The furnace is on the fritz and the mercury is falling fast, so the fireplace is cranked up and the cat and I have retreated to my office with a space heater (old cats are like space heater magnets). I’ll have a pot of hot chocolate on when my very cold natured wife comes home from work tonight. Maybe that will keep her spirits from sinking too low when I drop the news that our solution to this frigid dilemma is a part that will take at least three days to arrive… from Monday!
I got the idea for the hot chocolate from the HVAC tech that declared my heating system legally dead, he had mentioned a “hot toddy” might reduce the impact of the news. Of course the hot beverage I make will be sans alcohol, but even those without substance abuse problems should be wary of imbibing during cold weather.
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Contrary to popular belief, alcohol does not work as anti-freeze for the body and in fact works in exactly the opposite manner. Physiologically, alcohol causes the peripheral vessels to dilate which actually sheds body heat. It also has works like a general anesthetic providing a false sense of warmth. Combine these physiological effects with impaired cognitive ability and a reduced anxiety level, and it should come as no surprise that many people die of hypothermia while intoxicated even though shelter was attainable.
I did find two things while researching this topic that were particularly interesting. The first is a warning to those that become dangerous cold from warming up too fast. Warming up the vascular system rapidly from an extreme temperature can actually drain the blood from the heart actually causing it to pump dry, and fail. Ouch! The other thing is called paradoxical undressing. We all know that drunks will arbitrarily shed their clothes for little or no reason, but hypothermia can also have the same effect.
One explanation for the effect is a cold-induced malfunction of the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that regulates body temperature. Another explanation is that the muscles contracting peripheral blood vessels become exhausted (known as a loss of vasomotor tone) and relax, leading to a sudden surge of blood (and heat) to the extremities, fooling the victim into feeling warm. ~ Wiki
Not to leave you with the parting thought of dead, naked drunks, I thought I might share an oldie and goodie sung by the same. It’s a double entendre with Leon Redbone being the oldie in this case and Zooey Deschanel is the (new) goodie. Another interesting factoid is that Zooey has an older sister Emily, who plays Dr. Temperance Brennan of Bones fame- a TDA favorite.
