywhere for some reason and I'm stuck in the outskirts of Stockholm.No bar or any other place is open. Eventually I ended up spending about 6 hours waiting for the service to continue,while constantly walking around the station.I haven't swore so much in my entire life.At about 8am, the service was up and running again and I could get on a train back to my place.Turns out, there was so much snow on tracks that they couldn't continue until it was cleared.
forkexec 7y ago
It is possible to generate enough heat to prevent frostbite in mild freezing conditions for some hours using a Tibetan thermoregulation technique. They practice this technique in nearly freezing conditions and are required to dry 3 wet soaked towels. It requires much training, patience, and practice to develop this skill. Furthermore, there is a technique to raise the temperature of the extremities as well. https://www.buzzworthy.com/monks-raise-body-temperature/ https://www.buzzworthy.com/monks-raise-body-temperature/ Deliberate shivering of more muscle groups is another idea but unlikely to raise extremity temperatures.
mrkstu 7y ago
The Gauls would fight naked in the snow against their enemies [0]. "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=PA800&dq=gauls+fighting+naked+%22snow%22&source=bl&ots=-2OdoUM9O_&sig=ACfU3U0bNH8cixCFPy54DPyGlvqhayVAag&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjP0aeovYToAhXimq0KHTH_DFkQ6AEwB3oECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=gauls%20fighting%20naked%20%22snow%22&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=Wl2jgA9j5UkC&pg=PA800&lpg=...
ggm 7y ago
"Another paper found that people brought very close to the point of hypothermia (their core body temperature was lowered to 35.5C) suffered no decline in cognitive function at all." Never give up. Equally, you may be aware, of what is happening, right up until the end.
jniedrauer 7y ago
I hiked the Appalachian trail during the winter with a very low bodyfat percentage. I learned to adjust layers constantly. Even in temperatures down near 0*F, you can become drenched in sweat while climbing a mountain. But once you stop moving (especially if you don't stay dry), you've got less than 5 minutes before you start to shiver uncontrollably, and complex tasks like pitching a tent start to become difficult. The most challenging part was moisture management, because gear never dries when it's below freezing and you're not wearing it.
blaze33 7y ago
Nice article. Having some years of experience in outdoor activities (first sailing, then many solo week-long hikes in the mountains, mostly french Alps but also once in a caribbean tropical rainforest) I got to learn some vital lessons and guess I could share some of it. 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.
every 7y ago
I'm on the other side of the ledger. It's 40C (104F) and I barely blink. Part of living in Texas I suppose...
mbroshi 7y ago
I wonder why the body needs to move to stay warm. Seems like a waste of energy. If I were to "design" the body, I'd make automatic heat generation one of my MVP features.
Fr0styMatt88 7y ago
Anyone know the rationale of people that make a room freezing with air-conditioning and then wear a jumper in that room to warm up? I know a few people like this and I’ve always been curious if it’s almost like some kind of glitch in their body temperature regulation, like it might be easier for them to regulate their body warmer or colder but not the other way around or something.
overcast 7y ago
Has anyone watched The 12th Man? True story about some insane cold resistance in Norway during WW2. Watch it with subtitles!
aaron695 7y ago
> The human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to the cold This is just bullshit. Total bullshit. The cold kills more people than the heat. Hot climates are better for health. Hot climate and climate controlled is the best Just because under some pretty specific conditions people accidentally survive is not remarkable. It's just an odd story. They even talk about people undressing, or it blunts our sensation of thirst or people hiding themselves when they get cold, how is that remarkable? It's interesting and scary perhaps, it's informative. What allows us to survive in the cold, or space or on water or anywhere is our intelligence, and our intelligence pre-planning how to be safe. It's our high abstractions. Do you learn to swim, wear a life jacket, check the weather before boating or trust your remarkable body?
usrusr 7y ago
What's remarkable is how easily the human body will fail when exposed to cold, compared to many other animals. 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.
- Retric 7y ago
  Cold kills a huge range of cold blooded or tropical animals. Humans fall into the second category, being well adapted to dissipate heat.

