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Illinois State Rifle Association
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Hypothermia
There is a chill in the air tonight. The weatherman promises that the jet stream is pushing south into our neck of the woods and the temperature will drop to below freezing. How many times have we all heard that and not paid much attention to the warnings? At least we have the information to take action and prepare for the predicted weather. Regardless of what Mother Nature throws at us, there is a need to protect ourselves from the heat and the cold. Our body does its best to maintain its core temperature so all internal organs and the brain survive extreme temperature changes. The regulation of body temperature is automatic and we need to do nothing more than to “dress for the weather”. This works when we are cognizant of what’s ahead in the foreseeable future. Sometimes, though, we can deceive ourselves into believing that it really is not as bad outside as it looks or that the weatherman may have made a wrong forecast and it will be a great day for that ball game. We all have been caught up in telling ourselves that a light jacket will suffice. The Will County Grassroots extended an invitation to Dr. Dan Beck to talk about the dangers of hypothermia and how to prevent it. Dr. Beck spoke about the basic ways we can lose or gain heat from our bodies. Conduction is the direct transfer of our body temperature through direct physical contact, like falling into waters that have very low temperatures. This would cause your core temperature to be transferred from your body to the chilly waters. Another way to lose body temperature is through convection, the transfer of our body temperature with air or some other gas as the transfer medium. Rooms that are too cool or hot are an example of this and hypothermia can be experienced in these environments. Conduction and convection are two examples of how we can get into trouble with exposure to our environments. Heat exposure has its dangers, too. If our bodies cannot automatically counter the effects of too much heat, we can experience problems from that type of exposure. Radiating this excess heat from our bodies because of absorbing too much heat from external sources, such as the sun or an environment that is much too warm, will cause the homeostasis process to work overtime. When this occurs, our bodies will attempt to reduce the heat within our body by sweating. This evaporation process works as long as we can produce sweat. When we run out of sweat, that is the point heat stroke can be a problem. Radiation and evaporation are two other methods that can get us into trouble if there is too much for our bodies to handle. Maintaining proper energy levels within our bodies is critical. What is important here is to recognize what will protect us from the extremes that Mother Nature can throw at us. Knowing how to protect ourselves by using shelters, proper clothing and understanding the basic survival techniques will help us prevent hypothermia. The WCGR thanks Dr. Dan Beck for his presentation on hypothermia. Al Tiscareno---
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