Why can't you rub your hands and drink hot water when you have hypothermia? These behaviors double the risk

The death of four geologists in Ailao Mountain, Yunnan is heartbreaking. We are also quietly following the development of the incident.

At 23:58 on the 23rd, according to a report released by Xinhua News Agency, the bodies of the four victims had been transported out of Ailao Mountain by rescue workers and handed over to the Kunming Comprehensive Survey Center of Natural Resources of the China Geological Survey.

According to The Paper, the heavy rains and steep mountain slopes made the transfer more difficult, and it took two days and one night to transfer the body.

What did the four geologists experience in their lives that led to such a tragedy?

The first team member's raincoat was found. The "0.4 yuan raincoat" has not yet been determined, but it is definitely not a professional tool.

Search and rescue footage and food brought, including egg yolk pies, melon seeds, etc.

From the rescue footage, we can see that the four geologists still had enough food, but it also shows that the equipment they brought was not professional, which makes us wonder whether the four geological expedition personnel were professionals in field operations? What happened to them?

A rescue team member revealed that the bodies of the four people were found in two separate places. It is possible that one team member decided to go out for help, while the remaining three stayed where they were to conserve their strength.

The four people used a mechanical compass, but due to magnetic disturbances on Mount Ailao, the compass gave the wrong direction, causing them to circle around the temporary camp.

Image from The Green Hornet

Rescue team member Tan Zhang also revealed that one of the victims "had his clothes lifted up, his belly exposed, and a smile on his face, which is a typical symptom of hypothermia."

Content from The Paper

Based on these fragments of evidence, we may be able to roughly restore the truth of the matter: due to the sudden drop in temperature in the mountains and insufficient supplies, four geologists suffered from hypothermia and lost their lives forever on the land they loved.

Cause of death may be hypothermia

Many people do not understand the phenomenon of hypothermia and think that it only occurs in extremely bad weather conditions. In fact, hypothermia also occurs during many outdoor extreme sports or wilderness adventures, such as the hypothermia accident at the Baiyin Marathon not long ago.

As ordinary people, it may be necessary for us to understand hypothermia. Perhaps at some point, the knowledge about self-rescue from hypothermia can help people around you.

What is hypothermia?

Let’s think about a question: At what temperature will a person freeze to death?

Many people's subconscious reaction is zero degrees. After all, this is the temperature at which water freezes under normal conditions. Since the water content in the human body accounts for more than 75%, perhaps zero degrees is enough to freeze the human body.

Some people also believe that even minus 40 degrees Celsius is not enough to freeze people to death. After all, this temperature is just the "normal operation" in the Northeast in winter. As long as you dress warmly enough, you will not get hypothermia no matter how low the temperature is.

In fact, there is no standard answer to this question. Excluding external auxiliary warming equipment such as clothing, each person will have different reactions to temperature due to different factors such as physical fitness and ability to adapt to the environment. But one thing is certain, under certain circumstances, even if the temperature is above zero, people may still freeze to death.

Image source: Screenshot from the movie "The Revenant"

The definition of hypothermia is not the temperature, but when the body's heat loss is greater than the heat supply, resulting in a drop in the core temperature of the human body, which ultimately leads to death. The core area here refers to the core vital organs such as the brain, heart and lungs, not the surface of our skin.

Core area temperature and strange smile

The body responds differently to hypothermia at different temperatures.

When the core temperature of the body drops to 35ºC to 36ºC, the body begins to shiver. At this stage, the person's consciousness is very clear. As long as you get closer to the heat source or add more clothes in time, it is still possible to avoid hypothermia.

When the temperature of the core area of ​​the body is between 33ºC and 35ºC, the human body begins to enter a state of first-degree hypothermia, with a strong sense of drowsiness, decreased reaction and coordination, muscle tremors and increased heart rate, breathing and heart rate begin to slow down, and the sense of pain begins to numb.

When the core temperature of the body continues to drop to 28ºC to 33ºC, the human body will enter a state of secondary hypothermia, at which time shivering will decrease because the sense of cold becomes dull. People's consciousness begins to become blurred, memory becomes disordered, the cerebral cortex is inhibited, and the ability to express also decreases. At this time, there is a risk of arrhythmia and loss of consciousness.

When the core temperature of the body drops to 22ºC to 28ºC, the human body is in a state of third-degree hypothermia, with muscles stiff and curled, pulse and breathing weak and difficult to detect. At this time, the human body is almost unable to regulate its temperature and falls into a coma, unable to respond to external stimuli. When the body temperature drops below 22ºC, death is almost inevitable.

