SO in honor of not sleeping and waiting for the ice packs and pain relievers to DO THEIR DAMN JOBS ALREADY - here's some cognitating that I was pondering on the other day...on a boat... waiting for salmon to bite... you know, much as any other day... NOT! (I haven't fished since I was a pre-teen! And have repeatedly asserted my disinterest in the end-product of fishing. However, I had a BLAST! Read about it here: http://sirensecho.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-one-who-didnt-get-away.html) :)
First a preface, I notice a couple things when I've dropped some pounds. One is that when I sit in my saddle, (much to the assumed delight of my riding instructor) my seat bones jab me and I think "Aha! There you little buggers are!" and theoretically greatly improve my riding position by the aid of feeling these jabbing bones of the bottom of my pelvis and properly aligning them and so forth. (Hey! I said it was a theory!) I also sit far more gingerly on hard benches as a byproduct of this situation.
Secondly is that I get cold much more easily. This is fact.
So, while weathering a brief rainy, windy squall rolling across the beautiful water just outside Shilshole Bay Marina, sitting on our boat waiting for the fishies to get hungry, I got to thinking about the alleged evolutionary advantage that women have over men by having a greater amount of subcutaneous fat. Naturally. As I was shivering inside my 3 layers, goosebumps coursing over my skin.
This phenomenon is incidentally triggered by teeeeeensy muscles situated at the base of your hair follicles and is, appropriately, I think, called "horripilation." This appears to be a remnant reflex of our much furrier Sasquatchey days - except those notable men at the beach who insist on wearing Speedos to show off their hirsute selves. Good for them for their personal self esteem and bucking societal norms, but when your shoulder hair is long enough to braid and put in pony beads Ala Jack Sparrow... *shudder*
Though after my own experience with waxing, I'm more sympathetic than I used to be: http://sirensecho.blogspot.com/2012/10/todays-eposide-brought-to-you-by.html
But back to goosepimples. I theorized that perhaps it was because men through evolution were in a more active role - being the typical hunters straying afield in search of game, while the women tended the homestead (uh... cave-stead???) and cared for the young, presumably with the advantage of fires and indoor cave plumbing and so forth. (I'm NOT saying they didn't work hard, I'm just saying they were less typically racing alongside mammoths, spearing them, and hauling fuzzy mammoth steaks back the the cave.)
Did men just use up their stores more quickly based on the higher caloric needs of an active life? Wouldn't that predispose men to needing to store GREATER subcutaneous fat, though, not less?
So then I contemplated the biological advantages of women having greater fat stores for the body to subsist on (and hypothetically nurse hypothetical young, hypothetically speaking) during lean times. After all, men, while having nipples, still won't lactate (without hormonal stimulation, of course... and I'm pretty sure hunter-gatherers 20,000 years ago - male or female - were quite busy painting the caves at Lascaux and not injecting hormone cocktails to induce male lactation... just sayin'....)
My best friend proposed that it made great sense to have more females survive a starvation situation using their greater body stores of fat. Realistically speaking, one man could father many children and - ONLY EVOLUTIONARILY-SPEAKING PEOPLE! Don't get your bloomers in a tangle!- men were less prioritized for survival in that light. This is definitely a case of a little goes a long way.
Either way, it is a fact that women have a thicker layer of subcutaneous fat underlying our skin. So if we have this extra layer insulating us, then WHY do women have the incessant argument over the thermostat's settings? Why, at the first drop in temperatures, we're snuggled under a fleece blanket freezing to death while Mister Man is ready to strip to his skivvies if we women are supposedly suited to withstand extreme survival situations?
Is it based on hormonal levels to determine thermodynamic regulation? (Wow, was THAT a sentence, or what?! I'm kinda impressed, and I actually wrote it! Enough vanity... there's pseudo-science to be done here!!!!)
I was curious. So I did some reading. (It's on the Internets!!! It must be true!)
Fact: women have more subcutaneous fat. However, we are typically the ones shivering. And we shivered a lot when certain subjects (thankfully not me!) were subjected to cold water immersion tests. This showed that women did indeed experience colder surface skin temperatures, though (and here's the kicker!) deep skin temperatures remained the same for both men and women -at least in the non-hypothermia-inducing conditions of this particular test. (This also leads me to wonder how they tested deep skin temperatures... injection thermometers??? Oh man, and I thought rectal thermometers were as bad as they could get!) So while on the skin of things women were colder, though we retained our core heat, overall our maximal difference between external and internal temperatures was increased. In plain "Engrish" - we feel colder.
However, we women also have another advantage in our greater aptitude at vasoconstriction - the ability to constrict the blood vessels and retain the blood around the vital organs rather than extremities. (Though apparently you do have to learn to walk again if you lose toes to frostbite, so try to keep them piggly-wigglies warm, eh?) So in this case, having cold hands and feet (the reading I did said nothing of my husband's complaints of a purported refrigerator-temp backside....) is actually an advantage in a matter of ultimate survival. Though playing a piano piece by Chopin is difficult enough with all your fingers in an unfrozen state, it pales in comparison to the difficulty of keeping your internal organs from icing over in extreme weather!
