The cold is often considered a formidable enemy, especially when temperatures drop below freezing during the winter. However, it is interesting to ask whether cold is really bad for our health or whether it also has some benefits. It is true that cold kills more people than heat, mainly among the homeless or elderly with poor living conditions. However, cold can also provide relief and is even used to save lives during emergency situations.
Ice Bath
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Our bodies have a highly accurate internal heating system that maintains an ideal body temperature between 97.7 and 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit. This heat regulation relies on a specific part of our brain that sends nerve signals to our muscles to cause horripilation and chills when the temperature drops. The goal of this process is to generate heat through the stimulation of our muscles. On the other hand, when body temperature rises, the brain instructs the blood vessels to dilate to dissipate heat, leading to flushing and sweating.
In winter, it is important to choose clothing that prevents shivering because the body suffers when it is cold. The clothing should also not lead to sweating because wet clothing loses half of its protective ability. When we go outside in cold weather, our body is prepared to inhale cold air through the nose, the respiratory organ. The incoming air is humidified, purified by our hair, and warmed by a large number of small vessels. Therefore, it is important to breathe through the nose to protect ourselves from the cold.
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Cold therapy has been known for its benefits since ancient times and has been used to relieve pain and trauma. Athletes have also discovered the benefits of cryotherapy, in which they are placed in ice baths to better recover. Since the 1970s, trainers have used ice packs or ice cold sprays when a patient is injured. There is also a modern version of cryotherapy in rooms, used to treat stress, insomnia, rheumatism, itching, and certain skin conditions such as psoriasis.
Inspired by the miraculous survival of drowning victims in icy water, emergency services are also using the benefits of cold to save lives by using cooling helmets and cooling substances which can extend brain survival time after cardiac arrest by tens of minutes in some cases even by hours.
In the early 20th century, surgeons were reluctant to operate on the heart because the constant beating made the surgical procedure imprecise. In the mid-1940s, however, a Canadian surgeon came up with the idea of using cold to solve this problem. He imagined that by cooling the entire body and reducing the body’s need for oxygen, the heart rate would slow enough to stop the heart, allowing it to be operated on. Today, surgeons still use crushed ice, wrapped in a cloth and placed directly over the heart, to quickly stop the heartbeat. To restart it, they simply just warm it up.
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References
Therapeutic Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest
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