Paradoxical Undressing
More Articles Related to SafetyVictims of even slight hypothermia often exhibit altered states of judgment, which is known in mountaineering circles as being "cold stupid". One common but especially bizarre behavior of hypothermia victims is a conundrum known as "paradoxical undressing".
As you may know, the general causes of hypothermia are a decrease in body heat production, an increase in the loss of body heat, and the inability of the body to regulate its core temperature. (For more information read the Survival Topic How Body Heat is Lost).
Paradoxical undressers remove their warm clothing even as they are freezing to death
Hypothermia can happen anytime the ambient temperature is below that of the body, and is a common occurance in winter survival. If your clothing becomes wet the cooling effect of evaporation can greatly increase the chance of becoming hypothermic.
Paradoxical undressing is when the person removes warm clothing while in a state of hypothermia, which further increases heat loss. Because they are suffering from the cold and their body temperature is below the safe threshold, it seems incongruous that they would be removing warm clothing and causing themselves to become even colder.
To be sure, the phenomenon of paradoxical undressing is an enigma counter to expected behavior. With their core temperature below 90 degrees F, hypothermia sufferers frequently undress themselves. Urban victims of hypothermia that are found in a state of undress are often thought to be victims of assault.
The recent James Kim tragedy is one of the more well known recent cases of paradoxical undressing. Kim was found laying in the snow, having succumbed to hypothermia while attempting to walk out from his snowbound car. He had taken off several items of clothing, including his pants.
Why does paradoxical undressing occur in hypothermia victims? Why are they often found in various states of undress when they should logically be wearing as much clothing as possible?
Physiology of Paradoxical Undressing
To understand the mystery of why hypothermia victims exhibit paradoxical undressing, we need to know something of how the body attempts to protect itself when stressed by the cold.
As your body becomes colder, it shunts blood away from your extremities and into your warm core in order to protect vital organs. This is why your feet and hands will often become cold first.
Shunting blood to your core and away from your extremities is accomplished through vasoconstriction of your peripheral circulation. This allows the outer portions of your body to become better at insulating your core, since it is losing less heat to the outside world.
And now the key to what causes paradoxical undressing. Vasoconstriction occurs when the smooth muscles within the vasculature contract. This effort requires a steady input of energy in the form of glucose from the body's energy stores. However, due to a lack of blood now traveling to these muscles, they eventually tire. As the muscles of the constricted blood vessels run out of energy, they fatigue, relax, and open up. This is known as vasodilation.
With vasodilation of the blood vessels, an infusion of warm blood from the core of the body rushes into the peripheral extremities. This causes the hypothermia victim to feel overly warm and to start shedding layers of clothing, contrary to the reality that their body temperature is continuing to drop.
The victim's warm blood rushing from their core, coupled with the removal of warm clothing, causes their body temperature to fall even faster. This serves to hasten death from hypothermia and results in another case of paradoxical undressing.
Mountaineers with hypothermia have been known to push aside warm clothing and resist rescuers' efforts to warm them. It is interesting to note that there are no known hypothermia victims who have reached the stage of paradoxical undressing and survived without outside intervention.
Always Bring a Survival Kit
Now that we know what causes paradoxical undressing, we need to know how to keep from arriving at that stage of hypothermia to begin with.
First and foremost, be sure to always have your survival kit on hand when you venture into the wilderness. Your survival kit should have the basics: extra food, water, warm dry clothing, means of building a fire, and means of making a shelter. You should also have the means to signal would be rescuers, navigational aids like maps, a compass, and even a GPS unit.
It goes without saying that you must also know how to use the items in your survival kit.
The contents of a survival kit are some of your best insurance against hypothermia. For more info about your survival kit and equipment you should always have with you when in the wilderness. read the Survival Topics article about the 15 essentials.
Sweden
Denver
NJ
NH
Northern New Hampshire USA
Hoboken
The tallest tower in the highest city
Chicago
new jersey
Afghanistan
Atlanta
Winnipeg Canada
Vail, CO
Survival State
London
Arkansas
Texas
Maryland
NYC
Earth
Tenn
Cuba
earth
Sweden
Forensic Pathologist, Manipal, India
Good description in simple language !!
Tianjin, P.R.C
Interesting! So if the person feels warm, even when they are in extreme cold and do not undress, is there chances of surviving Paradoxical Undressing? What is the core temperature of the victim at the point when they undress?
Survival Topics: This is the last ditch effort by the body to save itself. However at this point the victim usually cannot act rationally - they are removing clothing even as they are freezing to death - and will not survive without outside intervention.
Usually paradoxical undressing occurs when the core temperature of the body is below 90° F (32° C). By flushing heat from the core, the surface of the skin may actually become warmer.
Alabama
I think the point of the article is to try and teach us that we need to do something before we reach the state of paradoxical undressing.
You are welcome to share this Survival Topic with others. I only request that you use a short blurb (not the entire survival content) and this code to
link to the origional:
s. carolina