The old image of a St Bernard dog with a barrel of brandy (not rum) around his neck dates back to before the second world war. The idea was, that if you are cold, brandy makes you feel warm, so it was assumed to be good for you if you had hypothermia. In fact the mechanism by which you feel warm is the transfer of warm blood from the body core to the surface of the skin, where it gives you a warm glow - just before you die.
During the second world war, research was done to discover why sailors rescued from cold seas were more likely to die than if they were left untreated. The treatment at the time was to warm the body up as quickly as possible and administer alcohol.
When the body temperature drops, the body's reaction is to close down blood flow to the limbs so that the heart and brain can continue to function. This continues until there is once again sufficient energy available to cope with the heart, brain and skin surface. If anything is done to create blood flow to the extremities before the body is ready, the heart and brain can cool catatophically and death can occur. Therefore the correct treatment for hypothermia is to GRADUALLY increase the skin temperature at the same time as giving high sugar liquids such as very sweet beverages.
So if you come across a person with hypothemia, steer well clear of the temptation to give them alcohol.
(pretty kewl huh...??? :0 )
