Whos more susceptible to the cold? Infants or elderly people?

[usafmedic45]

The selection criteria would be the IRB.

There are times where I would like to go take a dump on the grave of Sigmund Rascher. This is one of them. LOL

 

[mycrofft]

Oh, come on!

Quit telling me this can't be cook booked, that flies in the face of thirty years of Highway Traffic Adminstration's emergency medical practice!
(Build an overpass, correct a metabolic imbalance...shoot, how different can those really get, huh?).

 

[bigbaldguy]

Lets take away all variables and assume your dealing with two big peices of tofu. One is 20 pounds one is 120 pounds, both are 98.8 degrees, you put both in the freezer for one hour. Which is colder? Of course then you add back in all the variables like metabolic rate, Ect and it gets complicated. I still think that everything being equal a 20 pound infant will go hypothermic faster than a 120 pound old man.

 

[JPINFV]

The problem is the metabolic and skin thickness issues. The infant is going to have a lot more brown fat than the elderly man.

 

[bigbaldguy]

The problem is the metabolic and skin thickness issues. The infant is going to have a lot more brown fat than the elderly man.

Had to google brown fat. For those too lazy to do so.

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) or brown fat is one of two types of fat or adipose tissue (the other being white adipose tissue) found in mammals.
It is especially abundant in newborns and in hibernating mammals.[1] Its primary function is to generate body heat in animals or newborns that do not shiver. In contrast to white adipocytes (fat cells), which contain a single lipid droplet, brown adipocytes contain numerous smaller droplets and a much higher number of mitochondria, which contain iron and make it brown.[2] Brown fat also contains more capillaries than white fat, since it has a greater need for oxygen than most tissues.

I learn new things every day

 

[mycrofft]

If it means anything

...after earthquakes and landslides, more often infants are found alive than the elderly. Maybe because they fit into voids better.

 

[bigbaldguy]

...after earthquakes and landslides, more often infants are found alive than the elderly. Maybe because they fit into voids better.

They also bounce....or at least ive been told the boys do. I imagine that would be a useful ability in a lane slide.

So if I'm reading the info on brown fat correctly, and I'm probably not since I'm having to google every third word. Babies because of their high brown fat content are metabolically similar to bears in their ability to produce body heat without shivering. Adults compensate for this loss of brown fat by shivering to create body neat. Old folks tend to shiver less effectively than younger adults and at the same time lack the brown fat as well so are effectively unable to compensate for cold.

Does this sound about right?

 

[Dwindlin]

They also bounce....or at least ive been told the boys do. I imagine that would be a useful ability in a lane slide.

So if I'm reading the info on brown fat correctly, and I'm probably not since I'm having to google every third word. Babies because of their high brown fat content are metabolically similar to bears in their ability to produce body heat without shivering. Adults compensate for this loss of brown fat by shivering to create body neat. Old folks tend to shiver less effectively than younger adults and at the same time lack the brown fat as well so are effectively unable to compensate for cold.

Does this sound about right?

Yes. Brown fat is a very potent source of heat generation for newborns, and should give them an edge over the elderly who both have no brown fat and have likely a decreased ability to generate heat by shivering.

 

[usafmedic45]

They also bounce....or at least ive been told the boys do. I imagine that would be a useful ability in a lane slide.

It has its benefits and drawbacks just like anything else.