 As soon as you can, he's got something to hold on to. People who live in the north, who live, work, and play on or near cold water or in cold weather should be ready to deal with hypothermia, to know what it is, know how to prevent it, how to recognize it, and how to treat it. Whether you realize it or not, most of us have been hypothermic at one time or another. When was the last time you shivered from the cold? Did it take hours or just a few minutes? Hypothermia can develop slowly or very quickly. Hypothermia is an injury that is just beginning to be understood by modern scientists. Hypothermia is the lowering of the body core temperature. The core is the critical inter portion of the body, including the heart, brain, and lungs. The core is where life remains if there is any chance for survival. Before you can understand hypothermia, you need to know that the circulatory system controls the body temperature, much like a hot water heating system does in a home. When the arms or legs get cold, the core sends warm blood out to rewarm them. The core can't afford to send out more warm blood without cooling itself. It then reduces blood flow to these areas in order to minimize its own heat loss. However, if too much heat is lost from the body, it will die. We can prevent hypothermia in two ways. By adding heat or by making our shelter more efficient to prevent the loss of body heat. Clothes are our most efficient shelter to protect our body from the environment. If our clothing is adequate, our body core temperature can be maintained by body heat alone and not require another heat source. If our clothing is inadequate, we add a little water, a little wind. You can see how dangerously cold people can get. The main areas of the body to protect from heat loss are the head, neck, armpits, sides, and groin. Because they are the areas of greatest heat loss. The old saying, to cover your head when your feet get cold, makes a lot of sense if you know that over half of the body heat loss is through the head. You know, it's really sad that people spend hundreds of dollars on recreational gear, but only a fraction of that on adequate clothing. Clothing that could protect them from a dangerous and common killer, cold. The best prevention for hypothermia is to stay dry. If you're wet, get dry. If you're in the water, get out, or at least get as much of your body out as possible. Water will rob the body's heat 25 times faster than air at the same temperature. If you're in the water without a survival suit, to slow heat loss, keep the head and neck out of the water. The best way to do that is to wear some type of protective flotation device or lifesaver that keeps the head and neck up. Another important posture protects the groin and armpits from cold water circulation. This is the heat escape lessening posture called the help position. For a group, a good posture is to huddle. It protects the armpits and groin and keeps non-flowing water in the center, which increases survival time. A posture to avoid is one called drownproofing. This is where you put your hands behind your back, you deep breathe, and you bob underwater. This will work in warm water. And he's cold Alaska waters, it won't work any time of the year. You actually lose body heat faster because your neck and your head is underwater. You can also keep more of your body out of the water by clinging to something. Another person, a part of the boat, a log, even a floating dead friend, he can save your life. If help is close by, don't swim. It will reduce your survival time in cold water. Each stroke you swim circulates cold water around your body. Your ability to swim becomes less each time you stroke. In midwinter, 30 to 33 degree water, it's doubtful that a person could swim more than 50 feet. Okay, take a minute. Get those clothes off of him. How do you recognize that someone is hypothermic? The symptoms of hypothermia include feeling cold, shivering, the loss of coordination, slurred or unusual speech, confusion, impaired judgment, and near the end, feelings of warmth and euphoria, sort of a natural high. In time, the person becomes unconscious. The heart beats erratically, resulting in death by what appears to be a heart attack. In the field, you don't have a means of measuring body core temperature and other vital signs. You cannot rely on symptoms alone to decide how severe the case of hypothermia is. For example, some people don't shiver. And also the victim may not believe he has hypothermia. If a person is improperly sheltered from cold or wet conditions, and he might be hypothermic, it makes good sense to treat him for hypothermia. Hey, Red, give me a hand. Red, give me a hand. Unfortunately, many of the old treatments can be dangerous. Really, we're going all right. For example, don't rewarm the whole body by putting the victim in a hot shower. A hot shower or tub rewarms the surface of arms and legs. This sends a message to the body that it's okay to open circulation to those cold extremities. Vital warm blood sent from the core rapidly cools as it passes through cold arms and legs. When it gets back to the heart, that shot of cold blood can cause an unusual heartbeat, which results in the heart