WEBVTT - Ep 186 Hypothermia Part 1: How it hurts 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:05.159 The cold was so intense. One constantly found men who, 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:08.119 overcome by the cold, had been forced to drop out 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.160 and had fallen to the ground, too weak or too 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:14.840 numb to stand. Ought one to help them along, which 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:19.360 practically meant carrying them. They begged one to let them alone. 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:22.880 There were bivouacs all along the road, ought one to 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:26.840 take them to a campfire. Once these poor wretches fell asleep, 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:30.240 they were dead. If they resisted the craving for sleep, 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:33.960 another passerby would help them along a little farther, thus 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:38.200 prolonging their agony for a short while, but not saving them. 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:42.000 For in this condition, the drowsiness engendered by cold is 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:48.720 irresistibly strong. Sleep comes inevitably, and to sleep is to die. 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:52.080 I tried in vain to save a number of these unfortunates. 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.000 The only words they uttered were to beg me for 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:58.200 the love of God, to go away and let them sleep. 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:03.120 To hear them, would have thought sleep was their salvation. Unhappily, 0:01:03.440 --> 0:01:07.120 it was a poor wretch's last wish. But at least 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:11.959 he ceased to suffer without pain or agony. Gratitude and 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:16.320 even a smile was imprinted on his discolored lips. What 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.280 I have related about the effects of extreme cold and 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:22.160 of this kind of death by freezing is based on 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:26.440 what I saw happen to thousands of individuals. The road 0:01:26.640 --> 0:02:00.200 was covered with their corpses. 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:19.280 What Aaron is that from? 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:25.520 That is from Napoleon's close advisor Armand de Callancourt about 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:28.720 the retreat from Moscow. And I'll talk a little bit 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:33.760 more about it, but it is it is horrific. Yeah, 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:40.720 the words can't adequately describe. Yeah. Hi, I'm Aaron Welsh. 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:42.160 And I'm Erin on Updyke. 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:44.160 And this is this podcast will kill You. 0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:50.040 Today's very uplifting episode. It's going to be about hypothermia. 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:54.120 It is about hypothermia. And it's one of two parts 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:59.000 because as we kind of were talking about hypothermia and 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:01.679 the effects of cold, and we thought, well, it's it's 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:05.360 unfair to paint cold in just one light. It's this 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:09.800 bad thing and hypothermia. So this is a two parter. 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:12.920 Part one is cold is bad and part two is 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:15.600 cold can be Good? Right? 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:19.760 Are those our titles? Because I love it. Part one 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:24.440 hypothermia cold is bad. Part two Cold is not always bad? 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:30.320 Yeah, Yeah, there's nuance even to cold. How about that? 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:35.520 I am excited. There's I feel like this is a 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.760 topic that we have not really I mean, I guess 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:42.640 we've done fever, but it's like so related to infection, 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:45.440 whereas this is just like what happens when your body 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:47.760 is stretched beyond its physiological lembits. I know. 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:50.880 And it's interesting because especially like, well at least you 0:03:50.920 --> 0:03:54.400 live somewhere where you probably are people are seeing hypothermia 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:56.000 more than like where I live. I'm like, how come 0:03:56.040 --> 0:04:01.440 we didn't choose heat stress as our first temperature because. 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:05.160 It is July. We're recording this quite early. It is July. 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:09.840 Like the heat. The heat is so strong. I am 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:13.320 in a long sleeve wool sweater with skiers on it. 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:17.760 You've got some deer also wool. Are they elk? 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.120 Not sure they're sweaty? You're sweat they are. 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:25.880 They're sweaty. Yeah, we are sweaty sweaters. But it also 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:29.960 was reading about hypothermia now and about the cold was 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:34.279 kind of like, oh, yeah, there is another temperature besides 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:38.880 besides heat ninety one degrees. Yeah. 0:04:39.080 --> 0:04:42.640 Yeah, Well we'll get into all of it, but first, 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:44.680 it's quarantine time. 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:51.359 What are we drinking this week? The uncommon cold? I 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:54.080 mean hypothermia is I'm sure you'll have stats later. It's not. 