Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)
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Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)
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Re: Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)
#2Yeah but clearly people wouldn’tve been doing it if it hadn’t worked, so what is the reason for trying that specific traditional method?
Re: Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)
#3Yeah but clearly people wouldn’tve been doing it if it hadn’t worked, so what is the reason for trying that specific traditional method?
The only thing I can find is that heating too fast might cause gangrene.
Re: Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)
#4Yeah but clearly people wouldn’tve been doing it if it hadn’t worked, so what is the reason for trying that specific traditional method?
> people wouldn’tve been doing it if it hadn’t worked
That's a bold claim!
Re: Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)
#5Yeah but clearly people wouldn’tve been doing it if it hadn’t worked, so what is the reason for trying that specific traditional method?
This was addressed in the accepted answer:
> rapid rewarming from open campfires or other sources of dry heat caused so much devastation.....Dry heat from ....open fires....cannot be controlled. Excessively high temperatures are usually produced, resulting in a combined burn and frostbite, a devasting injury that leads to far greater tissue loss.
Sounds like it was an overreaction to applying excessive heat to the frostbitten tissue.
Re: Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)
#6[flagged]
Re: Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)
#7Yeah but clearly people wouldn’tve been doing it if it hadn’t worked, so what is the reason for trying that specific traditional method?
[deleted]
Re: Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)
#8I've experienced rapid warming of hands when handling snow without gloves. Maybe it's the same mechanism?
Re: Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)
#9Yeah but clearly people wouldn’tve been doing it if it hadn’t worked, so what is the reason for trying that specific traditional method?
> Yeah but clearly people wouldn’tve been doing it if it hadn’t worked
Like bloodletting, leeches, lobotomies...
Re: Why did people rub snow on frozen feet? (2017)
#10Yeah but clearly people wouldn’tve been doing it if it hadn’t worked, so what is the reason for trying that specific traditional method?
Without being overly condescending, you do realise that most of the things that have been done throughout history, along with many we still do, are the result of cultural practice and have no evidence base whatsoever?
Whilst 1956 seems to be a fairly late date to stop what would seem in the surface to be a counter intuitive practice, 80 years earlier blood letting was still in vogue