[Paddlewise] Paul Schurke

That is interesting.  Exposure to cold increases thyroid activity and
increases BMR which would account for "warmer hands."

Could this acclimitazation, if in fact his test was valid, counter capacity
for survival through increased heat loss?

To enhance survival, one would think that Acclimitization to cold would
cause the capilaries in the skin to descrease blood flow, rather than
increase it.  Not only would you need to "stoke the fires," but you would
need even more so, to preserve the heat.  Like the weddell seals.

But, valid studies have shown that BRM is increased in acclimitazation.
..and in humans, It takes awhile for the "thermostat" to reset.  So, where
did all of the members of the expedition live?  Were they *all* from Texas?
(now that would be a better test) or were the inuit members from Alaska...
and the other members from lower latitides?

I'd like to read the "experiment."

Robert


  

> From: Chuck Holst <CHUCK_at_multitech.com>
> Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 15:16:35 -0600

> During Paul Schurke's Bering Bridge Expedition several years ago,
> acclimatization to cold was studied by, among other things, putting a
> subject's hand into icewater and then measuring blood flow or something like
> that.  Though I don't remember the details, I remember Schurke saying that
> the non-Inuit members of the expedition did show increased acclimatization
> to cold over the course of the expedition. The prize, however, went to the
> Inuit doctor on the expedition, whose hands stayed so warm during the test
> that they kept melting the ice in the icewater!

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