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:57.600 Yeah, I don't many stats honestly, but it's not that. 0:04:57.680 --> 0:04:59.400 It just very much depends on where you live. 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.240 But right right, yeah, it's not that's more uncommon than 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.800 the common cold. Yeah, okay, definitely, And we thought, in 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:10.560 light of the fact that cold can be bad and good, 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:13.720 we're going to do a cold blended drink, but that 0:05:13.800 --> 0:05:19.000 also has heated elements into it. Spicy. Yeah, so it's 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:20.839 like have an arrow margarita. 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:24.000 Yeah, blended blended, which is not my favorite kind of margarita. 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:26.000 So if you don't want that, don't do that. 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:27.640 Yeah, you do whatever you want. 0:05:27.760 --> 0:05:30.560 Listen. 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Go to the. 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.960 Exactly right YouTube channel and you can subscribe so you 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:26.920 never miss an episode. 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:32.880 Okay, moving on, Erin, tell me about the history of hypothermia. 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:37.360 What I mean, listen, I'm assuming we've always frozen. 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.680 Yeah, that's true, but we'll get into a little bit 0:06:40.680 --> 0:07:09.880 more of that good right after this break. Humans have 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:14.520 existed thrived, even on the farthest reaches of the Earth, 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:16.480 for tens of thousands of years. 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:17.640 True. 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:21.320 The earliest evidence of humans in the European Arctic, for example, 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:23.160 dates back forty thousand years. 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:25.760 Wow. Yeah, that's a long time. 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:28.200 There were It is a long time. There were mammoth 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:33.000 tusks with human made cuts, sliced wolf bones, stone artifacts, 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.360 and other animal bones with like clear human you know, 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:39.360 manipulation or whatever found above the Arctic Circle. 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:40.800 Pretty cool. 0:07:40.960 --> 0:07:43.239 That means that, like only a few thousand years after 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:46.400 humans reached Europe, they just kept right on heading north. 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:52.880 Okay, why just looking for something new? I guess by amos. 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:55.600 But I feel like if you have spent a winter 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.200 in or close to the Arctic, it might be like 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:02.440 which you have it's cut I have. Yeah, it's a 0:08:02.520 --> 0:08:06.240 natural question to ask. Even if you absolutely love the 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:09.040 winter and you long for the days to get shorter 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:11.640 so that you can break out your favorite pomp pom 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:14.840 wool hat and cozy sweaters, or even if you get 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:17.560 to see the southern or northern lights in the winter 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.640 and you love to snowshoe or ski, you have to 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.080 admit that the polar regions are not an easy place 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:30.000 to live, and they don't let you forget it. Grabbing 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:33.120 the wrong jacket before you step outside, losing a glove, 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:37.720 a window that's lost its insulating ability. These things don't 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:41.920 go unnoticed, at least not for very long. Whether immediately 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:46.840 or eventually, the cold makes itself known. It insinuates itself 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:50.640 into the nooks and crannies of your jacket, of your body, 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:54.720 the tips of noses, toes, fingers, and it settles into 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:57.760 your bones until you feel like you'll never be warm again. 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:00.319 That is the exact way that I would describe living 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:01.079 in Illinois. 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:07.800 Will I ever be warm against any like? 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.680 So many memories of that feeling of like your bones 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.400 being so cold, which I know they're not really, but 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:17.800 your bones being so cold that you don't it is 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:20.160 impossible to remember warmth. 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.640 Yeah, right now, it's impossible for me to remember cold, 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.800 even though I'm talking about it. I'm so so witty. 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:34.800 I'll have to try to remember this moment come February exactly. Yeah. 