267 points by evo_9 7y ago

Surprisingly, no mention of Wim Hoff - The Ice Man > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6XKcsm3dKs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6XKcsm3dKs

gHosts 7y ago
That stuff actually works... basically if, like me, you're overweight... you've got a ruddy big log to burn strapped to your middle. The trick is to get enough air in and bump your metabolism to start burning it.
- rapnie 7y ago
  Wim Hoff doesn't carry a log, though :)
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
allovernow 7y ago
All the videos I've seen about Wim are incredibly frustrating - none of them are remotely technical and none of them go into any kind of depth as to how to actually practice the method - just a bunch of montages of Wim doing Wim stuff and talking about his magic breathing. 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.
- nbardy 7y ago
  A lot of his techniques come from Tummo(Inner Fire Breathing) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tummo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tummo
- UniverseHacker 7y ago
  I felt the same until I realized that is all it is- a breathing technique, coupled with gradually adapting yourself to cold over time. The breathing mostly just serves to keep you calm while your body activates it's natural cold responses such as uncoupling the mitochondria in brown fat.
- leto_ii 7y ago
  > none of them go into any kind of depth as to how to actually practice the method Wim is selling his technique (https://www.wimhofmethod.com/experience-wim-hof 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 ;))
  - superpermutat0r 7y ago
    This is not true, the breathing technique is pretty simple. 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.
    - allovernow 7y ago
      I dunno...I was doubtful at first but I had a thought that perhaps what the doctor said about raising adrenaline while lowering cortisol has something to do with activation of the vagus nerve. 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.
      - superpermutat0r 7y ago
        The breathing technique is a no BS technique. You just need to get the air in. You have to keep inhaling until you start feeling the effects of raised blood ph levels (dizziness, passing out, tingles etc.). You can breathe through nose or mouth, you can take as many breaths as you want, they have to be deep inhale, not that much of an exhale and that is it. 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.
- rapnie 7y ago
  I didn't read further, but there is some mention of science on his page, with references: https://www.wimhofmethod.com/science https://www.wimhofmethod.com/science Search gives other articles with links to studies e.g https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-explains-how-iceman-resists-extreme-cold-180969134/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-explai...

stared 7y ago

There is a lot of interesting information. However, is it only me, or the style of writing is chaotic (almost as if every paragraph was shuffled)?

fzeroracer 7y ago
You're not alone. The article tends to leap from one story to another in a way that's not really fully clear or consistent at times.
rabboRubble 7y ago
Though you were exaggerating, but holy cow batman, thought I was reading about an Icelandic fisherman, then a multi-paragraph divert into cold weather effects on the body, to emerge in more multi-paragraphs talking about an off-the-grid Alaska guy whose house burned down. I had forgot that the article wasn't about the Alaska guy by the time the meandering story returned to Iceland~
use-net 7y ago
true! I skipped 85% of the trash verbiage. You cannot expect anything from "journalists" these days anymore.
eveningcoffee 7y ago
This is just the style of modern story writing. Words, a lot of words. Just too many of them. I have tried to read such stories and most of the time there are just words and not much substance.
- starpilot 7y ago
  It's amazing how we used to read entire stacks of bound leaves of paper. Some contained dozens of events and interwoven narratives. I don't have time for that.
  - lobotryas 7y ago
    There’s a difference between reading for pleasure and for extracting some information. Some people might read this article for pleasure and that’s fine, but for most they just want the bare facts. An executive summary, if you will, because we have a lot more information vying for our attention than at any previous moment in history.

LeifCarrotson 7y ago

> A man in the cold is not necessarily a cold man,” says Tipton. “If you keep moving and you are reasonably insulated you will produce enough heat to stay warm. At maximum exercise, it is like you are running a 2kW fire. When you exercise reasonably hard you can do that in shorts and t-shirt in the cold... 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-build-a-fire.pdf https://americanenglish.state.gov/files/ae/resource_files/to...

js2 7y ago
Fellow runner here. For God's sake man, carry an emergency blanket with you at least. https://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Blanket/s?k=Emergency+Blanket https://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Blanket/s?k=Emergency+Blank...
- vaultconsulting 7y ago
  also a great make-shift Faraday cage for those pesky non-removable-battery phones
  - allovernow 7y ago
    I don't know if that's true. In the nonideal world a Faraday cage must have a minimum thickness to function, which is a factor of the wavelengths you are trying to block and the conductivity of the material, I think.

