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Medical Video: 10 Surprising Things That Happened When I Quit Drinking Alcohol
Since the 18th century, tourists who have been stranded cold in the Alpine snow mountains have been helped to stay warm by drinking brandy which is hung from the neck of a group of St. dogs. Bernard. Thanks to this, reportedly, tourists who are in the mountains with minus degrees of temperature can avoid hypothermia.
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The classic physical characteristics of people who have just drunk alcohol, such as cheeks that are red and a little sheen of sweat dripping on the forehead, indicate that alcohol has a certain impact on body temperature. But is it true that drinking alcoholic beverages can warm the body?
Why do alcoholic drinks make us feel warmer?
Reporting from Mental Floss, William Haynes, director of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Iowa, said that alcohol consumption can thwart many healthy reflexes of the human body. "One of them is reflexively maintaining the body's core temperature to stay warm in cold weather," Haynes explained. The cause behind the warm sensation that makes it comfortable after drinking liquor is blood in your body.
Alcohol is a vasodilator. Alcohol causes blood vessels to dilate, especially capillaries that are just below the surface of the skin. Thus, alcohol consumption transfers a large amount of blood supply from the heart that is concentrated only at the ends of the toes and hands.
Circulatory changes that occur as a result of drinking alcohol send a pile of hoax messages to the brain that make you believe you feel warm. At the same time, the volume of blood carried to the tips of these fingers blocks your natural body's defenses against cold temperatures resulting in a decrease in the body's core temperature. Humans maintain the body's core temperature around 37 degrees Celsius, and most of this heat is produced by the metabolic system, a term that refers to all the chemical processes involved in keeping you alive.
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Someone who enjoys alcohol when cold may feel warmer, thanks to warming the skin obtained from an extra blood supply, but the blood will quickly cool back due to exposure to cold air outside the body. Plus, the warmth caused by a flood of blood flow to the skin will also make it easier for the body to sweat to fight the heat sensation. A number of these reactions can then reduce the body's core temperature more drastically.
Drinking alcoholic drinks when the cold weather does not warm the body, it is dangerous
Just one glass of alcoholic beverages can produce a drastic drop in body temperature. This drastic reduction in body temperature also often occurs unnoticed by the owner of the body because his skin still feels enough warmth, so continually drinking alcohol during cold weather to warm the body can cause you to experience alcohol poisoning.
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Several studies have found that excessive alcohol consumption, especially outdoors when the weather is cold or at night before dawn, often plays a large role in the increased risk of injury related to hypothermia which can be fatal.
