The great outside environment holds many dangers, but few of them are as deadly and silent as hypothermia. This term represents a very serious medical condition that can potentially endanger any person that ventures into a cold environment. In fact, it is one of the most dangerous phenomena when it comes to spending time in the wilderness during cold weather. Naturally, spending time in the winter is nothing out of the ordinary. For any individual living in the regions where it snows regularly, having a temperature below 32F (0 ℃) is a regular occurrence. Still, even away from the rural and wild environment, hypothermia can and does often occur. In fact, hypothermia comes about in a vehicle, backyard woods or even right in a person’s home.
What is even more worrying is that hypothermia comes about from exposure to low temperatures. It can even happen outside of wintertime, in places like cold storage rooms, for example. While this might seem like an unlikely scenario, the truth is that things like this can happen, even though they are rare. With this in mind, it is essential that every prepper has the knowledge necessary to defend themselves and their loved ones in circumstances where it can come about. This knowledge should focus on the concept of hyperemia itself, the main symptoms of this medical condition, the ways it can be treated as a form of first aid and finally, how anyone can prevent hypothermia. With this essential guide on everything you need to know about hypothermia, you will be able to provide better protection and care for yourself and the people around you.
What does Hypothermia Represent as Medical Issue?
Before anything else, it is important that any prepper fully grasps what does the concept of hypothermia represents. From a medical perspective, it is a condition when the body temperature drops to a point where it hampers the ability of organs to function. Humans are warm-blooded animals, meaning that their core temperature, or internal temperature of their bodies, has to be in a certain range. Going above that range often happens when a person is ill – this is the case whenever someone has a fever or something similar. However, while the increase in body temperature signals danger of illness, the drop in temperature can be equally problematic. Hypothermia is the process of external temperature dragging down the body’s temperature to a point when it becomes dangerous. Of course, the human body has the ability to fight the cold by boosting its metabolic rates and doing things like shivering, for example.
But, these are short-term fixes and they cannot sustain a constant body temperature for a prolonged period. Because of that, hypothermia can occur in a range of situations. These include exposure to cold winter weather, but also being stranded in cold waters, where the outside temperature of air makes little difference. In these and many other circumstances, without adequate protection and with prolonged exposure, the hypothermia will begin in the body. Once the interior body temperature reaches 95F (35 ℃), a person can be diagnosed as undergoing hypothermia. If the temperature drops to 82F (27.8 ℃) or even lower, the person will be diagnosed as having severe hypothermia. As this process takes place and the temperature continues to drop, the person is in more and more danger, leading ultimately to death.
What are the Symptoms of Hypothermia?
The symptoms of hypothermia come in stages. The mild phase symptoms are usually vague and come with high blood pressure, increased heart rate, shivering and contraction of blood vessels, especially in the extremities. These are mostly direct responses to the cold and the body’s attempt to stop it from dropping the temperature further down. Some mental confusion will also be present. When the temperature drops and the symptoms come to the moderate level, a person might shiver more violently, lose fine muscle coordination, show signs of slow movements, stumbling footsteps, higher confusion and a heightened state of alertness.
The same alertness, however, is usually misdirected. At this point, a person will look pale, with lips, fingers, toes, and ears becoming blue as the blood moves to the interior organ. When a person is exposed to sub-zero temperatures, this is the point when the frostbite starts to happen to the extremities. The severe symptoms, which began at 82F (27.8 ℃) will lead to system shutdown for entire organs and failure of the heart to pump the blood or the lungs to process air. Finally, while heart rate might spike suddenly, the person will experience major organ failure and this leads to death.
Treatment and First Aid for Hypothermia
Naturally, the first course of action is to contact the emergency health services, if they are available. If not, as it happens in most prepper scenarios, the first thing that the person suffering from hypothermia needs is the removal of any wet or damp clothing. These and water in general are able to funnel out the heat from the surface of the body many times faster than via cold air. Then, the person should be dressed in dry clothes or wrapped in blankets. The focus of the same process should be the torso, not the extremities, which can be warmed up later.
Here, the process of adding heat from the outside is also beneficial – if no heat sources are available, another person’s body heat can be used through skin-to-skin contact on exposed areas. Rubbing of the body of the afflicted person is also able to produce heat through friction. Hot liquids are also beneficial, but not alcohol and caffeine, which boost the process of heat emission from the body. A person who is showing no pulse in a hypothermic state should immediately receive CPR. Also, the afflicted person should be transported to a medical facility as soon as possible, even if their body temperature returns to normal after these procedures.
Prevention of Hypothermia
The key element that protects anyone against hypothermia is the ability of a person to keep their skin warm. Here is where 90 percent of heat exchange happens and this is why the skin has to be as dry and warm as possible. This means avoiding getting wet at all cost in cold environment and using whatever is accessible to keep the warmth inside of the body, instead of letting it escape. For preppers, the natural environment holds many aids to this process. Dry leaves can be stuck inside of clothing to make it more able to conserve heat. The same goes for grass and any other dry vegetation that can be partially compressed between the layers of clothes.
Also, as the more layers a person wears, the more air will be trapped between it and insulate the body. Another big way to avoid hypothermia is to be constantly hydrated and fed as much as possible. Finally, in the wilderness where there is a risk of being exposed to hypothermia, a person should have a fire going constantly, even when they think they do not need it. With it, even unexpected events like falling into freezing water can be resolved by drying the clothes and keeping the person warm. This is why dry and layered clothing, plenty of insulation and a steady flame is the best defense against hypothermia a person can have.
Armed with this knowledge, you can make sure that you and your loved ones are never threatened by this silent but deadly killer.
