Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 April 1895 — HOW TO KEEP WARM. [ARTICLE]

HOW TO KEEP WARM.

An Easy Method Described by a Doctor. “ I should like to call attention to an easy method of warming one’s ■ self when other and more common means are not available,” writes Dr. |E. B Sangree in the American. Therapist. “It is a method that I suppose is well enough known to the I profession, but probably not often ; used. I allude to warming the body by merely taking deep inspirations. “On one very cold afternoon of j last winter, though walking briskly along, I was uncomfortably cold; I feet and hands were very cold, and j my ears so chilled as frequently to ; require the application of my heavily gloved hands. In addition,the whole surface of the skin was unpleasantly I chilled; ‘creeps’ ever and anon runi ning up and down my spinal column ' and radiating thence over the body and extremities; in short, a condiI tion that every reader of this little j article has doubtless many a time experienced. I then began taking an exercise often employed before with benefit: deep forced inspirations, holding the air as long as possible before expulsion. * After a few inhalations the surface of my body grew warmer, and a general sense of comfort pervaded me. Continuing, the next to feel the effects of the effort were my previously frigid ears. They grew agreeably warm, and within the time required to walk three blocks, at the previous pace, hands and feet partook of the general warmth, and I felt as comfortable as if the same length of time had been passed by a glowing fire. The happy results obtained from this simple method are probably owing to several causes: The cold, of course, chills the surface of the body and contracts the superficial blood vessels, usually affecting first hands, feetandears, and afterward the general body surface. Contraction of the blood vessels results both in less blood to the part and in stagnation of the current, thus rendering the tissues still less able to resist the cold. Deep forced inspirations not only stimulated the blood current by direct muscular exertion, but also by compressing and expanding the lungs the flow of blood is greatly hastened through this organ, and on account of the increased amount of oxygen inhaled, this abundant supply of blood is thoroughly oxygenated, tissue metabolism is increased and more heat necessarily produced. Many times unavoidable exposure, as in riding, driving, standing and the like, for a longer or shorter time in the cold, has been the cause of severe and even fatal congestive troubles, such as pleurisies and pneumonias, and a means of quickly stimulating the flagging peripheral circulation which a person has always with him, and which can be employed without moving a step, is one that ought not to be neglected or forgotten.