Polar Bear Plunge Physiology: What A Cold Water Dip On New Year’s Day Does To Your Body

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Cold water swimming enthusiasts love the rush that comes with a near-freezing dip. Anda polar bear plunge does do lots of things to make you feel invigorated, says Christopher Tedeschi, an emergency physician at Columbia University Medical Center. But from your bodys perspective, a racing heart and gasping breath signal not so much excitement as self-preservation.

It doesnt even take near-freezing water to provoke a physiological response anything under 70 degrees Fahrenheit can be considered cold, according to Tedeschi. Hypothermia wont set in unless you plan on floating around for around an hour, but your body will still react very quickly to a sudden immersion.

What happens in the first one to two minutes is what we call the cold shock response, Tedeschi says. Your body reacts by getting very revved up.

The first and most immediate sign of this metabolic turbo-drive can be seen in the respiratory system. As soon as a person rushes or jumps into frigid water, he begins taking big gasps of breath. If a person cant get his breathing under control, he might start to hyperventilate within a minute or so.

In those first few minutes, your core body temperature wont change very much, but your surface temperature will start to drop. Your body reacts to this by constricting blood vessels near the skin. Constricting these blood vessels is a way for your body to try and conserve all the warmth that it can by bringing warm blood towards the heart and brain -- to do so, it has to cut down on the blood flowing at the periphery of your body. (You can see the opposite effect on summer days, when your blood vessels dilate, transferring heat from your core out towards the skin, dissipating heat and giving you a nice rosy flush.) This blood vessel constriction also affects your nerves, which might cause a pins-and-needles feeling or numbness.

This effect on nerves may also temporarily make it harder for you to make precise motions right after a freezing dip. Five minutes after being immersed in cold water, most people cant put a key in a lock, Tedeschi says.

While you might be tempted to prepare for a polar bear plunge by extending your New Years Eve drinking into the wee hours, you should probably resist the urge. Your body will thank you.

Being drunk for anything temperature-related is bad, Tedeschi says.

In addition to impairing a person's judgment, alcohol is whats called a vasodilator it opens up your blood vessels (hence people get flushed after having a few). So, the effects of being drunk are going to interfere with your body's efforts to constrict your blood vessels after you plunge into icy water. And while the feeling of vasoconstriction might be a bit painful, its a natural effort your bodys making to try and preserve your vital organs, even in the midst of your decidedly non-sober judgment. All in all, a drunk polar bear plunger might stay in longer than is healthier for him or her, and will probably lose heat faster.

So, being drunk is probably not the best condition to attempt a polar bear plunge. Being hungover probably isnt as bad, but a person recovering from a night of drinking will likely be dehydrated and metabolically not at their best, Tedeschi says.

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Polar Bear Plunge Physiology: What A Cold Water Dip On New Year's Day Does To Your Body

7 Amazing Christmas Kinder Surprise Eggs SMURFS cars, comets Unwrapping Review Chocolate Easter Toys – Video

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7 Amazing Christmas Kinder Surprise Eggs SMURFS cars, comets Unwrapping Review Chocolate Easter Toys
Visit the channel:https://www.youtube.com/user/SurprisesKinder/videos 7 Amazing SMURFS Christmas Kinder Surprise Eggs Unwrapping Review Chocolate Easter Toys...

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Comets Welcome New Year

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December 31, 2013 - Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) Missouri Comets INDEPENDENCE, MO (December 31, 2013) - The Missouri Comets head to Rochester, New York for their first match this season against the Rochester Lancers on January 1st at 2:00p.m. CT. The team is looking to rebound after a disappointing loss at home last Saturday. The Comets currently sit tied for third place on the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) table with a 4-2 record. The Lancers are tied for fifth place with a 3-5 record.