muscle starting to shiver rather than pump. The patient then has a heart attack. Another old treatment is to give alcohol. It's also dangerous. Like a hot shower, it fools the body into thinking it's warm when it isn't. Want to give him some coffee? In fact, any liquid can be dangerous because the hypothermia victim is not just cold. He may also be in shock, and you can't give any liquid to a shock victim. He could throw it up, draw the vomit into his lungs, and die from aspiration pneumonia. It must be real easy with him. So, to treat hypothermia safely, be slow and gentle. High feel, Hank. Don't jar the victim. A hypothermia victim who was being rewarmed should be treated very gently. A sudden jar or shock can also cause an apparent heart attack. It is a fact that even though treatment is progressing, a hypothermia victim's body temperature continues to drop before it starts to rise again. The victim is very vulnerable at this time. To rewarm a hypothermia victim, use only those treatments that are always safe. The first part of treatment is to take them out of the cold to prevent further heat loss. At this point, the body may not be able to rewarm itself. Blankets will not rewarm a cold body. They only insulate. You need a heat source. First, wrap the cold arms and legs to keep them from rewarming too quickly as you attempt to rewarm the body core of the victim. Then, rewarm the high heat loss areas, the head, neck, armpits, sides, and groin of the victim. The most effective safe way to rewarm hypothermia victims in the field is to use warm objects and body-to-body rewarming. Warm objects are literally anything that is warm, including warm rocks, lukewarm hot water bottles, warm heating pads, warm packs, or even warm potatoes. But be careful. Be absolutely sure that the objects are not hot. You can burn the victim because of their cold-induced numbness. Hypothermia victims won't be able to tell you if the object is too hot. Check on it yourself, like you would a baby's bath. If it feels uncomfortably warm to you, it's too hot for the victim. This one task gets us under a snack. Stocking cap, ready? Yes. Just head up and slide it on. Okay, take this. Okay. Stay in the bank, let your head down nice and easy. Let's see if we can't start warming up the sides. Let's go body-to-body, just get your shirt off the way. Body-to-body rewarming is when one or more warm, healthy people embrace the victim within some insulated shelters such as blankets or a sleeping bag. If this treatment is used, one should continue the treatment for at least an hour. Okay, just take it easy now. We're gonna stay here until you get a little bit warmer, okay? A little bit, stay there forever, wow. Okay. These rewarming treatments are safe, slow, and gentle. Don't rush them, and be sure to protect the victim from further cold and from shocks or sudden moves. To safely live and survive in a cold environment, you have to know about hypothermia. Hypothermia is the lowering of body core temperature. It's prevented by having adequate shelter for the body, proper clothing. Recognize hypothermia by the victim's physical symptoms and their exposure to the environmental conditions that cause it. Avoid total rewarming of the body. Do not give any liquids, especially hot liquids or alcohol. It's treated with warm objects or body-to-body rewarming, which is safe, slow, and gentle. Hypothermia is a physical condition. It affects the body. Yet a victim's will to live is often the decisive factor in whether or not they will survive. Well, I always thought survival was physical. You know, if he was really strong, you could make it. But for some reason, I just said to myself, all right, heck, I'm breathing, I'm alive, I'm gonna stay with it as long as I can. I did have a lot of water in my soup. I already had hypothermia before I hit the beach. And mainly, it was really hard because I couldn't swim. I didn't have no goal. It was just lay back in the water for the night and see where I was in the daytime. And of course, I didn't know if I'd be near land or not. I was hoping I would be. And it just got to be a battle with myself thinking of the positive things. It's a fact that people with mild cases of hypothermia have apparently given up and died while others have survived under conditions we'd never believe possible. To know what it is, know how to prevent it, how to recognize it, and how to treat it. When was the last time you shivered from the cold? Don't take your eye off of him. Hypothermia is the lowering of the body core temperature. The best prevention for hypothermia is to stay dry. Get those gloves off of him. It makes good sense to treat him for hypothermia. Give me a hand. Many of the old treatments can be dangerous. Go on, all right. Don't rewarm the whole body by putting the victim in a hot shower. Want to give him some coffee? And can't give any liquid to a shocked victim. How you feeling, Hank? Go on, man. Be slow and gentle. Blankets will not rewarm a cold body. You need a heat source, lukewarm hot water bottles, warm heating pads, warm packs, or even warm potatoes. Okay, just take it easy now. We're gonna stay here until you get a little bit warmer, okay? I'll stay there forever, wow.