> By the time the rescue team showed up with a rope and a pointed shovel, hacked a hole in the ice, and pulled her out, she had been submerged for about 80 minutes. She had no heartbeat.
Interestingly people like Wim Hof have apparently trained themselves to withstand the same exposure for 2+ hours with no issues. The article alludes to this too:
> Slightly less creatively, studies have shown that when experienced arctic explorers are asked to stick their fingers in icy water, they feel less cold than average Joes do—their bodies have slowed down their responses, trained by repeated exposure into playing the long game.
I wonder what changes in the body with repeated exposure, and why we haven’t evolved to do it naturally?
> I wonder what changes in the body with repeated exposure, and why we haven’t evolved to do it naturally?
I can’t speak to the specifics, but generally speaking the body will try to maintain homeostasis. A stressor that disrupts homeostasis leads to adaptation or illness and death. Presumably those adaptations are not metabolically free, so the body prefers not to make them in the absence of stress.
Interestingly people like Wim Hof have apparently trained themselves to withstand the same exposure for 2+ hours with no issues. The article alludes to this too:
> Slightly less creatively, studies have shown that when experienced arctic explorers are asked to stick their fingers in icy water, they feel less cold than average Joes do—their bodies have slowed down their responses, trained by repeated exposure into playing the long game.
I wonder what changes in the body with repeated exposure, and why we haven’t evolved to do it naturally?