MadSci Network: Medicine |
Bill, >From physiologic point of view there is no question that drinking a cold liquid will reduce the total body heat, and that drinking a hot beverage will raise it. You will cool off somewhat by drinking the cold beverage. Psychologically the situation may be different. Just as touching adjacent metal pipes that are cool and warm will be perceived as touching metal cold and hot, so might drinking a hot liquid fool the body into thinking it feels cooler. Similarly, suppose that instead of ingesting the liquid you sprayed it on your skin surface. The hot water will cause further dilation of the skin capillaries and help remove body heat faster while the cold water will cause constriction of these capillaries and cause the body to retain heat. However, the specific heat of water is such that the cold water is bound to "absorb" more than enough heat from the skin surface to cause an overall cooling effect. Bottom line: adding heat to a system will raise it's temperature, removing heat will lower it. While I have great respect for native medical practices and do not equate a medicine man with a charlatan I am afraid in this case he is all wet. Dave
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