From: ABlainey@aol.com
Date: Mon May 15 2000 - 18:40:55 MDT
In a message dated 15/05/00 22:57:03 GMT Standard Time, Spudboy100@aol.com
writes:
>
> Much as doctors would like to, there is no way of cooling just the head.
> They
> must chill the entire body. In all the experiments so far, this is done the
> old-fashioned way. Patients are covered in air-cooled blankets and
sometimes
> packed in ice or rubbed with alcohol.
I have seen a device that was tried in the UK by paramedics at RTA's
where a crash helmet type devices was placed on the victims of head trauma,
Then CO2 was pumped through the helmet creating dry ice and rapidly cooling
the patients head.
> However, later this year, doctors will try something entirely new. Human
> studies
> are expected to begin with devices that cool the body from the inside out.
surely chilled water colonic irigation would have a very similar effect,
this would be less invasive and as the patients blood supply would already be
redirected to the internal organs due to shock, there would be an increased
blood supply the in intestines and colon. Im not sure whether the body would
have a natural defence against this intrusion by drawing the blood supply
away.
> Dr. Myron Ginsberg of the University of Miami noticed that when scientists
> clamped arteries in rats' brains to study the amount of damage that
resulted,
> no
> two experiments ever seemed to turn out the same.
> In time, he figured out why. Slight differences in the temperature of the
> rats'
> brains, resulting from things like the lab temperature and air currents,
had
> ahuge impact on the extent of the animals' strokes. The cooler the brain,
it
> turned out, the smaller the stroke. But even a modest drop in temperature
> seemed
> to be highly protective, while a little extra heat made things vastly
worse.
I would expect there to be some evidence in humans coresponding to this.
There must be some difference in stroke mortality rates between hotter climes
and coutries like Sweden or Siberia. Does anyone know of any such studies ?.
> "Two or three degrees of temperature change every biological system known
to
> man, often by 100 percent," says Dr. Alister Buchon of the University of
> Calgary. "We evolved at this temperature. We don't work if we lower it."
>
> Ginsberg says his experiments suggest an ideal target for stroke treatment:
> Lower body temperature by about 5 degrees Celsius from the normal 37.5,
> start
> the treatment within three or four hours and hold down the temperature for
> 24
> to
> 36 hours.
Why not longer, considerable damage occurs up to a week after brain
trauma.
> Doctors consider this to be mild hypothermia, and they hope patients will
be
> able to stand it while conscious. Possibilities include giving them mild
> sedatives and warming their skin while catheters chill their blood.
I know that the US army/navy have done much research on the effects of
cold on the body, in particular studies on navy seals. In there tests they
have found that multiple exposures to cold, lowers the bodies internal
temerature for long terms and takes away the natural defence of shivering
> However, the cold catheters have never been used on a person, so no one
> reallyknows how the human body will react to having its blood cooled. Some
> speculate
> that if the skin stays warm, the brain will be fooled into thinking all is
> balmy.
>
> "It makes sense that some of the body's negative reaction to hypothermia
> wouldpossibly not be seen if the cooling comes from within," says Connolly.
> "The body
> has no defense mechanism against that, because there is no environmental
> equivalent."
Colonic irrigation. ??
> Many doctors agree that if cooling works, it will have to be done quickly,
> before the stroke runs its irreversible course. This will mean starting it
> as
> soon as suspected stroke patients arrive at the emergency room, or perhaps
> even
> before. Some suggest ambulance crews might insert a cooling catheter on the
> way
> to the hospital.
>
Well if I ever have a stroke, im going to spray a fire extiguisher on my
head, stuff the shower hose up my backside and eat ice until the ambulance
crew arrives.
Alex.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:28:38 MST