This is the Comets first trip to the east coast this season. Rochester wasn't very friendly to the team in their trips out there last season. Missouri was outscored 41-25 in two trips to the Upstate New York city. However, this year's team has an improved offense that is currently tops in the league. The Comets have scored 115 points in six games, nearly 20 points per game. They have six players among the MISL's top 25 scorers, including two players in the top three. Captain Vahid Assadpour leads the team with 32 points. Right behind him is forward Leo Gibson who has scored six goals in the past three games.

Rochester is led by midfielder Gary Boughton with seven goals and 15 points. Defensively, they rely on Jake Schindler and JP Rodrigues to keep shots away from their net. Rodrigues, who spent the last several seasons with the Milwaukee Wave, has only played three games with the Lancers, but made an immediate impact, scoring a goal and an assist in his first match with the club.

The special New Year's Day game is scheduled for a 2:00p.m. CT kickoff. A live broadcast of the match can be found on the Comets website at CometsIndoorSoccer.com/Live-Feed. The team plays another road game on Friday January 3rd, this time at the Baltimore Blast, before returning home for round two against the Lancers at home on Sunday January 5th at 3:10p.m. CT.

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Comets Welcome New Year

Comets Corner: Kellan Lain

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December 31, 2013 - American Hockey League (AHL) Utica Comets As the year 2013 comes to a close, Utica Comet Kellan Lain looks to continue his recent success into the New Year. The rookie center has nine points throughout 29 games in his first full season pro (5-4-9), with three of those goals coming in his last five games. Those three goals also started off the scoring for the Comets, as Lain got them on the board first three times in a row. "It's always important to get off to a strong start and getting the first goal is huge for momentum," Lain stated. "The first goal is always crucial."

A native of Oakville, Ontario, Lain played 13 games with the Chicago Wolves last season and racked up six penalty minutes. He has also served as an enforcer for the Comets this season, totaling 73 PIMs in 29 games played. When asked how his transition went from college level hockey to the pro level, Lain explained, "It's a huge jump. The [pro] game is played at a very high speed and you have less time to make decisions on the ice. Players are older and more experienced and know the game, so every day, you need to come to the rink and focus on getting better." Lain's biggest focus since turning pro has been on his consistency. He explained how challenging it is to constantly put points on the board, and that becoming stronger both mentally and physically will help him reach a higher level of play.

Lain also credited some of his recent success to his linemates, Brandon DeFazio and fellow rookie Alex Mallet. "DeFazio and Lain have been playing great, and we really feed off of each other," Lain said. "We try to bring a lot of energy to the team and wear down our opponents by playing fast and physical." DeFazio has totaled nine points throughout this season (2-7-9) and Mallet has two (1-1-2).

It is apparent that things are looking up for the Comets, who are looking more cohesive each and every game. Lain credits this towards the team becoming more familiar with one another, stating, "It took some time for us to come together as a team, as many of us had never played together before. We know how our team needs to play to succeed and we just need to focus on the specifics going forward."

One of three siblings, Lain credits his whole family with helping him reach his goal of playing pro. "I owe everything I have and where I am at to my parents and family," he said. "My parents provided me with every opportunity possible to succeed and have been there to support me every step of the way. I am very close with my brother and sister...they are very encouraging and were great role models for me growing up."

With 2014 already upon us, things are looking bright for Lain, who is only just beginning his professional hockey career.

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stem cell therapy treatment for spinal muscular atrophy by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india – Video

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improvement seen in just 3 months after stem cell therapy treatment for spinal muscular atrophy by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india. Stem Cell Therapy done date...

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A paradigm-shifting step in stem cell research

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Dec 31, 2013 by John Steeno

(Phys.org) A team of engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has created a process that may revolutionize stem cell research. The process, outlined in a paper published in Stem Cells on December 19, 2013, will improve the state of the art in the creation of synthetic neural stem cells for use in central nervous system research.

