Thoughts while driving

[ShotInTheDark]

I spend a lot of time on the road as a salesperson for Coca-Cola. I drive on average 600-800 miles per week for work alone. I was wondering though, when someone says that they drank something and it really cooled them off is there any truth to the statement? How many ounces of a beverage at a given temperature would a human being have to ingest to actually lower his body temperature? I leave this question to you, the most eclectic group of inteligent people I could think of.

[Frosty]

Ok I'll play.I don't think the act of just drinking the cool drink cools you appreciably, it is adding the fluid to your system so your body can use it to sweat off and cool you. Dumping the coke over your head would provide more immediate benefits. Try it.

[Mr. Poopypants]

I agree with frosty on this one.

[daverules]

I saw this guy on TV once who inserted a refridgerated IV of saline solution into his arm. I think they got his body temperature down to about 68 degrees. The funny thing was that he was in a hot tub at the time. So his skin was warm, but this core body temperature was very low. He was shivering and shaking, but he said he didn't feel cold, due to the high skin temperature.

[Frosty]

Wow! Don't try that at home folks.No med types out there that can provide the definitive answer for us. StangToVibe?

[fennrysha]

Technically, any cold material becomes a heat sink when placed in contact with (or even simply in close proximity to) a warmer material. This means that heat ALWAYS flows from the warmer to the cooler. Thus drinking a cold beverage would, in fact, cool down a body. Now, I have no idea how much you'd have to drink to actually cool down your body's temperature.I'm guessing that it's more of a perception thing. When you drink something cold, you simply feel cooler.And don't get me started on why eating hot soup in summer makes you FEEL cooler!

[Frosty]

quote:And don't get me started on why eating hot soup in summer makes you FEEL cooler! I will take the bait. I think this would only work with clear soups, the liquid replenishes your lost fluids, allowing your body to sweat and cool itself.

[fennrysha]

When you eat hot soup on a hot day, you are "boosting" your internal temperature. While not really boosting your body temp, you are heating your mouth, esophagus, stomach, etc. giving you a perception of added warmth.Then with this perception of feeling warmer, you don't feel the surrounding heat as much. (And if you chug something ice cold, you'll probably feel much warmer and sweat a lot more). I am wording this horribly, mind you, but try it this summer.It works.

[Mr. Poopypants]

quote:When you eat hot soup on a hot day, you are "boosting" your internal temperature. While not really boosting your body temp, you are heating your mouth, esophagus, stomach, etc. giving you a perception of added warmth.Then with this perception of feeling warmer, you don't feel the surrounding heat as much. (And if you chug something ice cold, you'll probably feel much warmer and sweat a lot more). I am wording this horribly, mind you, but try it this summer.It works.I think I will take your word for it, I am not going to eat hot soup in the summer. Hey it's winter, if I go eat a gallon of ice cream will I feel warmer or my stomach explode, or both?

[DopeVibeGT]

Isnt this what A/C is for? LoL j/p

[ShotInTheDark]

Well i wonder if there is a formula to determine,based on temperature and weight of the individual how much liquid they must ingest to lower body temperature. Honestly, this time of year in a resort town of maryland there isn't to much to think about while driving all day.....

[fennrysha]

Yes. Eating some ice cream in winter probably would make you feel less cold (outside). Eating it inside where it's 70 degrees probably won't do anything.

[vicken]

Talking about quenching a thirst nothing will quench your thirst better then a glass of water doesn't matter if its cold or just from the tap, and for the idea that pop is thirst quenching that idea is disturbing, pop contains LOTS of sugar even diet pop so that will actually make you thirstier.my 2 cents

[Stang2Vibe]

