Our weather is changing, even George Noory of Coast To Coast AM, says this: "Anyone can tell the weather is changing now."

    We will go from warm to hot, and from this, to cool to cold. We are witnessing this now in the United States. This, we feel, is primarily due to Cosmological Changes and not due to man's errant ways. Global warming is a definite fact.

The Houston Chronicle, Monday, August 13, 2007, page A8, writes under "Earth Week," ‘Extremes Now Norm',:

"The United Nations' weather agency issued a report confirming fears that global weather extremes are now becoming the norm across the planet. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said that during the first months of 2007, the Indian subcontinent suffered twice the normal number of monsoon storms, and that global temperatures were probably the warmest since reliable records began in 1880."

    However, as the solar system, containing the Earth, goes deeper into the spiral arm of our galaxy, the Milky Way, between the constellations Orion and Perseus, there could be a sudden reversal of climate, forming a sudden ice age, as happened with early Paleo man. See Galactic Plane.

    But before this happens, things are going to heat up. Even now, or during normal weather times, people need to know some basic facts about heat, sweat, and survival when exposed to long periods of heat, outdoors or indoors. These WebMasters are sure the electricity will come and go. Even the best of air conditioners will only cool to 100 degrees if out-of-doors temperatures are more than 120 degrees.

    The McAlvaney Intelligence Advisor, August 1999, wrote:

"In the 1970s government statisticians calculated that if all electricity were cut off, 30% of the population would be dead within a month. Within a year, 80% would be dead. And that was back in the 1970s ... now it's worse!"

    Sweating is the body's way of cooling down the body. Since the normal body temperature is 98.60 F, when overheated, this causes the body to perspire. This causes the sweat glands to produce rapid body cooling by evaporation. An overheat mechanism in the brain (hypothalamus) generates sweating. As the sweat carries heat and electrolytes (primarily sodium and chloride) to the outside of the body by way of the sweat glands to the skin, the body is cooled.

    In maximum sweating, a human can loose from 2 to 6 pounds of water per hour as two-thirds (2/3rds) of the body's weight is water.

    When the Hell Breaks, potable (drinkable) water may be hard to find if you are running from disasters. Even now, the American Southwest is drying up. The aquifers are not being replenished for the demands placed upon them. The Long Emergency (see book by James Howard Kunstler) will place stringent requirements upon everyone. This demands you know the following:

How to purify water (See Purifying Water).

How to find water.

Ration Sweat—Not Water!

    Only when we know the why and the how can we make the best possible decisions and use concerning water in a desert-like situation (hot and dry). A desert does not have to be just sand dunes, it can be barren waste–a rocky wilderness, anywhere that water is scarce and not easily found. Or, it may occur in your air-conditioned home as the end of an age finishes in a few years from now. We are leaving Pisces and entering into Aquarius. This end of the Precession of 25,800 years and the start of a new one has always been met with forebodings and disasters according to various records left by various ancient civilizations. See Galactic Plane.

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How The Human Body Uses Water

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    Let's see "how the human body uses water." The human body is normally about two-thirds water. This water is an essential part of all our tissues, not just the life-carrying bloodstream. To live, work, and think at peak efficiency, we must maintain our two-thirds water level. Normal body temperature is 98.60 F. A temperature higher than normal indicates illness. In other words, a man can't live, work, or think, at peak efficiency when his temperature is above 98.60 F.

    Several factors continually at work push the body temperature up when in a desert-like situation. Radiant heat directly from the sun; the heat reflected from the earth; the hot surrounding air, and the heat generated by the body...all conspire to raise the temperature of the body.

Evaporative Cooling, Shade ...

    Perspiration is the body's cooling system–the body's only cooling system. Evaporation of sweat from the skin's surface cools us. It's a very effective and efficient cooling system. But it uses water. You simply can't sweat without depleting the water supply of the body. And you will sweat continuously as long as a need exists to hold body temperature down.