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.760 But I think that many of us lower latitude dwellers 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:39.840 have kind of a sense of awe, at least I 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:43.720 do for those living in the Antarctic and Arctic regions 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:47.440 of the world, because even with the warmest of jackets 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:51.800 and the most insulated of shelters, polar life exists on 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:55.240 a knife edge, where even the tiniest thing can tip 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:59.040 the scales, turning a minor mistake or a minor accident 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:04.440 into a fatal outcome. I cruised the Wikipedia page for 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:09.600 hypothermia related deaths, which is quite morbid, I know, and 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:12.600 the one thing that really stuck out to me was 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:16.000 just how easily it can happen. I went through and 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:18.120 I like read different people's stories and it was just 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:22.640 like and then on one wrong step, yeah, and that 0:10:22.760 --> 0:10:26.200 was it. That was it. And how powerless you are 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:31.240 when the cold really sets in. And yet many species 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:35.600 call these polar regions their home, not just humans. Why 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:38.240 would an animal live in a place that is so brutal, 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:42.160 so unforgiving, although not all the time, as we'll see, 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:47.000 there are all sorts of reasons. Maybe it's more available, habitat, 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:51.400 less competition for resources, escape from predators, escape from parasites, 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:56.079 a combination, or something else entirely, But for this episode, 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:59.920 the why isn't as interesting to me as the how, 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.080 Like how can species live at the ends of the earth, 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:06.800 not just like eking out a meager existence, but flourishing 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:13.240 despite the deadly cold. Humans have innovated incredible clothing, shelter, transportation, 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:17.720 and tools to help protect from freezing temperatures, and animals 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:25.200 have evolved a vast array of strategies anatomical, physiological behavioral 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:30.400 to resist hypothermia and other harmful consequences of cold, like frostbite. 0:11:31.440 --> 0:11:34.640 Would you like to learn about some of these thrilled? 0:11:35.760 --> 0:11:40.160 Thrilled to learn about these one way is just to 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:43.280 avoid it. Just migrate the heck out of it. Birds. 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:46.640 Birds love this, they're big fans of the migration. 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:47.000 Yeah. 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:49.360 And some bats and you know, other things, but way 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:54.680 big for birds. Yeah. And then there's torpor, which includes 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:58.360 hibernation and dormancy. Basically, an animal just turns down the 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:01.600 dials on body temperature, activity and metabolism to get through 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:07.400 the winter. Bears, ground squirrels, bats, some frogs. And then 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:11.120 there's cold resistance, so like you keep operating mostly as 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:14.640 normal during the cold months, but you just bump up 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:18.760 your your own systems, your defense against Yeah, and that 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.760 would be something like arctic foxes, polar bears and so on. 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:25.760 And these strategies they're not mutually exclusive. You can have 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:27.560 a little bit of this and a little bit of that. 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:30.760 And there's also a great variation within some of these, 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:34.000 So like hibernating black bears only drop their body temperature 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:38.400 by a few degrees celsius, while some mammals, small mammals 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:43.079 drop temperatures twenty to thirty degrees celcish body temperatures. What 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:47.360 oh it gets it gets better. Wood frogs, Oh, do 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:49.319 you know about wood? Yes, I know about wood. Frogs. 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:51.880 Who does it? But no, lots of people don't. I 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:54.480 had I had to refresh my memory because the stats 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:56.400 are I was like, this can't be. I was like, 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:58.960 I need to fact check this right multiple places. 0:12:59.040 --> 0:12:59.840 I love this real. 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:04.120 They're the Hall of Famers for dormancy. They survive freezing 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:08.560 temperatures below minus twenty celsius for months on end, like 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:14.440 seven months, seven merely freezing, Yeah, nearly freezing solid. Fifty 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:18.040 to sixty five percent of their body water is frozen. Wow, 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:23.120 just frozen. Yeah. These are frogs that live above the 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:28.520 Arctic circle. What what Like? I just can't get over it. 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:32.320 And then you've got the fish that avoid freezing in 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:36.160 Antarctic waters by using anti freeze proteins that let them 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:41.920 keep swimming around. Other animals like polar bears, ptarmigan wolves 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:44.760 and hares make simple burrows in the snow to help 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:45.439 with insulation. 