Cold and Hot
This morning the temperature was a brisk 4 degrees Fahrenheit, at least in our area. In more northern and mountainous parts near us, the temps dropped to the -20 degree mark. Now this is not such a big deal if you live in Nebraska or parts of Canada or even in the northern parts of Alaska, places where such negative temps are just a fact of life during winter. But here in this portion of the Salt Lake valley, anything below 10 degrees is reason enough to feel cold. So it was ironic that instead of reading author Bill Streever's best-selling book simply titled "Cold," I was immersed in his follow-up book called "Heat" (on a side note, his recent book on wind is in my book pile waiting to be read). His section of the book on thirst was alone an insightful glimpse of the endurance and resiliance of our bodies, particularly when other animals perish within seconds or minutes of their bodies heating up beyond their core temperature (yes, even lizards).
We humans are primarily water, 42 quarts worth as the author points out; and of those, the average 150-lb. person can drop about 10-12 of those quarts without perishing (losing 8 of those quarts will likely send you into shock says an article in National Geographic). Walking in the desert or in intense heat can cause you to lose a quart of water every two hours just from sweating. But it's what happens later when we go beyond that point of being thirsty, a point where our blood cells begin to rupture in an effort to quench our body's need for hydration and a point where we would be unable to help ourselves. Here's just one story of what might happen as told by scientist William McGee of the errant prospector in 1906 who got lost in the desert, only to reappear as an agonizing moan and little else some eight days later; his name was Pablo Valencia: Pablo was stark naked; his formerly full-muscled legs and arms were shrunken and scrawny; his ribs ridged out like those of a starving horse; his habitually plethoric abdomen was drawn in almost against his verteral column; his lips had disappeared as if amputated, leaving low edges of blackened tissue; his teeth and gums projected like those of a skinned animal, but the flesh was black and dry as a hank of jerky; his nose was withered and shrunken to half its length, the nostril-lining showing black; his eyes were set in a winkless stare, with surrounding skin so contracted as to expose the conjunctiva, itself black as the gums; his face was dark as a Negro, and his skin generally turned a ghastly purplish yet ashen gray, with great livid blotches and streaks...His extremities were cold as the surrounding air; no pulsation could be detected at wrists, and there was apparently little if any circulation beyond the knees and elbows; the heartbeat was slow, irregular, fluttering, and almost ceasing in the longer intervals between the stertorous breathings. Bloated and hardened tongues, loss of eyesight, salt loss creating chemical imbalances and seizures...and all from a loss of water. By the way, Pablo Valencia survived and two weeks after being found was "deliberately and methodically devouring watermelons."
In the back of his book, author Streever presents other "experts" and notes the similarities of classifying the stages of heat illness which he adds typically breaks down into six stages (unlining is mine to better show the different stages): heat stress (fatigue, dizziness, some swelling of fingers or toes, stumbling, heat rash, headache, thirst), heat fatigue (burning sensation, excessively dry lips, cracking of lips, dry mouth), heat syncope (body temperature rises, pale skin, some difficulty talking, mind starts to wander, rapid heartbeat), heat cramps (muscle cramps, stomach cramps, clumsiness, muscle pain), heat exhaustion (high fever, nausea, loss of will, pounding heart, shallow and rapid breathing, skin cold to touch, possibility of heart attack, loss of consciousness, tunnel vision, hearing anomalies, mild hallucinations), and heat stroke (sweating stops, body temperature spikes, blushing as blood is sent to skin, burst blood vessels in eyes, hypersensitivity to touching or rubbing sometimes leads to abandonment of clothes, severe hallucinations, irrational digging, organ failure). However symptoms vary from person to person and case to case. It is possible to suffer heatstroke even when adequate water is available, and to reach the point of heatstroke very quickly -- for example, through forced exercise. Wait, we often hear of people suffering from heat stroke...is it really that serious (says the Environmental Protection Agency, "Heat is the leading weather-related killer in the United States").
For many of the elderly in particular (as personally witnessed with both my mother and mother-in-law), drinking water or enough fluids in general is a constant problem and one which can lead to falls, impaired thinking and even organ failure. But think of yourself; how much water are you drinking each day (the tell-tale marker is that your urine should be only slightly yellowed, showing that you are getting enough water to keep your cell activity properly hydrated). But for most of us, telling ourselves to drink more water is something we often forget more than we remember. Athlete Laird Hamilton places 3 liters of water on his kitchen counter each morning, a visual reminder of how those containers should be empty by day's end.
