# Hypothermia aide? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 27, 2007, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothermia-aide/431384 "2007-12-27T16:29:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2007, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothermia-aide/431384/1 "2007-12-27T16:29:07Z")
I was watching a show about water rescues and winter rescues some time back. One of the common threads is that hypothermia factors into survival and treatment in many cases. The subject’s extremities are very cold and his/her core temperature has and is dropping. Question, is there a solid or liquid food or supplement that can be given to provide near immediate energy and raise the core body temperature? What I envision is something that provides an immediately digestible energy source - get into the blood stream quickly - and reacts mildly with stomach fluids or another fluid given with the energy source to produce heat. Not flesh searing heat but something that would have a significant effect on core temperature (say slightly over 100 degrees F and persistent for an hour or so). ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2007, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothermia-aide/431384/2 "2007-12-27T16:33:51Z")
A shot of [adrenaline might help:](http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=56377) > [@](#): > > Heat produced due to thermogenic action of adrenaline may represent more than a quarter of the total cold thermogenesis. Or you could eat an uncoupler, such as [2,4 DNP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,4-Dinitrophenol). ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2007, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothermia-aide/431384/3 "2007-12-27T17:42:34Z")
I’m gonna say that if you’ve been rescued (as opposed to self-rescue), a cup of tea or coffee should do the trick. Of course if you’re really hypothermic then your digestive system has probably shut down. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2007, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothermia-aide/431384/4 "2007-12-27T18:18:45Z")
[QUOTE=Finagle] I’m gonna say that if you’ve been rescued (as opposed to self-rescue), a cup of tea or coffee should do the trick. Of course if you’re really hypothermic then your digestive system has probably shut down. [/QUOTE] I’ll second this. You don’t feed a hypothermia solid food until theie basal temperature is near normal. With the digestive system shut down, they will suffer profound nausea and projectile vomiting. The best first aid treatment is external warming, and even there extreme caution is the key. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2007, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothermia-aide/431384/5 "2007-12-27T18:41:26Z")
[QUOTE=Finagle] I’m gonna say that if you’ve been rescued (as opposed to self-rescue), a cup of tea or coffee should do the trick. Of course if you’re really hypothermic then your digestive system has probably shut down. [/QUOTE] But for a person with severse hypothermia, this is the worst thing you can do. Never ever give a person with severe hypothermia a warm drink of anything. Wrap them in dry _heated_ blankets. Heat them up _slowly_ from the outside. A well equipped emergency facility will have better equipment such as a warm stomach lavage system. In some cases, they will even pack the patient in ice for a while to delay a rapid upswing in temperature. There are scores of examples of would-be “rescuers” who give people pulled from a cold sea, e.g., a warm bit of tea and presto- dead person. A bit of warm, energy-dense drink is just for very mild cases. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingCowOfDoom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyingcowofdoom/32/21776_2.png) [@FlyingCowOfDoom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingCowOfDoom)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2007, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothermia-aide/431384/6 "2007-12-27T20:16:59Z")
[QUOTE=ftg] There are scores of examples of would-be “rescuers” who give people pulled from a cold sea, e.g., a warm bit of tea and presto- dead person. [/QUOTE] Why is this? –FCOD ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothermia-aide/431384/7 "2007-12-28T14:18:13Z")
Thanks all. Warm and dry from the outside is the key; hospital can do the internal warming thing. ---
**Author:** ![Silence\_of\_the\_clams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Silence\_of\_the\_clams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silence_of_the_clams)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2007, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothermia-aide/431384/8 "2007-12-28T15:16:52Z")
To answer **FCOD** : Rapid shunting of cold blood from the periphery to the core as the direct result of vasodilation may cause the core temperature to drop. This phenomenon of a drop in temperature after initiation of therapy is termed core temperature after-drop. Prevention of vasodilation is the reason why it is imperative that the patient’s extremities not be rewarmed before the core. If vasodilation occurs, cold blood returning to the heart may be enough to put the patient into ventricular fibrillation. From [here](http://www.sarbc.org/hypo1.html) .