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

bbc.com

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

#131

Post by wsc981 »

nostrademons wrote: post #126
noir_lord wrote: post #51

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 t…

Dunno. Half my ancestry is from Guangdong, China, a tropical climate. I grew up in Massachusetts, and I do fine with cold. My wife is Taiwanese (also tropical) and grew up in California and hates the cold. 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, bu…

I grew up in The Netherlands, and so did my parents and my parents parents, etc...

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.

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

#132

Post by allovernow »

superpermutat0r wrote: post #91
leto_ii wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 ), 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 ;))

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 1…

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.

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

#133

Post by taneq »

nostrademons wrote: post #126
noir_lord wrote: post #51

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 t…

Dunno. Half my ancestry is from Guangdong, China, a tropical climate. I grew up in Massachusetts, and I do fine with cold. My wife is Taiwanese (also tropical) and grew up in California and hates the cold. 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, bu…

Yeah, I think it's more to do with where you grew up and your adaptation to it than your precise heritage. Phenotype over genotype. My family is all from cold places but I grew up in a warm place, and while I like cold air on my face, I could never walk around on a 4°C day wearing short shorts.

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

#134

Post by carlmr »

wsc981 wrote: post #131
nostrademons wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dunno. Half my ancestry is from Guangdong, China, a tropical climate. I grew up in Massachusetts, and I do fine with cold. My wife is Taiwanese (also tropical) and grew up in California and hates the cold. 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, bu…

I grew up in The Netherlands, and so did my parents and my parents parents, etc... 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 stay…

It's funny, I hate winter, not because it's cold, but rather because it's dark all the time. I like running in the snow, skiing, etc. I also don't like summer because I'm always too hot.

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.

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

#135

Post by dirktheman »

batmansmk wrote: post #70
noir_lord wrote: post #51

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 t…

On that point, I wanted to share something you may relate to: my Filipino wife is always freezing in SF. I'm from Scandinavian descent, I could live as naked as a jaybird in the Bay Area weather. Where can't I find a blanket thick on the left, thin on the right? :)

To be fair, I've never been so cold than on a windy September day in SF. I'm from The Netherlands and we get the occasional cold spell in the winter, but the cold wind coming from the bay on what seemed to be a very nice, sunny day just went right through me.

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

#136

Post by steve_adams_86 »

hermitcrab wrote: post #63

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…

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.

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

#137

Post by henrikschroder »

nostrademons wrote: post #127
henrikschroder wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things Americans do that completely baffle me: In a double bed, they have two pillows, but only one blanket, and end up having fights and struggles about the blanket. 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.

There may be ulterior motives at play: it is much harder to cuddle with multiple blankets between you.

> it is much harder

Yeah, if you have the fine motor skills of a two-year-old. Come on!

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

#138

Post by mixmastamyk »

smegger001 wrote: post #110
henrikschroder wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things Americans do that completely baffle me: In a double bed, they have two pillows, but only one blanket, and end up having fights and struggles about the blanket. 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.

My wife and I figured that out right away, after about a week back and forth blanket stealing at night we just started keeping two sets of blankets in bed.

Tie, fasten to corners.

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

#139

Post by Robin_Message »

carlmr wrote: post #134
wsc981 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in The Netherlands, and so did my parents and my parents parents, etc... 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 stay…

It's funny, I hate winter, not because it's cold, but rather because it's dark all the time. I like running in the snow, skiing, etc. I also don't like summer because I'm always too hot. 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.

Colorado might suit you.

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.

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

#140

Post by ptah »

lamp_book wrote: post #52
magic_beans wrote: post #13

> 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.

Not advocating it, but you could look into Wim Hof's method: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wim_Hof . Critics do wonder if it has to do with his brown fat composition.

he has undergone clinical studies and his methods have been shown in a lab to activate brown fat

https://www.wimhofmethod.com/brown-fat

https://www.wimhofmethod.com/science

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