    The most important means of losing heat from the body is by vaporization of sweat (water) from the respiratory passages and the skin. Sweat evaporation is the refrigeration process by which the body cools itself. Evaporative cooling can account for a major heat loss, provided humidity is not high.

     Heat can also be lost from the body by radiation, conduction, convection and radiation, provided the objects you want to receive the heat are not hotter than the body. If the latter is so, then heat moves from those hotter objects to your body, making matters worse. This is why you want to be at least one foot off the ground when you rest in the shade in a desert-like situation.

    The air is 30 degrees F cooler a foot or so above the surface. And the surface can't conduct heat into your body if you are off it. Downed airman inflate their small life raft to lie on it to be above the heat conducting surface after building a lean-to for shade.

    By creating a lean-to, or some other means for shade; or, if natural shade is near, get in it; this will help reduce heat build-up in your body and cause the heat from your body to go into the cooler air of the shade, resulting in a cool-down of the body. The ambient air will be hot, but the shaded air will be cooler, and your body will lose heat to the air. If air movement (convection and conduction: "direct transfer of heat through a liquid, solid, or gas from one molecule to another") does not move, the skin next to that air is heated by it and that air becomes a zone of insulation minimizing the body's ability to lose heat by conduction.

    If that air surrounding the hot body is removed by cooler air, those currents move the insulating hot air away, as in using a fan, running, or if a breeze comes. This is the principle in using a hand-held fan or why authorities try to get fans to the elderly who have none in their homes, and who have no air conditioning.

    You want to move the air that is warmer surrounding the body and replace it with cooler air. As you do so, the cooler air absorbs heat from the body and the body temperature is lowered and hence, the core temperature is reduced and kept from reaching a dangerous high level. The core temperature of the body can fluctuate from 36 degrees to 38 degrees C. with the being about 37 degrees C ± 1 degree C. This is carefully regulated by the nerve cells at the floor of the base of the brain in the hypothalamus.

    When sweat collects on the skin, the body is cooled as that liquid vaporizes (evaporates). Then the cool skin serves to cool the circulating blood, which continues its journey throughout the body and its core picking up more heat, and the process is reinitiated again and again cooling the entire body. But, for this to work effectively, you need to drink water, not sports drinks (the U.S. Military does not recommend these for troops in hot, arid places of deployment). A pinch of salt in heavy sweating will help. The main electrolytes that need to be replaced are sodium and potassium.

    Sports drinks are not advisable unless you "doctor" them by adding extra ingredients, especially sodium. Army Times, February 7, 2000, page 14, writes ... "sports drinks [are] specifically engineered to replace both salts and fluids depleted during exercise. Drinking Gatorate or one of its counterparts can help, but it alone can't maintain adequate sodium levels for people engaging in rigorous endurance-level activity."

    In the same article, the International Center for Sports Nutrition in Omaha, Neb., executive director, Ann Granjean said, Army Times wrote, "And don't think you can maintain a low-salt diet and make up for it with sport drinks. Sport drinks aren't salty enough."

    The depleted plasma volume, generated by excessive sweating and this fluid loss,not properly replaced, can lead to blood pooling in peripheral blood vessels that have become dilated. This reduces the central blood volume which is necessary to continue heart output.

Heat Loss In High Humidity

    For evaporative heat loss to be effective, the most important consideration to be considered is relative humidity. In the desert or wilderness, the humidity is 20%. Relative humidity is the ratio of water in the surrounding air at a certain temperature to the total amount of moisture that can be carried in that air. For example, 20% relative humidity is that surrounding or ambient air has only 20% of the air's ability to carry moisture at a certain temperature.

    If the ambient vapor pressure approaches that of moist skin, then the humidity is high and the ability of the moist skin to evaporate liquid is largely reduced. Thus, this mechanism, evaporation–and the most important, has been closed off, yet large amounts of sweat still occur. It forms beads on the skin's surface and instead of evaporating, it just rolls or drips off. Since this barely removes heat from the body, it is a useless loss of sweat, but can generate a dangerous condition of overheating and dehydrating.

