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| People say that putting a hat on when you have cold hands and feet is an old wife's tale but ignore them.
Your body will try and ensure that you get warm blood pumped to your brain - it's the last thing to shut down.
If you are cold, it will do this at the expense of your furthermost capillaries from your heart by restricting them - i.e. your hands and your feet.
Thus, you'll get cold hands and feet before anything else.
And, to compound the problem, your hands especially, are really sensitive to the cold due to all the nerves so you'll feel the cold more there.
Putting a hat on reduces the heat loss from your head - where you need to keep it most.
The beauty of a hat is that they are a brilliant way to regulate the body temperature - easy to put on or take off and light to carry.
Even if you have Raynaud's Disease, a hat will still help. | |
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Been thinking about this; if we consider a set of healthy people, my conjecture is (I really don't know whether it is true), the thinner people will be more likely to suffer cold hands (Raynauds or no Raynauds).
Was reading some blog-analyses of the two weather related deaths that occurred in Zugspitz extremeberglauf 2008 (as described earlier in the thread, the 2009 version was much shorter): the theory is, the fitter and better trained you are, the less body fat you have and the more you are able to push your body to the limits, and that puts you at greater risk. I have noticed some of the best hill cyclists and hill runners are relatively thinner, which makes their vital organs much less protected from the cold, so it is possible that thinner people and
especially runners need to be extra-cautious about cold.
In contrast, the extreme-long distance swimmers like those who swim agross marathon lengths in the cold seas typically have a layer of insulating fat.
Just some food for thought to better undertand one's body and play safe.
Ok, I have still more doubts and discussions, which will be continued in the 2010 calendar later