Of course, none of us expect to get lost wandering in a desert, or lost at all, just as none of us expect to be lost floating at sea. But take note that if the latter does happen to you, don't drink the sea water. When the USS Indianapolis was sunk, only a third of the 900 men survived in the ocean, with a medical officer reporting "...that those who drank seawater became sick, delirious, and combative. They drifted away from the group or swam away, apparently maddened. No one who drank seawater survived." Hmmm, feeling thirsty yet? Sometimes, even in this bitter cold, I am grateful that I can shiver a bit but put on an extra jacket. But after reading about thirst, I am even more grateful that I can do something some 780 million people in today's world cannot do*...pour and drink a glass of clean, fresh, disease-free water.
*According to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
We humans are primarily water, 42 quarts worth as the author points out; and of those, the average 150-lb. person can drop about 10-12 of those quarts without perishing (losing 8 of those quarts will likely send you into shock says an article in National Geographic). Walking in the desert or in intense heat can cause you to lose a quart of water every two hours just from sweating. But it's what happens later when we go beyond that point of being thirsty, a point where our blood cells begin to rupture in an effort to quench our body's need for hydration and a point where we would be unable to help ourselves. Here's just one story of what might happen as told by scientist William McGee of the errant prospector in 1906 who got lost in the desert, only to reappear as an agonizing moan and little else some eight days later; his name was Pablo Valencia: Pablo was stark naked; his formerly full-muscled legs and arms were shrunken and scrawny; his ribs ridged out like those of a starving horse; his habitually plethoric abdomen was drawn in almost against his verteral column; his lips had disappeared as if amputated, leaving low edges of blackened tissue; his teeth and gums projected like those of a skinned animal, but the flesh was black and dry as a hank of jerky; his nose was withered and shrunken to half its length, the nostril-lining showing black; his eyes were set in a winkless stare, with surrounding skin so contracted as to expose the conjunctiva, itself black as the gums; his face was dark as a Negro, and his skin generally turned a ghastly purplish yet ashen gray, with great livid blotches and streaks...His extremities were cold as the surrounding air; no pulsation could be detected at wrists, and there was apparently little if any circulation beyond the knees and elbows; the heartbeat was slow, irregular, fluttering, and almost ceasing in the longer intervals between the stertorous breathings. Bloated and hardened tongues, loss of eyesight, salt loss creating chemical imbalances and seizures...and all from a loss of water. By the way, Pablo Valencia survived and two weeks after being found was "deliberately and methodically devouring watermelons."
In the back of his book, author Streever presents other "experts" and notes the similarities of classifying the stages of heat illness which he adds typically breaks down into six stages (unlining is mine to better show the different stages): heat stress (fatigue, dizziness, some swelling of fingers or toes, stumbling, heat rash, headache, thirst), heat fatigue (burning sensation, excessively dry lips, cracking of lips, dry mouth), heat syncope (body temperature rises, pale skin, some difficulty talking, mind starts to wander, rapid heartbeat), heat cramps (muscle cramps, stomach cramps, clumsiness, muscle pain), heat exhaustion (high fever, nausea, loss of will, pounding heart, shallow and rapid breathing, skin cold to touch, possibility of heart attack, loss of consciousness, tunnel vision, hearing anomalies, mild hallucinations), and heat stroke (sweating stops, body temperature spikes, blushing as blood is sent to skin, burst blood vessels in eyes, hypersensitivity to touching or rubbing sometimes leads to abandonment of clothes, severe hallucinations, irrational digging, organ failure). However symptoms vary from person to person and case to case. It is possible to suffer heatstroke even when adequate water is available, and to reach the point of heatstroke very quickly -- for example, through forced exercise. Wait, we often hear of people suffering from heat stroke...is it really that serious (says the Environmental Protection Agency, "Heat is the leading weather-related killer in the United States").
For many of the elderly in particular (as personally witnessed with both my mother and mother-in-law), drinking water or enough fluids in general is a constant problem and one which can lead to falls, impaired thinking and even organ failure. But think of yourself; how much water are you drinking each day (the tell-tale marker is that your urine should be only slightly yellowed, showing that you are getting enough water to keep your cell activity properly hydrated). But for most of us, telling ourselves to drink more water is something we often forget more than we remember. Athlete Laird Hamilton places 3 liters of water on his kitchen counter each morning, a visual reminder of how those containers should be empty by day's end.
Of course, none of us expect to get lost wandering in a desert, or lost at all, just as none of us expect to be lost floating at sea. But take note that if the latter does happen to you, don't drink the sea water. When the USS Indianapolis was sunk, only a third of the 900 men survived in the ocean, with a medical officer reporting "...that those who drank seawater became sick, delirious, and combative. They drifted away from the group or swam away, apparently maddened. No one who drank seawater survived." Hmmm, feeling thirsty yet? Sometimes, even in this bitter cold, I am grateful that I can shiver a bit but put on an extra jacket. But after reading about thirst, I am even more grateful that I can do something some 780 million people in today's world cannot do*...pour and drink a glass of clean, fresh, disease-free water.
*According to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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