    Remember!

"Sweat does not cool the skin; evaporation of sweat cools the skin."–Exercise Physiology, Fourth Edition.

    The authors of the above statement write:

"As long as the humidity is low, relatively high environmental temperatures can be tolerated. For this reason, hot, dry desert climates are more comfortable than cooler but more humid tropical climates."

    To maintain its normal temperature, the body will actually go into debt for water. It will even withdraw water vitally needed by the body. Thus, as sweating continues,

• The bloodstream gives up water it needs, and the blood becomes thicker and tends to circulate more slowly.

• The heart works harder and faster to pump the thickened blood through arteries and veins.

• The whole body mechanism begins to lose efficiency as it loses water.

• The power of thought begins to weaken, at the very time intelligent planning is needed most.

    As water is lost, thirst grows. Then, a feeling of discomfort comes over you that outweighs thirst. Efficiency falls faster now. Irritability appears ... and growing drowsiness. Then, among other symptoms, come:

• Nausea,

• Dizziness, and

• Headache.

• A Tingling in the limbs.

• Speech is indistinct.

• If loss of water continues unchecked, Death is inevitable!

    For regular readers of the UpDate , you know the latter is the final phase of the stress-response known as Exhaustion.

    When the body has only lost 10% of its weight in water, a person is no longer able to move about normally in the heat of the desert or under desert-like conditions.

    We see this in the elderly locked up in homes with no air conditioner or fan and the windows closed because of fear. They can not handle heat very well. The thermostat in their brain is often off and not being able to have the body remove heat efficiently through sweating, or unable to register high heat, they are found dead.

    They may sweat profusely for a while; but several hours of sweating intensely causes sweat-gland fatigue, and this causes loss of ability to regulate core (internal) body temperature. When core temperature goes down, body sweating rate follows too, downward, with decreased blood to the skin. Cooling mechanisms are failing. If prolonged, internal tissue can die.

    When water ingestion is adequate, blood is shunted to cutaneous (skin) blood vessels to facilitate transfer of heat from the body to the surrounding air from core temperature, thereby reducing internal body temperature. Homeostasis (balance) is maintained as heat transfer to the periphery of the body occurs. But, this is due only if water intake is adequate!

    Many elderly do not take in enough fluid, as their "water stat" is less efficient as they become older. This can happen to someone who rations his drinking water, trying to make it last during desert-like conditions. They lose thirst as their system becomes more deranged, though they need rehydration to maintain plasma volume so sweating and circulation can progress normally. By drinking water at regular intervals under extreme heat conditions, the body maintains this and allows blood flow to continue to the skin for effective cooling.

    Much water loss from sweating comes from the plasma of the blood. As the plasma thickens from this water loss, the heart must pump harder to push this thickened blood throughout the circulatory tree. If water is not replaced regularly, blood flow to the skin is greatly reduced, core temperature rises, the heart's stroke volume fails, and the heart compensates for this by increasing its rate in an attempt to get the blood to where it is need.

    If this goes on too long, the heart can stop all together. But first hallucinations, delusions, and decreased reasoning power, among other things, happen to the hapless victim who has water but wants to ration it until he absolutely needs it, he reasons in the beginning. Many have been found dead with full canteens because when they could reason, they reasoned wrongly; and, when they were on the way down biochemically, they did not know it because they could no longer make rational decisions.

    Still there is no permanent damage if enough water is drunk to gain back the water lost through sweating and raise core body temperature.

    Now, let's apply these facts with a problem of survival. Take two men, both start with a normal bodily portion of water. Both start with identical reserves of water (full canteen). Both are in the same dry, hot situation at the same time; or same desert. They're both sweating, using body water at the same rate. As they lose bodily water, they both feel thirsty. One of the men drinks freely; his normal water balance in his body is restored. The other, trying to be cagy, to ration his water, only takes a sip–just enough to take the edge off his thirst. But note well, his sip did not restore his essential water balance.

