"Black Coffee 2002" <black-coffee2002_at_karavshin.org> wrote: > Yep! This is what I was referring to in my earlier post about military > treatments for cold hands in artic conditions. I think the trick was to > coax the capillaries into dilating to let some more blood in. At least now > you have some search terms for Google. ;-) Tricking those capillaries into remaining open is not a trivial or a quick process. I do not recall the source, but a careful study was done some 30 years ago on acclimation of the hands of filleters (working in a fish processing line) to long hours of working in 35 - 40 F water. It was found that new workers could only work in the cold water for a few minutes before their capillaries shut down, and had to spell out, only getting in a couple hours _net_ of useful work each of the first few days. But, if they kept at it, they could slowly, over a period of four weeks or so of regular (and increasing) exposure, become acclimated and work a full shift with their hands more or less continuously exposed to the cold water. They could maintain this indefinitely, if they kept up the exposure. On quitting the slime line and avoiding exposure to cold water, it was found that workers lost their acclimation __faster__ than they gained it ... so that if they laid off completely, they lost most of it within two weeks. This corresponds to what I have noticed for my own hands, in the days when I regularly did wilderness skiing on multiday trips. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Dec 28 2004 - 21:36:32 PST
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