quote:I think I will take your word for it, I am not going to eat hot soup in the summer. Hey it's winter, if I go eat a gallon of ice cream will I feel warmer or my stomach explode, or both?No, most likely, neither will happen. However, you will feel colder and almost certainly get fatter. Sorry Frosty, I'm not the definitive source on medical information myself, I'm a business major. My body of knowlege comes from my eclectic personality and mind that strives to find the answer to every question put before it. But I do have several close contacts who are in med fields and could probably answer this one better than I can. But I will take my shot at it here first.From what I understand, the human body needs two things to cool it off externally when it begins to overheat: water and salt. The solution of the two forms the vast majority of the content of human sweat. The combination of the two forms a solution that will evaporate faster than water alone, and it is from the evaporation that the cooling effect takes place as heat is carried away when the solution evaporates on the skin. Also, sodium and potassium are vital to the functioning of the nervous system, as they are required for the transmission of the electrical signals to and from the brain that control all the muscular functions in the body. I was watching a recent court case on the west coast of the US, I believe, where a young girl was punished by her parents by being grounded and having to drink large amounts of water. Why drinking water as punishment, I don't quite understand, but they made her drink so much water one time that it diluted her body's electrolytic content so much that the electric signals for her heart and lungs to function could not be sent by her brain and she died. There was a great debate that followed as to whether this was medically possible. Appearantly it was demonstrated by some of the doctors involved in the case that is was possible for a large enough quantity of water ingested over a period of time could actually kill someone.Back to the cooling effect question. Someone mentioned that cells in the tissues of the upper digestive system send temperature signals to the brain, etc. This is true, but I believe that just about all the body's tissues have such a capability. The cold drink that you consume will make the body feel temporarily cooler after it is ingested. To make significant body temp changes, the changes must affect the circulatory system. There are many small blood vessels that are very close to the surface of the tissues in the upper digestive system. When a cold drink comes into contact with them, the heat in the blood is given off into the liquid, which cools the tissues and the blood in them. This will be about the extent of the cooling effect that the drink has internally. The drink will help cool externally once the digestive system has processed the water in the drink and the body uses it to produce sweat along with sodium and other chemicals/minerals as I explained above. When people run a very high fever (usually around 104 degrees F) they have to be cooled down or they will suffer brain damage due to the excess heat and can eventually die. When admitted to the hospital, they are usually given drugs to reduce the fever as well as an ice bath to bring their internal body temp down. The ice bath is used because the skin has by far the most surface area of any of the body's organs (yes, the skin is technically an organ). The body has many very small blood vessels near the surface of the skin called capillaries. If heat can be transferred out of the blood in the capillaries quickly and efficiently, the core temp of the body will drop noticably. Again, affecting the temp of the circulatory system will have the greatest effect on the core temp of the body. Regarding the statement that a man's core temp was lowered into the 60's is rather amazing because at that low of a temp, the brain will have shut down all of the body's activities that are not directly involved with sustaining life and the man should be in a coma. The only way I can imagine this is possible is that the water in the hot tub was able to transfer enough heat to the blood through the skin as it went into the brain which would not allow the brain to register that the body's core temp had significantly dropped. The body's tissues and organs would be sending a signal to the brain that they are cold (because the core temp is so low) which would cause involuntary shivering. So, I guess it is possible, but is walking on a very fine line.Overall, jumping into a pool with water at 70F on a hot summer day will do more to cool the body than will drinking a 12 oz can of Coke at 45F. The entire skin surface of the body can transfer much more heat far quicker than the tissues of the digestive system system. Also, as the heat is given off by the body into the ingested cold drink, the drink will warm until it reaches body temperature. Your body can heat up 12 oz of Coke in your stomach to normal body temprature rather quickly, whereas your body will die before it can raise the temp of the water in a 10,000 gallon pool to body temperature. That is why the body autonomously and automatically thermoregulates itself. When you first jump into the pool on a hot day, you feel really cold at first, right? Your body adjusts to the change in temp by constricting the blood vessels in the extremities of your body to keep as much warm blood in the central part of your body where all your vital organs are. The body will also burn up extra energy which also produces heat (ever get the munchies after swimming for a while?). This will work up to a certain point at which the body will begin to slow down all of its processes until you are comatose. This is why you have heard of people who were drowned in cold water for over a half hour and still survived. The body's funtions have slowed so much that very little oxygen is required to fuel the body because all non-vital activity has been stopped by the brain. As long as the submerged body does not consume all the oxygen in its' system, it will survive unless it temp drops too low. These people are revived by clearing the lungs of water and giving them oxygen and gradually raising the core temp of the body. They are usually put on a special machine through which their blood flows by I.V. that will gradually raise the temp of the blood and pass it back into the body. Often these survivors suffer some degree of brain damage because of the oxygen deprovation in the brain for an extended period of time. I don't know if I can explain this all any better without going into a very long exposition on the body's thermoregulation mechinisms. This one went on more than long enough. Sorry everyone if it was really long! See what you learn if you watch something else on T.V. other than soap operas, game shows, and MTV?