Dylan Stoll | Health Editor
Featured Image: Forgoing your winter-wear this year may not be the best option. | Courtesy of Jordan Chu, Photo/Video Editor
Though the weatherman is as reliable as a sailboat in a hurricane nowadays, the forecast for next month’s temperatures is significantly colder than the relatively warm January that we’ve experienced so far.
Now we all respond to the cold in different ways, as the scantily clad club-goers of the winter can attest to, but what some may be unaware of how easily one can get frostbite.
For those of you who are new to winter parlance, frostbite is defined as tissue damage as a result of very cold temperatures. More specifically, and horrifically, when frostbite occurs, ice crystals form on the inside of the affected tissue’s cells and rupture them from within. This is why severe frostbite appears as dead, blackened skin — each cell has essentially exploded.
The progression of frostbite usually occurs at temperatures lower than -35 degrees Celsius, but some argue that it can happen at temperatures as high as -28 degrees Celsius, making the possibility of tissue damage all the more likely, especially in Canadian weather.
All that being said, frostbite consists of three stages that don’t exactly sneak up on you. If you are experiencing the first stage, frostnip, the affected area will feel irritated, red, and cold. The second stage, superficial frostbite, counterintuitively causes the affected tissue to feel warm. This is not a good sign, and should be your first and only red flag to acquire immediate medical attention as the symptoms after that only get worse.
The third and most destructive stage of frostbite, deep frostbite (the sort of tissue damage seen on Adam Sandler’s foot in Mr. Deeds), involves extreme cell death across and far into the affected area. This results in blackened, hard, dead tissue — a symptom reaching as far as the subcutaneous layers of the skin.
In response to extreme cold, and to avoid the aforementioned symptoms, experts recommend that you wear the proper clothing. This includes hats/toques, gloves, thick socks, waterproof boots, and a thick coat. Other additions include underclothing such as “long johns” or snow pants.
Michelle, a third-year international development student at York, says when winter’s coming, she “usually wears sweaters, baggy jeans, gloves,” and even goes as far as to double up on her tights and socks. “I walk a lot outside,” she explains.
But if you’re one to ditch the gloves when you hit the blizzard, the U.S. military has developed a prototype hand-warming device that allows its wearer to go gloveless in cold temperatures. It functions by warming the wrist, and therefore the blood that travels to the hand.
But for the average snow-trekker who doesn’t have access to prototype military hardware, there are other electrically heated clothing items that one can buy very easily. Everything from heated socks and underwear to heated shirts and pants can be bought at a relatively low cost — just remember to take the batteries out when you wash them.
