How Your Body Uses Your Energy During Hypothermia

Sones, B. (2007, December 13). Hypothermia Prompts Some To Undress . BNET . Retrieved November 7, 2009, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20071213/ai_n21156071/

"Paradoxical undressing" is well known to mountain rescuers who in freezing weather will encounter sufferers of hypothermia who refuse warming blankets and may even have removed some of their clothing. 20 to 50 percent of deaths from hypothermia involve paradoxical undressing of some kind. One theory is that the fine blood vessels near the skin's surface contract to slow heat loss, then as contracting muscles become exhausted, blood rushes to the skin and causes a deep flush and sense of overheating. Now in the confusion of the moment, the victim disrobes to try to cool off.

Equally mysterious is "terminal burrowing," or "hide-and-die syndrome," seen also in certain cats and other species. When things get really bad we find somewhere to "curl up and die." One elderly man whose furnace had failed was discovered partly undressed and under overturned furniture, with bruises all over his hands. Police suspected foul play, but autopsy revealed hypothermia as the cause of death.