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Sea Kayak Trips Bulletin Board
Re: Fire and Ice
Posted By: Ian Johnston In Response To: Fire and Ice (Robert Woodard)
Date: Wednesday, 15 December 1999, at 3:45 a.m.
> Lately I've been having some very weird things going on with my hands.
> I've been meaning to write about it, but keep forgetting. Sometimes when
> paddling, my hands get real cold, while other times they are nice and
> toasty. They can go from one extreme to the other and back again.Hi Woody,
I have notice this phenomenon also. What I have noticed is that with me it mostly has to do with how warm my hands were when I started to exercise. If my hands were warm they stayed warm, but if they were cold they didn't warm up. I thought that maybe it had to do with the bodies response to cold where the blood vessels near the skin contract in an effort to restrict blood flow and thus reduce heat loss. If my hands were warm to start the vessels would be open and the warmer blood would flow through keeping my hands warm. If my hands were cold, the blood vessels were contracted and wouldn't let the warm blood flow. The vessels stay contracted even when I am working hard because they feel the cold outside more than the warm blood inside. So while the restricted vessels reduce heat loss they also stop the body from heating itself. This is one of the reasons you don't reheat a hypothermia victim with a high heat source. The restricted vessels will open up and the blood will flow but the surface of the body is colder than the blood so his core is cooled even more.
I guess we need a doctors opinion on this one!
Ian
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