Cold weather emergencies can lead to a variety of different health and safety challenges. Cold weather is known to elicit physiological changes within the body. This can be further understood by observing the differences in motor function and homeostasis within the body when it is exposed to frigid temperatures. This research allows for one to better understand the physiological effects of such temperatures on the body. It was expected that after the body is exposed to a cold environment, the motor function will decrease, and homeostatic tendencies will increase in an attempt to return the body to homeostasis.
During exposures to cold temperature, heat is transferred from the body to the environment. This is explained through the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that entropy in the environment, the measurable amount of unusable energy, is always increasing (E.D.Schneider, 2002). Heat is taken up by the surrounding colder environment in an attempt to balance the temperatures of the environment and the body. The body, however, has two compartments that regulate heat transfer. The inside core contains heat producing organs to keep heat in and the body’s outside shell made of skin and subcutaneous fat. This permits heat transfer in and out of the body regardless of the environment (Kuht & Farmery, 2018). Cold temperatures cause the body to lose heat, since we are endothermic in nature.
When exposed to a cold environment, the hypothalamus detects the change causing peripheral blood vessels to constrict to reduce blood flow to these areas. This preserves the core body temperature. The hypothalamus may also stimulate the skeletal muscles to begin contracting rapidly, known as shivering, to increase the metabolism and production of heat within the body (Andrew J. Young, 1996). In an attempt to maintain homeostasis, a decrease in peripheral blood flow reduces convective heat that is transferred to the environment. This can be accomplished by vasoconstriction of peripheral blood vessels. This, coupled with short term exposures to cold temperatures can have an effect on systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, and mean arterial pressure (Xu et al., 2019). The vasoconstriction of these blood vessels forces the heart to work harder to provide adequate blood flow, causing an increased heart rate. Vasodilation can reduce the core body temperature caused by exposure to cold environments. When the body’s temperature falls below optimum temperature for proper functioning, dangerous and potentially fatal side effects can occur. Elderly, young children, and alcoholics are more likely to develop hypothermia than healthy individuals due to vasodilation. However, if the body is exposed to these cold temperatures for a long duration, shivering will stop and the exhausted body can go into organ failure. The information regarding the changes in blood pressure due to the cold can be further applied to increase awareness among those that are more susceptible to these dangers. These blood pressure changes have little effect on healthy people, however, it can severely affect people with cardiovascular disease.
During strenuous exercises in cold environments, one is likely to experience greater muscle fatigue. This is due to the increased recruitment of muscle fibers to maintain muscle output in these colder temperatures (Oksa et al., 2002). In these environments, muscle fatigue occurs at a faster rate in activities with repetitive activities. This is especially important when considering workers that are constantly exposed to cold temperatures, such as construction workers and medical rescue workers. Extended exposures to cold temperatures can impair tactile sensitivity, muscle function, grip strength, and proprioception (Ray et al., 2019). In addition to impaired tactile sensitivity, individuals are also likely to experience an increased time to react to stimuli when exposed to the cold. This may be caused by neuronal distractions from the cold environment, making it more difficult for them to focus on other stimuli (Teichner, 1958). To enhance the retention of learned occupational and survival skills, individuals should be prepared and trained to adapt to the cold. However, cold temperatures are used today when attempting to relieve muscle fatigue, such as athletes taking ice-water baths after a strenuous workout to aid in the recovery process (Chow et al., 2018). This information may also be used to better understand the dangers of freezing temperatures on our bodies.
Based on current research on physiological responses due to cold temperatures, we hypothesized that if the body is exposed to a cold environment then the motor function will decrease and homeostatic tendencies will increase in an attempt to return the body to homeostasis. In this study, our experiment was set up to determine how the exposure to cold temperatures affected physiological changes within the body. Each subject’s dominant arm was submerged to their elbow in either room temperature water or ice water for one minute. Ice water was used to simulate the effects of cold temperature in a laboratory setting. It was expected that there will be no significant changes before and after exposure to room temperature water, while exposure to ice water will elicit a significant increase in blood pressure, heart rate, reaction time, and decrease in grip strength. It is important to better understand the physiological changes that occur when the body is exposed to extremely cold temperatures to better protect workers that are constantly exposed to such conditions