User:Pmhucker/Hypothermophobia

Hypothermophobia
Hypothermophobia is a phobia pertaining to the fear of becoming too cold. Sufferers of this problem are under the impression that, for example, Goose_bumps are an indication that your body is in trouble, when they are in fact just a method of your body maintaining its core temperature. People with a lesser form of the phobia will worry when their teeth start to chatter, or other parts of their body shiver, which is simply the body's muscles generating heat.

Many people think going into icy water will immediately kill you, yet there are plenty of people who go for "new year dips" and live to tell the tale.

Facts and figures
Humans will not die until their core temperature reaches 20C (normal temperature is 37C), yet shivering starts at 35C, a long way from the point of death.

It is said that the average person can survive in cold water without protection such as a drysuit at:

<0C for up to 45 minutes,

0-4C for 30-90 minutes,

4-10C for 1-3 hours,

10-16C for 1 to 6 hours,

16-21C for 2-40 hours,

21-27C for 3 hours to indefinitely.

But everyone is different, and those in colder climates or with exposure to the cold on a regular basis can survive much longer. Sufferers of hypothermophobia often cannot understand that others don't get cold (or feel as cold) as quickly as they do.