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:48.040 Question, which is, yeah, what's a ptarmagan? 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:55.000 It's a bird? Okay, thank you. Yeah, they're really cute. Yes, 0:13:56.840 --> 0:14:00.600 or sometimes they'll employ bagel formation, which is not the 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:03.280 technical term, but I love those. Okay. It's like where 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:05.480 you make yourself into a tiny ball, like a little 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:08.559 ball to trap heat like the doggies do you Yeah, okay, exactly, 0:14:08.600 --> 0:14:11.280 you just tuck your little nose and you're in bagel formation. 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:17.520 Bagel formation. And then other animals that live in colonies, 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:21.840 like walruses and penguins, they'll huddle together for warmth, especially 0:14:21.880 --> 0:14:23.359 baby emperor penguins. 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:25.360 Yes, they're very cute. 0:14:26.000 --> 0:14:31.480 They're very cute. Thick fur and blubber help to reduce 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.560 heat loss, as do changes in the circulatory system or 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:37.600 even the type of hemoglobin that an animal has, So 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:41.240 like pretty cool, yeah, because of and then there's like 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:44.520 circulatory changes, so because there are these specialized changes in 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:48.760 blood flow in pawpads of Arctic wolves and foxes that 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:51.000 allows them to stand on the ground that has a 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:54.560 temperature of minus fifty celsius but their feet don't freeze 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:59.960 or become damaged. What I don't know. And then nasal cavities. 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:02.680 I didn't realize that, like the shape of a nasal 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:05.320 cavity could be so important, but it is. 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:07.440 I feel like I remember learning this at some point. 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:11.280 Tell me about it, Aaron, Okay, okay, So reindeer have 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:15.360 nasal cavities that warm the air before it enters the 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:17.720 body and it sort of like warms it and then 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:21.800 there's like water condensation, right, But then instead of losing 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:27.160 that heat and water to the environment, they also somehow 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.360 cool the air before it leaves, and so you're basically 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:33.160 conserving heat and water because of the way that they're 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:39.520 nasal cavities. Oh that's fascinating. Yeah. Babies of Arctic animals 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:43.320 are born well equipped with extra warm fur or feathers 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:46.960 or brown adipose tissue that keeps them super warm, and 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:52.440 mom will also often provision them with super fatty milk. 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:57.040 One of my go to fun facts to share at 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:00.800 a cocktail party is that some whale milk is so fatty, 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:03.600 like thirty to sixty percent fat, that it has the 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:08.120 consistency of toothpastete. That's one of my favorite things too. Yeah, 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:08.800 just I love it. 0:16:09.240 --> 0:16:11.560 Baby whales lap it up toothpaste in the ocean. 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:14.600 I mean, I think it also must help with like 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:19.640 not just just diluting into the environment. Yeah, so they 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:23.920 can kind of like yeah, get it. Yeah, But for comparison, 0:16:24.040 --> 0:16:27.480 human breast milk is like four percent fat compared to 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:29.720 thirty to sixty for some whales. 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:32.640 Like imagine the lipped cream you could make oh my, I. 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.520 Mean it's already whipped, right, it's like solid, Like, what 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:37.280 do you do, It's like butter, It's just butter. Yeah, 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:43.200 it's actually just butter. Okay, So one last fun fact 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.240 before I get to humans. One of the major challenges 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.240 with living in polar regions is food availability. It's not 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.880 always reliable, and in those times of scarcity, you're not 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:56.440 only expending energy trying to find food, you're also using 0:16:56.480 --> 0:17:00.320 more energy staying warm. And some Arctic species deal with 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.240 this by cashing food. So like one arctic fox hoard 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:07.320 had one hundred and thirty six seabirds and then yeah. 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:10.119 It was just like little He's like, listen, they're frozen. 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:12.080 They're going to keep don't worry about it. Yeah, I 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:14.360 feel through the wind chest freezer. 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:21.119 This is my cost code. Yeah. And an ermine was 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:23.840 found to have hidden over one hundred and fifty lemmings 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:26.240 as white. 