Human pluripotent stem cells have been used to reproduce nervous-system cells for use in the study and treatment of spinal cord injuries and of diseases such as Parkinson's and Huntington's. Currently, most stem cells used in research have been cultured on mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs), which require a high level of expertise to prepare. The expertise required has made scalability a problem, as there can be slight differences in the cells used from laboratory to laboratory, and the cells maintained on MEFs are also undesirable for clinical applications.

Removing the high level of required skilland thereby increasing the translatability of stem cell technologyis one of the main reasons why Randolph Ashton, a UW-Madison assistant professor of biomedical engineering and co-author of the paper, wanted to create a new protocol.

Rather than culturing stem cells on MEFs, the new process uses two simple chemical cocktails to accomplish the same task. The first mixture, developed by John D. MacArthur Professor of Medicine James Thomson in the Morgridge Institute for Research, is used to maintain the stem cells in the absence of MEFs. The second cocktail allows researchers to push the stem cells toward a neural fate with very high efficiency.

These chemical mixtures help to ensure the consistency of the entire process and give researchers a better understanding of what is driving the differentiation of the cells. "Once you remove some of the confounding factors, you have better control and more freedom and flexibility in terms of pushing the neural stem cells into what you want them to become," says Ashton.

Streamlining the process also removes some of the ambiguities that were inserted with MEFs. And Ashton hopes the straightforward protocol will enable other labs to engage in more complex tissue engineering. "Ours is the simplest, fastest and most efficient way to generate these types of cells," he says.

Ethan Lippmann, a postdoctoral fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and co-author on the paper, says the major impact of this new process on other labs will be two-fold. "It's incredibly easy and simplified, and you can buy everything 'off the shelf,' so to speak," he says. "This should allow other researchers who are not stem cell experts to adapt this protocol to their own labs. We also want people to look at the things we do, as we generate more specialized neural cell types using this protocol, and feel comfortable that they can be translated to a clinic."

Explore further: HEXIM1 regulatory protein induces human pluripotent stem cells to adopt more specialized cell fate

A lot of optimism and promise surrounds the use of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs)for applications in regenerative medicine and drug discovery. However, technical challenges still hamper the culturing ...

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A paradigm-shifting step in stem cell research

"Intimations of an Archetypal Theology: Re-Imagining a Soulful Spirituality" Jesse Estrin MA. – Video

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"Intimations of an Archetypal Theology: Re-Imagining a Soulful Spirituality" Jesse Estrin MA.
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Thicker brain sections tied to spirituality

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For people at high risk of depression because of a family history, spirituality may offer some protection for the brain, a new study hints.

Parts of the brain's outer layer, the cortex, were thicker in high-risk study participants who said religion or spirituality was "important" to them versus those who cared less about religion.

"Our beliefs and our moods are reflected in our brain and with new imaging techniques we can begin to see this," Myrna Weissman told Reuters Health. "The brain is an extraordinary organ. It not only controls, but is controlled by our moods."

Weissman, who worked on the new study, is a professor of psychiatry and epidemiology at Columbia University and chief of the Clinical-Genetic Epidemiology department at New York State Psychiatric institute.

While the new study suggests a link between brain thickness and religiosity or spirituality, it cannot say that thicker brain regions cause people to be religious or spiritual, Weissman and her colleagues note in JAMA Psychiatry.

It might hint, however, that religiosity can enhance the brain's resilience against depression in a very physical way, they write.

Previously, the researchers had found that people who said they were religious or spiritual were at lower risk of depression. They also found that people at higher risk for depression had thinning cortices, compared to those with lower depression risk.

The cerebral cortex is the brain's outermost layer made of gray matter that forms the organ's characteristic folds. Certain areas of the cortex are important hubs of neural activity for processes such as sensory perception, language and emotion.

For the new study, the researchers twice asked 103 adults between the ages of 18 and 54 how important religion or spirituality was to them and how often they attended religious services over a five-year period.

In addition to being asked about spirituality, the participants' brains were imaged once to see how thick their cortices were.

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