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

bbc.com

151–160 of 178 posts

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

#151
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no rule you can only have two though, just saying. More than one per person can be quite nice, especially in winter.

Whatever floats your boat, man. I have friends who prefer the opposite, they have two single beds pushed together, but a shared blanket. Whatever. 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 d…

Oh, and that reminds me. Many people for some reason become aghast when they learn that my blanket/bedsheet/pillowcase don't match i.e. they're from different sets, and have very different visuall styles. Apparently, the colours must match or you won't sleep well.

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

#152
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For any other confused Americans: "jumper" = "sweater"

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".

Icelander here, "jumper" is not in Icelandic. We use "peysa". I believe the Norwegian word is "genser".

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

#153

> 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, runn…

I remember snowshoeing in the Colorado Rockies years ago. It was around -15, with strong wind blowing. But we were at high altitude and the sheer exertion of it was making me sweat after a while, so much that I actually unzipped my coat.

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

#154

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

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 anyth…

I didn't read further, but there is some mention of science on his page, with references:

https://www.wimhofmethod.com/science

Search gives other articles with links to studies e.g https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-explai...

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

#155
post #9

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

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.

Wim Hoff doesn't carry a log, though :)

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

#156
post #28

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…

I was recently in Northern-ish Ontario, and I had to pump some gas, so I was in the shade of the roof overhead the pumps. It was about -40 degrees. 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 t…

Depending on wind you could get frostbite within those minutes as well.

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

#157
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm Vietnamese and I was born and still live in Canada. My body has adapted to the cold quite well and I prefer it over the summer heat. This makes me feel that ancestry is not a part of cold resistance.

Regardless of your anecdotal experience, adaption to cold is certainly genetic to a large extent and the literature seems to support that hypothesis. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00421-014-2962-2#...

I have fully adapted to climatized rooms at 21°C/70°F. My ancestors must have been pampered wimps then.

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

#158

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... 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.

Very interesting story. He weighted 125 kilograms (275 pounds). I imagine this is already much better than average human insulation due to the fat.

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

#159
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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+Blank...

The article mentions that plastic bags work better than emergency "space" blankets since they block moisture and thus evaporative cooling. A large industrial trash bag is part of my emergency supplies on cold backpacking trips. It's cheap, weighs almost nothing, and provides protection from both radiative and convective cooling.

Space blankets are made of mylar, and are not porous.

Not sure why people here think that they don't block moisture and allow evaporative cooling...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_blanket

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

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever floats your boat, man. I have friends who prefer the opposite, they have two single beds pushed together, but a shared blanket. Whatever. 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 d…

Oh, and that reminds me. Many people for some reason become aghast when they learn that my blanket/bedsheet/pillowcase don't match i.e. they're from different sets, and have very different visuall styles. Apparently, the colours must match or you won't sleep well.

Of course! It's very difficult for the bourgeois to sleep when consumed by the knowledge that they're not living their most bourgeois life.
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