    Already, loss of water and retarded circulation are making him less efficient. He has a headache and he isn't thinking clearly. He begins to fight the sun and sand (cursing them by gestures and vocalizations). And perhaps takes off after a mirage. Instead of staying put, out of the sun by making a lean-to, and resting until dark, the above exercises of movement through the heat and vocalizations creates heat that must be dissipated through sweat loss that must be replaced with water. But his "sippy" method of using water will place him in worst straits than he is now.

    Even though he sips water from his own canteen, he is actually wasting water. And on top of that, his temperature is going up. So he is getting no relief from his thirst, and no benefit from his water.

    Now, the other man, since his water balance is nearly normal, can think clearly. Instead of fighting the desert or desert-like heat and conditions, he calmly and deliberately does something about the heat. By just sitting on something, he avoids the intensely hot, sun-soaked ground. Remember! It is 30 degrees cooler a foot above the ground. He protects himself from the sun. And indulges in as little heat-generating exercise as possible. His canteen is now empty, but his actual rate of water use has slowed down. He is only slightly dehydrated! So he feels pretty good.

    Meanwhile, to continue with our comparison and contrast, the first man still has quite a few sips left, still has water in his canteen. But his body water is getting low. He can sip until his canteen is empty, but not once will his sipping restore his body water level. He rationed the water in his canteen, when he should have rationed his sweat! He would have lived longer, for a man in the sun uses water three times as fast as the one in the shade, conserving his sweat. Ration Sweat...Not Water.

    A person slightly below good hydration functions at a much higher level than one trying to function in a dehydrated state. You want to keep core temperature from ratcheting up and staying there. Pure water, current thinking goes, absorbed from the G.I. tract can quickly cause a dilution in plasma sodium concentration. Therefore, it is best to give a pinch (1/8 inch) of table salt with pure water as is found in distilled water.

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Eating Is Not Advisible If Conditions Are Dire and Water Is Slight:

    If you have to run with a food pack and water and may not come to a viable locale When The Hell Breaks, it is advisible to discipline yourself now not to eat under such conditions if they are only for the few days and you may have help coming for you.

    Food eaten will be digested and digestion demands water; precious water needed for cellular function may be diverted and will only enhance your hypovolemia (low blood volume).

    But you've stored protein powder. And included it in your food packs. Remember this: Protein requires more water for digestion and to form lipoidalproteins. How about just a can of beans? Beans are high in protein--not complete protein, but nevertheless, high in protein and that can of beans demands much water.

    If you have prepared well and don't have to run, those preparations made in advance give you a better chance of getting through all this than being in a shelter(s) where food, water, and other items of necessity are doled out and must be shared.

Comment:

    At this time, we give again, as in a previous UpDate:

Learn how to use a compass. Most people only know where North and South are and little more than that. You want to learn:

• How to shoot a bearing.
• How to get a back bearing.
• How to triangulate your position.
• How to keep from treking in large circles.
• How to aim off.

    Look in the phone book for Orienteering Instructors/classes; contact a Boy's Scout or Eagle Scout director/instructor in your area and ascertain if they can teach map & compass work, that entails the above items. You can learn it in a two-day-a-week class-room setting the first week and do field study the second under their tutelage.

    It is fun, exciting, and a valuable tool for what is coming your way soon. As you progress, you can go on field trips with the scouts as a volunteer and learn as you teach under the instructor/director. You can practice with field pack and necessities for a short trek of a day in the wilderness, desert, forest, and mountains. Don't do this alone until you are well-versed and trained in map and compass work.

    See our Compass Page for more details and take the test on the Hot Links Page to ascertain if you are proficient in Map & Compass Work.

Easy Oral Rehydration Formula