Yo~ Right now it’s freezing. Especially upstairs in my bedroom. I usually don’t mind it but today I dunno why I’ve got the chills. Anyways my question. This came to mind as I was having a sip of my drink. I’ve seen in movies & tv shows where it’s a cold night and there’s no heating. You’ve got characters huddled together, rubbing their hands while freezing their asses off. But don’t worry people they get through the night fine. How? Its because they have their best friend, the trusted bottle of alcohol. A few sips and they can somehow fight the cold. As I’ve never drank alcohol I don’t get how it works. How does drinking alcohol help them fight the cold? Does it somehow spread warmth through your body? Or it dulls their senses so they feel the cold less? Any one here experienced this themselves? What’s your choice of alcohol when you were cold?
If I remember correctly, alcohol dilates the blood vessels and improves its circulation, The result of that is the feeling of warmth spreading through the extremities but also increasing the rate of heat loss
When you've had (more than) enough, you don't feel it anymore. Though that usually leads to slight hypothermia and a cold. It's still better to just put on some more clothes and blankets. Even when you're drunk, warmth is more comfortable than cold.
Alcohol expands your veins, which increases your blood circulation. when you get cold, the veins in your extremities shrink/get smaller, so that the heat of your body is concentrated on your organs, which require more heat to keep funktioning and are more important. thorugh Alcohol you wont be cold at first because your extremeties are heated as well, but youd be freezing faster than without it.
Rather than short term effect I'd say it's a solution only when you're not in actual life threatening condition? It should be good if you just want to pass the night comfortably, but not if you're stranded in a blizzard
kinda. the organs and stuff work in a certain temperature range(not sure about the numbers), but its not like dropping a bit in temperature will have an immediate effect on them. the body only produces a limited amount of heat, if it looses more than it produces, it tries limiting its losses (i.e. the arms and legs arent supplied with more tha necessary). Alcohol stops the body from doing that. It isnt directly harmfull and you could probably say that it has the positive effect of not feeling cold as much, but the moment where you have problems because of heat loss occurrs faster than without it. its a bit of a trade, whats better depends on the situation.
Alcohol won't keep you warm, but you will feel the cold less since your body kinda numbs when you drink enough. Also I guess it heats up your throat for a bit if it's strong enough so breathing in doesn't feel as cold. Tl;Dr from my experience as night watchman, alcohol won't help with cold.
Rather than keeping you warm it is more likely to be used as a preventative for frostbite after you have come in from the cold I recommend investing in an electric blanket
Soak your hand in alcohol and light it. Will make you feel smoking hot But side effects are either ranging from 2nd to 3rd degree burns, damaged nerves, scarred skin etc.
the rubbing of hands inspires more blood flow and also warms a bit due to the friction cuddling together is obivous alcohol makes you feel warmer, but it's just that. a feeling. whether or not you freeze to death while feeling warm due to the alcohol is another matter idk how old you are, but I recommend drinking until you are drunk and have to vomit at least once in a safe environment where someone can help you, so when you do go out drinking you know your limit
One thing a lot of people haven't noted is the freezing point of alcohol. Alcoholic beverages freeze at a much lower temperature than water, which means that unless you keep said alcohol in a thermal container, it's probably the same temperature as the environment. If this is below zero then you're not only lowering your core body temperature drinking something cold, but if you're in the wilderness (say arctic conditions) the drink can actually kill you.
Actually it don't. Or rather it may just why they're dead out in the weather. Alcohol dilate blood vessel which make it harder to keep or became warm due to slower blood circulation. It also impaired central nervous system on regular drinker.