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:27.880 You know, I still like, I know that a lemming 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:29.600 is an animal, but I have no idea what they 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:33.080 look like. I cannot picture a lemming. 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:35.199 Little rodenty things. I only do you. 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:38.760 Remember that game the lemmings going over a cliff? 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:41.760 You don't remember this game? No, there was it was 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:44.679 on what hard on what device? 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:48.320 Computer computer? It was a computer game where there's I 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:50.560 think they were they were called lemmings, but they were 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:54.080 like little people looking things and they just were going. 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:56.399 Over a cliff. If you, oh, no, I'm going to 0:17:56.440 --> 0:18:00.000 need to look this up. I feel great. I feel wow. Yeah. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.440 Is it like Ski Free era? You remember that game 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:04.720 with the Yes? 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:07.119 Okay, I don't know if it was same era. I 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:07.760 have no idea. 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:12.080 Okay, sorry, we'll have to We'll have to find it. 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:13.800 That's what I think of when I think of vings, 0:18:13.880 --> 0:18:15.760 and that's why I can't like picture that there's an 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:16.920 animal called letting. 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:23.080 Just pictured tiny humans just okay, I don't think they 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:27.880 look like miniature humans with little like gnome hats on. No, 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:36.320 I don't believe that they have constructed nome hats irl okay, okay. 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:40.119 So another besides casing food and lemmings uh not with 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:44.560 no mats, another approach is storing extreme amounts of fat, 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:48.720 so seal pups undergo something called catastrophic molting, which sounds 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.480 a lot scarier than it actually is. They just lose 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:53.600 all their fur at once, and then they have to 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.359 wait a while to grow back a new layer, and 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:58.200 so during that time they can't go in the water 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:03.000 for food because they'll get hypothermia, so they don't eat. Oh, 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.560 they can go fifty two days without food or water. 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:11.080 Wow, and that Wow, it's a really long time. 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:14.879 It's a really long time. And so my point with 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:18.040 all of this, besides being able to share with everyone 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:20.879 the whale milk toothpaste fun fact, so that you have 0:19:20.960 --> 0:19:23.800 something to share at like, you know, the next round 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:25.879 table ice breaker type thing. 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:28.400 And the wood frogs icebreaker, but wood. 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.200 Frogs, my god, icebreaker would also have been a good quarantine. 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:31.440 Wow. 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:37.760 Anyway, Yeah, that animals have evolved. My whole point is 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:40.960 that animals have evolved an incredible array of ways to 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:45.760 deal with the cold, and unfortunately humans lag behind in 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:49.400 this respect. And so under the right set of circumstances, 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:53.280 our body struggles to warm itself, our temperature drops and 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:57.479 we slip into hypothermia, which is something that we've been 0:19:57.480 --> 0:20:00.280 doing for as long as we've been human. So even 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:01.879 though I just spent a good deal of time in 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:05.680 the polar regions with polar animals, you can get hypothermia 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:09.880 anywhere on Earth. Some of the earliest references to hypothermia 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:14.040 come from ancient Greece, which is certainly not arctic. Hippocrates, 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:17.560 of course, noted the benefits of cold, but also the 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:21.879 dangers quote cold is bad for the bones, teeth, nerves, brain, 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:25.600 and the spinal cord. In four point fifty BCE, the 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:30.399 Greek historian Herodotus wrote about soldiers dying in a sea expedition. 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:35.160 Quote some were seized by these sea monsters and so perished, 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:38.040 while others were dashed against the rocks, and some of 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:40.280 them did not know how to swim, and perished for 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:46.040 that cause, others again by reason of cold end quote seamusters. 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:50.720 War has always been a bad spot for hypothermia. In fact, 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:55.639 most historical records of hypothermia come from various wars throughout history. 