Image source: Wikipedia

The place where the four geologists were killed is about 2100-2400 meters above sea level, with dense forests, high precipitation, and complex and changeable terrain. In such a mountain environment, with rainy weather and a sudden drop in temperature, the body's heat supply could not keep up with the heat consumption, and the core temperature gradually dropped, eventually losing their lives.

There is another detail that deserves attention. When one of the geologists was found, his clothes had been taken off and he had a smile on his face. How did this strange behavior trigger?

When people are in a cold environment for a long time, the energy generated by the body cannot keep the body warm, causing the body temperature to continue to drop. At this time, the cerebral cortex will be inhibited and lose the ability to regulate body temperature, causing the epidermal blood vessels to dilate, allowing the warm blood in the body to flow into the skin blood vessels.

Although the body temperature is dropping at this time, the skin receptors feel hot, and taking off clothes will make people more comfortable.

Before freezing to death, the signals between the brain and the retina begin to be disrupted, and a sense of colorful and soft colors like watching the aurora will appear, and the unconscious torso will also feel relaxed.

Finally, the human body's central nervous system is suppressed and the person dies in a hazy warm feeling, so the corpse is mostly in a natural posture with a peaceful expression.

Self-rescue and rescue in hypothermia

If you really encounter hypothermia outdoors, you must learn these self-rescue and rescue methods.

Here are a few misunderstandings that you must know:

First of all, do not let hypothermic patients drink alcohol or hot water. The warm feeling produced by drinking alcohol is just an illusion caused by warm blood deep in the body coming to the surface of the body. It is almost meaningless for hypothermic patients except for increasing heat dissipation. At the same time, the heat provided by hot water is also limited. Hot water will stimulate vasodilation, form hypotension, further reduce the temperature of the core area, and cause greater harm.

On the other hand, remember not to rub your limbs. This seemingly effective method will cause the cold blood that was originally retained in the limbs to flow back to the core of the body, destroying the body's self-protection mechanism.

The correct approach is to first take the hypothermic patient away from the cold environment. Since wet clothes will consume the body's heat, it is necessary to help the hypothermic patient take off the wet clothes and use external warm items to maintain the body temperature. Then contact professional first aid personnel as soon as possible and wait for professional rescue.

Avoid hypothermia, start with me

Since the consequences of hypothermia are so terrible, what are the daily environments that can cause hypothermia and how can we avoid them?

Hypothermia first occurs in the elderly and children who are not adequately clothed.

Because these people have relatively weaker self-protection and temperature regulation abilities than adults, they are more likely to suffer from hypothermia if exposed to low temperatures for a long time. The best way to deal with cold weather is to stay at home unless necessary, and be sure to take safety and warmth measures once you go out.

Secondly, patients with mental illness or those who rely on medication need to pay more attention to hypothermia. Mental illness or medication can cause the nervous system to have a reduced ability to perceive and regulate body temperature. Even if they are in a low-temperature environment for a long time, the body will not react to the cold, so they need to keep warm in advance.

Finally, people who need to stay outdoors in cold weather for a long time are particularly prone to hypothermia. People who travel outdoors mostly focus on preventing bad weather, only caring about keeping warm and ignoring the risk of hypothermia caused by excessive sweating. After sweating a lot, the body cannot stay dry. When the body is soaked and encounters cold weather, the above mentioned situation will occur, and hypothermia will occur even above zero degrees under special conditions.

Therefore, when doing outdoor activities in cold weather, be sure to always have a set of quick-drying underwear. At the same time, be sure to avoid cotton, as cotton fabrics are very absorbent and do not easily wick away sweat, which can aggravate hypothermia.

Take the four geologists as an example. When they are outdoors, they must bring enough food and drinking water to replenish their energy anytime and anywhere. At the same time, they must pay attention to the weather in advance and add appropriate clothes. When they sweat during outdoor activities, they must immediately change into dry clothes to avoid excessive heat loss in windy weather.

Once again, I feel sad for the four geologists involved in the accident... I hope that more popularization of outdoor knowledge and self-rescue common sense can reduce the occurrence of such accidents!

END

Review expert: Wu Xinsheng, deputy chief physician of the Department of Gastroenterology, the 371st Hospital of the People’s Liberation Army.

Source: Tadpole Musical Notation

Editor: Xiaoxi Tushuo