Question

Can or cannot alcohol save a life from cold condition (examples and evidences are needed)

Answer 1

Alcohol is a vasodilator. It causes the blood vessels underneath the skin to dilate shunting blood from the core of the body to the periphery. The natural tendency of our body to detect cold and to protect the body from hypothermia is to constrict the blood vessels in order to direct blood flow to vital organs. But alcohol reverses the process, it actually lowers the core body temperature of our body by redistributing the heat. In cold conditions, when alcohol is consumed one may momentarily feels warmer from the extra blood that warming his skin but that blood rapidly cools down due to the cold condition outside. The warmth caused due to rushing of blood to the skin will make an individual sweat thus decreasing the core temperature even further. Drinking alcohol in chilly weather also reduces the body's ability to shiver which act as a device to keep the body warm from the cold outside. Several such cases has been detected where an individual found dead as a result of hypothermia and alcohol intoxication in extermely cold weather.Thus it is very dangerous for an individual to rely on alcohol consumption to save a life from cold conditions as it does not warm the body, instead lowers the core body temperature.