0:20:55.720 --> 0:21:00.480 In two eighteen BCE, Hannibal's army of twelve thousand cavalry, 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:04.800 ninety thousand infantry, and forty elephants was cut down to 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:09.480 nineteen thousand men and some uncertain number of elephants during 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:11.800 their march over the Alps, with many of them dying 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:18.440 of cold. During the American Revolutionary War, countless soldiers suffered 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:22.359 frostbite and hypothermia, especially during the winter of seventeen seventy 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:25.480 seven seventeen seventy eight, when nearly a fifth of the 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:29.680 eleven thousand men who retreated into Valley Forge did not 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:33.159 have shoes or boots at all. Oh, I just imagine 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:36.560 that in the winter. No, I can't imagine that. And 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:41.240 then there's Napoleon's army, this retreat from Moscow in eighteen twelve. 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:45.840 So he this is like where this is infamous, and 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:48.120 we've talked about this in several other times of the podcast. 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:52.359 Napoleon and his army started out in June with nearly 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:56.480 half a million soldiers. By the time they had gotten 0:21:56.560 --> 0:22:00.960 to Moscow in late fall, numbers had dwindled pretty substantially 0:22:01.000 --> 0:22:05.000 by at least one hundred thousand. But when they arrived, 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:10.359 they found a burned out, abandoned city, no opportunity to restock, 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:15.680 to refuel, no food, nothing. The Russian forces had adopted 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:18.240 this like scorched earth tactic, and that would prove to 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:21.320 be Napoleon's downfall. So he waited around a bit just 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:23.040 trying to figure out what do I do here? Do 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:23.520 we stay? 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:24.000 Do we go? 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:25.879 And then was like, you know what, we should just 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:28.560 get back to France. So a retreat to France. That 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:32.240 was the move. The army started back in October, still 0:22:32.359 --> 0:22:35.800 dressed in their summer uniforms, and they pushed through the 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:39.840 snow and ice and frozen rivers in November through December 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:45.399 and even into January. Count Philippe Paul de Segur, a 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:49.439 brigadier an aid to Napoleon, wrote, quote, Russian winter in 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:53.160 this new guy's attacked them on all sides. It cut 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:56.760 through their thin uniforms and worn shoes. Their wet clothing 0:22:56.880 --> 0:23:00.159 froze on them, and this icy shroud molded them their 0:23:00.200 --> 0:23:03.840 bodies and stiffen their limbs. The sharp wind made them 0:23:03.960 --> 0:23:07.040 gasp for breath and froze the moisture from their mouths 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:11.840 and nostrils into icicles on their beards end. Quote. By 0:23:11.880 --> 0:23:14.640 the time they got back to France, all that remained 0:23:14.680 --> 0:23:18.960 of Napoleon's five hundred thousand troops was ten thousand. Oh 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:24.640 my gosh. Yeah, some died in battle, others from their 0:23:24.680 --> 0:23:28.040 injuries or infections. If you remember back to our Typhus episode, 0:23:28.080 --> 0:23:32.639 that was a major, major killer, but many succumbed to 0:23:32.680 --> 0:23:37.320 the cold. A frost bitten and constantly water logged foot 0:23:37.480 --> 0:23:40.200 turned gangrenous with the infections spreading to the rest of 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:43.879 the body. A raid on a liquor store allegedly killed 0:23:43.880 --> 0:23:46.879 eight hundred soldiers who imbibed a bit too much and 0:23:46.920 --> 0:23:49.320 fell asleep in the snow. At the time, it was 0:23:49.359 --> 0:23:52.199 thought that alcohol was warming and helped stave off the 0:23:52.240 --> 0:23:54.919 negative effects of the cold, although I'm not sure they 0:23:54.960 --> 0:23:58.119 were drinking it as medicine. And by the way, it 0:23:58.200 --> 0:24:01.400 is not warming. It is not what you should use 0:24:01.520 --> 0:24:03.920 to treat someone suffering from hypodermy. 0:24:03.960 --> 0:24:06.919 Alcohol actually can can There's actually thought that not just 0:24:07.000 --> 0:24:10.600 the risk of you know, drowsiness or falling asleep or 0:24:10.960 --> 0:24:13.560 you know, making decisions about what clothes you might wear 0:24:13.680 --> 0:24:15.720 that are impaired because of the effects of alcohol, there's 0:24:15.760 --> 0:24:18.480 actually thought that the alcohol, the effects of alcohol itself 0:24:18.840 --> 0:24:21.199 also contribute to hypothermia. 0:24:21.440 --> 0:24:25.480 Yeah, so more heat loss exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. 0:24:25.640 --> 0:24:28.879 And then there was also just poor nutrition and grueling 0:24:28.920 --> 0:24:32.160 conditions that took many others just after they drifted off 0:24:32.200 --> 0:24:36.399 to sleep. One of Napoleon's surgeons wrote quote, the first 0:24:36.440 --> 0:24:40.240 hours of sleep offered deceptive delight, precursor to the grave 0:24:40.320 --> 0:24:43.760 that yawned for them. Far from finding safety in the 0:24:43.800 --> 0:24:47.080 sweets of sleep, they were seized and benumbed by cold, 0:24:47.440 --> 0:24:50.560 and never saw daylight. More along the road, in the 0:24:50.600 --> 0:24:54.680 neighboring ditches of fields were perceived human carcasses, heaped up 0:24:54.760 --> 0:24:59.000 and lying at random in fives, then fifteens, and twenties 0:24:59.640 --> 0:25:04.280 of as had perished during the night end quote. No 0:25:04.320 --> 0:25:07.120 one was spared, not even the surgeons, who wrote how 0:25:07.160 --> 0:25:09.760