clktmr 7y ago

Another interesting read about effects of hypothermia is the Dyatlov pass incident: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident

magic_beans 7y ago

> Gasping and panicking, they inhaled water. Friðþórsson, by contrast, managed to control his breathing. He later described remaining clear-headed throughout his swim. 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.

buserror 7y ago
You get used to that cold shock, I take a cold shower every day for many many years, and quite frankly I don't feel a "cold shock" anymore, even in winter. It's really just requires a bit of training to get less sensitive to cold; on the other hand I also have a tendency to get warm a lot quicker, which can be a bit annoying sometimes. I keep my house at 18C and no warmer, when many people I know want 21C or sometime more...
- guruparan18 7y ago
  I used to take cold showers when I was in moderate temperature zone, now I am in US/Canada, and recently started having cold showers (for the last 2 months) almost after 10 years. 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.
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  I have tried to get used to cold showers several times. I always feel great afterward but I always get sick after a few weeks of cold showers. Not sure why that is.
- marinhero 7y ago
  What's the idea behind getting cold showers? why is it beneficial?

bacon_waffle 7y ago

This isn't really an adaptation thing, but on the topic of human bodies and cold: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_Club https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_Club

hourislate 7y ago

Here is the story about Guðlaugur Friðþórsson. It was an incredible feat of will and strength. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C3%B0laugur_Fri%C3%B0%C3%BE%C3%B3rsson 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.

exhilaration 7y ago
A well-reviewed movie based on him is available for rent on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Olafur-Darri-Olafsson/dp/B00CWVEIY4/ref=sr_1_5 https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Olafur-Darri-Olafsson/dp/B00CWVE...
arifmeticus 7y ago
Very interesting story. He weighted 125 kilograms (275 pounds). I imagine this is already much better than average human insulation due to the fat.

gumby 7y ago

As it happens I'm leaving for a camping trip in the snow tomorrow morning. It's the sierras (relatively warm) and I'm leading a bunch of inexperienced scouts (so not a particularly grueling trip) but still with opportunities for danger. I was surprised how many of these SV kids signed up and were then pulled by their parents -- 50%! Only a few years ago these trips were immediately oversubscribed, with nobody getting pulled even when it turned out to be blizzard conditions. The kids, at least, are enthusiastic. 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.

pjc50 7y ago
Scout trips have been known to go wrong. This discussion brought to mind this very old incident: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/06/fatal-hike-became-nazi-propaganda-coup https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/06/fatal-hike-bec...
- gumby 7y ago
  Lack of preparation and lack of looking ahead causes most problems. Of the three times I have come close to dying in the backcountry (all of them due to stupidity on my part!) two of them were due to failure to look ahead. Both times I was saved by my dog. 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.
- hobbyjogger 7y ago
  That's tragic--but let's keep it in context. It happened before WWII. Some of these young boys were wearing shorts and sandals (without hats) in a blizzard, climbing up a mountain slope with a 70% gradient (black diamond ski slopes start at 40%), without any sort of topological or detailed map, no lights, no ability to communicate with the outside world and one adult to supervise 27 students. I can't imagine any of those things are true for Gumby's trip.

dirtyid 7y ago

How much of this is just self-selection bias. Some body's are simply more adapted to the cold. I know people with passive metabolism of furnaces, my smart heater doesn't run as often when the my significant other sleeps over. I've seen steam vaporing off some folks who aren't even working that hard in cold gyms. Me, I sweat profusely when exerting myself, would definitely be one of the first to die in a winter military campaign.

scarejunba 7y ago
When I read self-reported stories on the Internet about cold resistance, I remember that ~40% of people are obese. That's a confounding factor. At that amount of fatness, there's substantial insulation.

bllguo 7y ago

I like to think I can stand the cold relatively well, but what always gets me is my ears. The rest of my body will be fine but my ears start hurting in minutes, which then translates into quite the headache.

nightbrawler 7y ago
I have the same issue with my ears in cold weather. They start to hurt pretty quick in cold temps, so I try to always either have some small wrap around ear muffs or a beanie. As long as I keep my ears warm and out of cold wind, I'm able to stay comfortable.

gumby 7y ago

> Unable to move far in the deep snow, his plan was to stay put, which under the circumstances was not a bad one. 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.