This preferential treatment for your vital bits that keep you actually functioning (albeit fine motor control will disintegrate quickly - forget about Chopin - you'll be struggling with "Chopsticks" when the cold settles in!) Your body will slow and then halt blood flow to those outlying digits, your nose and cheeks (the areas most prone to frostbite) in favor of your heart, lungs and other essential blobs of meat. You will also want to pee, as the blood pulls into the core, reducing the blood volume and raising blood pressure. The body seeks to compensate by reducing the fluid volume through urinary excretion and your involuntary processes will get you shivering to create heat as a by-product. Whew!
So with our feminine advantage of maintaining our core temperatures better through more efficient vasoconstriction, we dames also suffer the proverbial double-edge as women are far more prone to skin surface damage from the cold . Time for the extra-fleecy gloves, ladies!
Additionally, men tend to carry more overall muscle mass. (I know, there will ALWAYS be exceptions to the rule, skinny men and hefty ladies, certain medical conditions will greatly alter these stats, low blood pressure, poor circulation, hot flashes and all that will play a factor. I realize that. Let's stick with sweeping generalizations, shall we?) According to what I have read, muscle generates an estimated third of body heat produced.
Ah ha... so I'm for SURE hitting the weights!!!! But wait... the more fat that a person carries, the better insulated they will be as well. Oh bugger. A trade-off.
Now that I've moved to a much milder climate, the question emerges: does acclimatizing actually work? Can you actually adapt to a colder environment? The answer? Of course! Not only do you get smarter about your layering, get over your fashionista-qualms about wearing a balaclava (which SIGNIFICANTLY differs from baklava, the tasty phyllo-dough, nut & honey Greek delicacy. Wool knit and honey make a frightful mess, subzero temps or not!) but you also have the ability to actually metabolically adapt to your environs.
This was most easily witnessed in my life when, as a kid, my grandparents would come visit from the Arizona desert. They'd venture up north and in the middle of June be wrapped in heavy sweaters outdoors while we played in our swimsuits in the sprinklers. We were acclimatized to the temperatures while they weren't. Of course, age is an enormous factor in the ability to survive temperature extremes, with the majority of temperature-related deaths among the elderly as they are least able to cope with either very hot or very cold weather.
And this same scenario of acclimatization is played out in my own life every Autumn when the temperatures first drop and I am wearing more clothes than that kid from "A Christmas Story" and I'm still shivering... until one winter's day I venture outdoors and invariably remark "What a lovely day! It's above freezing! It practically feels balmy!"
Full circle. Now we know the what and the why, and we even have some ammunition in the fight with menfolk to get to turn the thermostat up a few degrees on a particularly blustery winter's day. (Wind-chill factor is a real killer here people!) Yes, women do have slightly more underlying subcutaneous fat (and I'll thank you for not pointing mine out!) and twitchier blood vessels that presumably slurp more blood into our vital bits and save our uterus for the greater biological good. We have a greater ability to survive temperature extremes. Based on our biological role of reproduction, the demand on our bodies is far greater in the perpetuation of the little pink monkeys we call Homo Sapiens. And our greater differential between skin and core temperatures seemingly explains our cold hands and feet being a particularly effective manner of thermodynamic temperature regulation. (Say that ten times!)
As for me, I'll prepare for cooler fall weather by digging out my poofy jackets, gloves and hats and snuggling up to my nice warm hubby! (After removing said ice pack from my lumbar area. OH HONEY!!! You got some warming up to do! Don't worry, my vasoconstriction is more efficient than yours, so I can retain your radiated body heat better!!! Look how muscly you are! You know that those giant and extremely attractive muscles provide a third of your body heat! Besides, you won't even feel nearly as cold without the greater external-to-internal temperature differential like I have! Seriously dear, I'm more prone to frostbite, biologically speaking! It's your duty as husband to let me put my cold feet on yours! Think of the unborn children! Tee hee!)
For my actual scientific sources, other than our hypothesizing, please see:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/aprilholladay/2006-04-03-women-extra-fat_x.htm
For a definition of hirsute:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hirsute
For really cool stuff about Antarctica, the process of frostbite and other neat stuff see:
http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/science/cold_humans.htm
For the differences in men and women storage and utilization of fat as it relates to exercise (and why all women should love their glutofemoral fat!) go to:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/gender-differences-in-fat-metabolism/#axzz2dWSD3xk7
And of course be sure to check out the incredible caves of Lascaux at : http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/lascaux/
Thanks for reading! Stay warm! And don't Google pictures of baklava if you're trying to avoid sweets!
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