Hyperthermia and Hypothermia

[DeatHTaX 1217]

Sure you can, and hypothermia isn't just caused by air temperature.

 

What sort of survival experience do you have again? 

 

ALL HAIL Whyherro123, survival master!!!!!!

 

[Whyherro123 2283]

Of course it's not working correctly.  If you go from "overheating" to hypothermia, EVER, it's not working.  Assuming that you get the 'overheating' status, the air temperature isn't close at all to hypothermia, water or not.

 

Nope, if you are overheating and get exposed to water (either water or sweat), you will develop hypothermia faster due to the heat being absorbed more readily into the water (and thereafter, to the environment) from your blood vessels transferring interior body heat at a faster rate vs when you are not overheating. So long as you are insulated (which I am assuming you are, considering how that is the main rationale behind wearing clothing) , air temperature has relatively little effect on interior body temperature (which is different from "percieved" body temp. On a winter day, your nose, cheeks and other extremeties might be cold, but your "core intestines" are doing just fine). 

 

Probably the most important aspect of Cold Weather survival is heat management. It essentially boils down to "I want to work hard enough to get done what I need in order to stay warm (build a shelter, gather firewood, etc), but I can't work too hard or too fast, because I don't want to overheat and sweat." Sweating is probably the most dangerous thing to have happen to you in a cold weather survival situation, because it means all of your "core-intestine-warmth" is going to get sucked out out you (due to heat transferrence), your body will then respond by limiting blood flow to the extremities in effort to keep the core warm, which in turn will hamper your efforts to stay warm. 

 

Which is why the layering system is so important. If I am setting up a tent or gathering firewood in the winter, I usually take off two layers, and avoid working hard to avoid sweating. Metabolic processes keep me warm, and the removal of two+ layers of insulation helps me to keep from sweating. Once the work is done, I put on the layers again.

Don't forget to read the last few words... "Water or not".

Being wet or not will have more of an effect on the development of hypothermia than the air temperature. Will the air temp and weather conditions have an effect? Of course. Are they the be-all-and-end all of interior body temp management? No, ensuring proper heat dissapation from the "core intestines" is, and getting wet will make it very hard to maintain an adequate interior temperature required for metabolic homeostasis. 

 

ALL HAIL Whyherro123, survival master!!!!!!

 

 

I apologize, oh Great and Wonderful Forum Master, for presuming to bring my real-life skills and knowledge to bear in debating the effects of a real-world aspect of wilderness survival! What penance must I be put under in order to walk beneath your Beneficence again? --Grovels--

 

/snark

Edited January 23, 2015 by Whyherro123

[treetop82 59]

Has anyone else found these to be a little too severe? I mean I just got a Ghillie suit and found out that it is extremely hot, so i battled hyperthermia (heat) for a good hour or two, the best i got was "HOT" which was alright but then it started to rain and then all of a sudden I get Hypothermia (Cold) and die within 30 minutes. Is there no even ground for this? I thought that if i'm always "OVERHEATED" in a Ghillie suit surely i'll be fine when it starts raining. Apparently not. Am i the only one who has thought that this is way too severe?

 

If you really died of hypothermia (cold) within 30 mins of being "HOT" then yah, the game is broken and retarded. But yes, you can get soaked and once sitting still for a while, body temperature will decrease and you will get hypothermia.

 

if I am going to be running a lot around the map, I find a pond and get "wet", then sprint around like a maniac. I will never overheat.