Agenttin 7y ago
What do you think of the V instead of SOS? Is it better? Should someone do both?
- thedrbrian 7y ago
  Should be pretty good as it’s one of the distress signals that pilots are taught to look for.
  - xenonite 7y ago
    > “The SOS signal is what most people know, but the downside is it is very curvy,” says Krebs. “Most of nature is curvy – it is rounded hills and lakes and streams, so curvy blends in.” > 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.
- gumby 7y ago
  I think you have nothing better to do with your time and so should do both. Search and rescue pilots are trained to look for the V, but who knows who might be looking. Destroy the signal when you are rescued of course!

jiggawatts 7y ago

Has nobody here done snow sports? 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...

briankelly 7y ago
Less is more was definitely one of the first lessons I learned skiing. Overheating on the downhill usually means you'll be freezing from cold sweat at the top of the lift, too.
sgt 7y ago
Or how about feeling like you're freezing to death in an office if the AC is set to 19C. Been there, and it gets cold real fast because you're not moving.
tim333 7y ago
Snowboarding gear tends to actually be fairly good also. Probably with the three layers you didn't have insulated trousers? It's the non insulated bits that tend to get you.

oblib 7y ago

When I was 14 years old I moved from northern Illinois to Hollywood CA and when I told kids there that on a sunny 40º winter day in Illinois we didn't wear coats because it was "warm out" for us. 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.

dpbriggs 7y ago
Same effect here. After months of -20c, 0c feels like summer. Spent a few months in the bay area for an internship and was shivering and adding layers at 15c.

mynegation 7y ago

When traveling Tierra del Fuego (Southern tip of South America) I learned about Yaghan people [1] that survived pretty cold winters not wearing much of an essence. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuegians https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuegians

anthk 7y ago
>Tierra del Fuego The irony was good on these people.
- marcosdumay 7y ago
  The name is because of volcanic activity.
  - sriacha 7y ago
    Not much volcanic activity in Tierra del Fuego. AFAIK it was named after the many fires of the natives.

noir_lord 7y ago

I do wonder how much of this is genetic. 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.

LukeShu 7y ago
For any other confused Americans: "jumper" = "sweater"
- Wildgoose 7y ago
  I think "jumper" tends to be Northern English, I don't think it's used around London, (but I could be wrong). I believe our Viking cousins in Norway and Iceland use "jumper" as well. Incidentally, we also use the word "pullovers".
  - 52-6F-62 7y ago
    It’s used in Ireland as well. There’s a famous pop/rock song that features it in particular. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jxmZZBJQAKM https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jxmZZBJQAKM
  - DonaldFisk 7y ago
    They're also called jerseys.
    - opsunit 7y ago
      Or goalposts.
  - GordonS 7y ago
    Brit here. "jumper" is used across the whole of the UK. Nobody British would ever use the word "sweater".

adrianmonk 7y ago

Probably time again to post this old article that makes me feel cold (and a bit terrified) every time I read it: https://www.outsideonline.com/2152131/freezing-death https://www.outsideonline.com/2152131/freezing-death

esotericsean 7y ago

That’s insane to me. Growing up in sunny California, I’ve never experienced anything below 40°F. And 68° is freezing cold to me. Maybe I’m just unhealthy.

hermitcrab 7y ago

You can acclimitize to the cold, up to a point. 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.

henvic 7y ago
As a Brazilian from the Northeast who loves cold, this is funny to me because I just moved to somewhere cold (The Netherlands), and my coworkers (many even from Russia) sometimes get surprised to see me going out for lunch (in January/February) without a coat.
steve_adams_86 7y ago
I was thinking of this, too. I swim in the water here down to 6 or 7°C in a 7mm wetsuit. It's cold, but it's very bearable and I enjoy it comfortably for the first 45 minutes or so. If I'm diving a lot (I'm usually spearfishing down to 20m or so) I'll often extend that quite a while due to generated heat. I'm not sure what it is, but the exertion of diving combined with breath-holding turns my body into a furnace. 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.

