Frozen - Zoe Walsh

Frozen

by Zoe Walsh

As the temperatures drop throughout Kansas, many people might be feeling like they are freezing to death. Freezing to death might be more than just a figure of speech with these extremely low temperatures. When temperatures dip, frostbite and other health risks are a real concern. According to LiveScience.com, death strikes even before the body freezes.

Our bodies have two built-in mechanisms to protect us from the cold. One is shivering and the other is called vasoconstriction. Vasoconstriction happens when your body tries to insulate itself by moving blood away from the skin and outer extremities. The blood will flow towards your core. This is why many people who die of hypothermia are found naked. When the blood leaves the limbs they experience a burning sensation, and at the same time the blood leaves the brain, so the victim, who isn’t thinking straight, thinks they are hot and they take their clothes off. This makes them freeze to death faster.

To circulate warm blood to the heart and the brain, heart and respiratory rates increase. “Cold turns deadly once your heart rate is elevated enough to activate ventricular fibrillation — an extremely advanced and severe heart complication,” Dr. Komaroff, a Harvard Medical School professor of medicine and editor in chief of the Harvard Health Letter, told weather.com. “With ventricular fibrillation, the heart muscle looks like a bag of worms; it’s wriggling around, not circulating blood through the body or brain,” he explained. “If that goes on for more than four minutes, the brain dies. That’s sudden death.” That’s why in winter weather people with signs of heart disease can die when they suddenly exert themselves (such as while shoveling snow).

Frostnip, frostbite, trench foot, chilblains, eye pain, vision changes, and hypothermia can also be the result of frigid temperatures. Exposure to extreme cold can be dangerous to people's health and even cause. Stay warm!!