Field Treatment for Hypothermia

The basic principles of re-warming a hypothermic victim are to conserve heat they have and to replace body fuel they are burning up to generate that heat.

Reduce Heat Loss. Find shelter from wind, and cold. This could be under a tree, in tent, or in a sleeping bag. If at all possible, get victim off of ground (a foam pad would be ideal). Remove any wet clothing and replace with layers of dry clothing, increased physical activity.

Add Fuel and Fluids. Keep a hypothermic person adequately hydrated and fueled. Give them warm, sweet liquids but NO coffee or tea - and NEVER ALCOHOL! Alcohol - a vasodilator - increases peripheral heat loss

Caffeine - a diuretic - causes water loss increasing dehydration

Tobacco/nicotine - a vasoconstrictor, increases risk of frostbite Provide Heat Source. Light a fire or a stove.

Seek Medical Attention as quickly as possible. Never leave a hypothermic victim alone.

Prevention of Hypothermia

Dress Appropriately. Wear clothing to keep warmth. Avoid cotton!

Stay Dry - be aware that water comes from both outside (environment) and inside (perspiration). Stay out of wind if possible.

Keep Your Body Burning. Stay hydrated, and eat foods like carbohydrates and proteins to provide energy.

Conserve Your Energy. Exhaustion leads to a quicker onset of hypothermia.

Summary

It's important to keep warm and dry during cold, winter months. Dressing appropriately can make a big difference. Wear several loose, warm layers. Thick wool socks and a cap can combat winter's chills. At night, use extra blankets because hypothermia can develop during sleep. Thermal underwear are excellent for keeping heat in your body.

Get plenty of rest. Fatigue makes you more vulnerable to subnormal heat and cold. Eat nutritious foods, and exercise moderately. Limit your alcohol intake because alcohol speeds up body heat loss.

I hope this information will serve you well when you travel to extremely cold regions of world. As a professional seafarer who had worked in extremely cold regions, I have found that thermal underwear gives excellent comfort even in icy arctic cold weather conditions. Excellent high tech thermal underwear could be obtain from Hi-Tech Thermal Underwear

One of barriers to finding a cause or treatment for calcification is that some experts have long claimed it is part of body’s healing process. Because of this widespread idea, doctors have often not considered calcification to be at root of problem. They also often don’t associate calcification with trademark inflammation that accompanies it.

Yet up-to-date medical manuals such as authoritative Merck Manual of Diagnosis — a bible found in many doctors’ offices — describe calcium phosphate crystals that make up calcification as “aggressive” and provoking chronic inflammation as well as attacking joints.

Now, discovery of a tiny particle has shown a link between calcification and inflammation. Scientists who now work with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) discovered something so small that it challenges definition of life. It made headlines when Mayo Clinic researchers found it in heart disease, while others discovered how to test for and treat it.

Basically, scientists found that particle generates a calcium phosphate shell while in blood, and attacks human tissue. This provokes an immune reaction that includes chronic inflammation.

And in October, Journal Pathophysiology published clinical trial results suggesting that when particle is targeted with treatment, calcification seems to be reversible. [Study title: Maniscalco et al, "Calcification in Coronary Artery Disease can be Reversed by Long-Term EDTA-tetracycline chemotherapy," Pathophysiology 11 (2004) 95–101.]

The study also demonstrated reversal of most of clinical symptoms of atherosclerosis, including coronary artery calcification, in a majority of patients who participated in trial.

The authors of study emphasize that results are just preliminary, but nonetheless treatment that they used is available now as a combination of an over-the-counter nutraceutical and a prescription of generic antibiotics.

The problem with tiny discovered particle that seems to be generating calcification is that no one knows exactly what it is. Its DNA remains a mystery because much of can’t be isolated using standard tests. So right now, scientists from NASA and a dozen or so international institutes are using nanotechnology methods to try and decipher its secrets.

Look for next installment to see what they have found, and how it affects treatment.