The article posits factors such as:

- reduced inflammation due to improvements in diet and health

- reduced incidence of diseases like tuberculosis

- reduced exposure to ambient temperature extremes

It doesn't mention alcohol, but alcohol consumption can increase inflammation, IIRC.

Although alcohol carries a reputation for keeping people warm when its cold, it actually has the opposite effect and lowers body temp. But you know...if your gonna be cold, better to be a little colder and drunk than cold and sober.

Alcohol cools by widening the blood vessels in your skin and extremities. This makes you feel warmer, yet it lowers your overall average and core temperature. This is what makes alcohol in cold weather so dangerous: it really helps your cold fingers and makes you feel better, while actually making you worse off by wasting heat.

I thought that was because it slightly increases blood flow - your core temperature drops because your limbs actually are warmed up a bit.

If you drink enough to affect your hypothalamus and raise your body temperature, you're affecting other parts of the brain as well, and in ways that might not be apparent until they become permanent. You should get off of it before it gets any worse.

Do you have any sources backing that? Last time I checked alcohol dilates blood vessel which actually makes you lose heat more easily (but that's just while you're under the influence)

How do you think a thermometer works? You expect it will measure less heat because your vascular system is dilated and shedding more heat?

Core body temp != single point-in-time measurement.

> Core body temp != single point-in-time measurement.

Since when ? Core body temp means exactly what it describes: your internal body temp, you can make it a one time measurement, an average or whatever you want.

> You expect it will measure less heat because your vascular system is dilated and shedding more heat?

I expect that shedding more heat will make your body lose more heat, which will lower your body temperature. I don't even know why it's so controversial in this thread, literally no one is refuting the fact that alcohol increase heat loss.

Lose heat… into a thermometer? :)

Dilated vessel -> more blood to skin -> increased exchange rate with air.

Especially true in cold weather because your body naturally contracts blood vessels to reduce heat transfer, which alcohol completely cancel.