cosmodisk 7y ago

I lived in Stockholm at the time.We had a night out in central part and eventually I ended up on a train(underground,if I remember correctly, but not even the right one).Fell asleep.Woke up when train was approaching the last stop.They would usually ask everyone to get off and then after 5-10 minutes the train goes back. It was a very Swedish winter with at least -15C if not more.So here I am, standing with my 'not so winter' jacket and nike shoes. It's open type platform,so no walls.I stare at the information screen that shows 8,6,5,4,3,2,... eventually 1 minute left...And goes again to 9,8,7,etc..The train isn't going anywhere for some reason and I'm stuck in the outskirts of Stockholm.No bar or any other place is open. Eventually I ended up spending about 6 hours waiting for the service to continue,while constantly walking around the station.I haven't swore so much in my entire life.At about 8am, the service was up and running again and I could get on a train back to my place.Turns out, there was so much snow on tracks that they couldn't continue until it was cleared.

forkexec 7y ago

It is possible to generate enough heat to prevent frostbite in mild freezing conditions for some hours using a Tibetan thermoregulation technique. They practice this technique in nearly freezing conditions and are required to dry 3 wet soaked towels. It requires much training, patience, and practice to develop this skill. Furthermore, there is a technique to raise the temperature of the extremities as well. https://www.buzzworthy.com/monks-raise-body-temperature/ https://www.buzzworthy.com/monks-raise-body-temperature/ Deliberate shivering of more muscle groups is another idea but unlikely to raise extremity temperatures.

mrkstu 7y ago

The Gauls would fight naked in the snow against their enemies [0]. "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=PA800&dq=gauls+fighting+naked+%22snow%22&source=bl&ots=-2OdoUM9O_&sig=ACfU3U0bNH8cixCFPy54DPyGlvqhayVAag&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjP0aeovYToAhXimq0KHTH_DFkQ6AEwB3oECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=gauls%20fighting%20naked%20%22snow%22&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=Wl2jgA9j5UkC&pg=PA800&lpg=...

ggm 7y ago

"Another paper found that people brought very close to the point of hypothermia (their core body temperature was lowered to 35.5C) suffered no decline in cognitive function at all." Never give up. Equally, you may be aware, of what is happening, right up until the end.

jniedrauer 7y ago

I hiked the Appalachian trail during the winter with a very low bodyfat percentage. I learned to adjust layers constantly. Even in temperatures down near 0*F, you can become drenched in sweat while climbing a mountain. But once you stop moving (especially if you don't stay dry), you've got less than 5 minutes before you start to shiver uncontrollably, and complex tasks like pitching a tent start to become difficult. The most challenging part was moisture management, because gear never dries when it's below freezing and you're not wearing it.

blaze33 7y ago

Nice article. Having some years of experience in outdoor activities (first sailing, then many solo week-long hikes in the mountains, mostly french Alps but also once in a caribbean tropical rainforest) I got to learn some vital lessons and guess I could share some of it. 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.

every 7y ago

I'm on the other side of the ledger. It's 40C (104F) and I barely blink. Part of living in Texas I suppose...

mbroshi 7y ago

I wonder why the body needs to move to stay warm. Seems like a waste of energy. If I were to "design" the body, I'd make automatic heat generation one of my MVP features.

Fr0styMatt88 7y ago

Anyone know the rationale of people that make a room freezing with air-conditioning and then wear a jumper in that room to warm up? I know a few people like this and I’ve always been curious if it’s almost like some kind of glitch in their body temperature regulation, like it might be easier for them to regulate their body warmer or colder but not the other way around or something.

overcast 7y ago

Has anyone watched The 12th Man? True story about some insane cold resistance in Norway during WW2. Watch it with subtitles!

aaron695 7y ago

> The human body’s remarkable ability to adapt to the cold This is just bullshit. Total bullshit. The cold kills more people than the heat. Hot climates are better for health. Hot climate and climate controlled is the best Just because under some pretty specific conditions people accidentally survive is not remarkable. It's just an odd story. They even talk about people undressing, or it blunts our sensation of thirst or people hiding themselves when they get cold, how is that remarkable? It's interesting and scary perhaps, it's informative. What allows us to survive in the cold, or space or on water or anywhere is our intelligence, and our intelligence pre-planning how to be safe. It's our high abstractions. Do you learn to swim, wear a life jacket, check the weather before boating or trust your remarkable body?

usrusr 7y ago

What's remarkable is how easily the human body will fail when exposed to cold, compared to many other animals. 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.

Retric 7y ago
Cold kills a huge range of cold blooded or tropical animals. Humans fall into the second category, being well adapted to dissipate heat.