Hypothermia News and Research

RSS

When exposed to cold temperatures, your body begins to lose heat faster than it can be produced. Prolonged exposure to cold will eventually use up your body’s stored energy. The result is hypothermia, or abnormally low body temperature. Body temperature that is too low affects the brain, making the victim unable to think clearly or move well. This makes hypothermia particularly dangerous because a person may not know it is happening and won’t be able to do anything about it.

Hypothermia is most likely at very cold temperatures, but it can occur even at cool temperatures (above 40°F) if a person becomes chilled from rain, sweat, or submersion in cold water.

State lawmakers eye forced treatment to address overlap in homelessness and mental illness

Many of the unhoused people in Portland, Oregon, live in tents pitched on sidewalks or in aging campers parked in small convoys behind grocery stores.

17 May 2023

Study sheds light on a possible pharmacological approach to treat cardiac arrhythmias

Scientists at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research (LIMR) near Philadelphia have found that a drug discovered at SFU and patented several years ago may have potential lifesaving results in the treatment of conditions leading to sudden cardiac death.

10 May 2023

Therapeutic hypothermia for treating neonatal encephalopathy ineffective for some newborns

Therapeutic hypothermia, the only evidence-based treatment for newborns born with neonatal encephalopathy (NE) at or after 36 weeks, is not effective for reducing death or moderate/severe disability in newborns born between 33 and 35 weeks, according to a new study.

28 Apr 2023

Cold temperature plays a central role in longevity

Cold activates a cellular cleansing mechanism that breaks down harmful protein aggregations responsible for various diseases associated with aging.

3 Apr 2023

New cooling strategy could prevent the growth of glioblastoma

Cooling brain tumor cells to stop them from dividing without killing healthy cells extended the survival of glioblastoma (GBM) animal models dramatically in a study led by a UT Southwestern resident.

12 Jan 2023

Preoptic neurons play key role in regulating body temperature in mammals, study shows

A research group at Nagoya University in Japan has reported that a group of neurons, called EP3 neurons, in the preoptic area of the brain play a key role in regulating body temperature in mammals.

23 Dec 2022

New method can protect organs during heart and aortic surgery

Researchers led by Hidetoshi Masumoto and Genshiro Sunagawa at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research (BDR) in Japan have developed a new method of protecting organs during heart and aortic surgery when blood circulation has to be blocked.

20 Nov 2022

Delay in consciousness in severe cases of COVID-19 may be caused by neural hibernation

An article published in the journal PNAS provides a conceptual analysis to interpret the brain state of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients experiencing prolonged recovery of consciousness.

10 Nov 2022

Review: Cold water swimming may cut 'bad' body fat in men and reduce the risk of diabetes

Taking a dip in cold water may cut 'bad' body fat in men and reduce the risk of disorders such as diabetes, suggests a major scientific review published in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Circumpolar Health.

23 Sep 2022

Antiviral activity of favipiravir against Zika and SARS-CoV-2 in cynomolgus macaques

A new study determines the antiviral efficacy of favipiravir against ZIKV and SARS-CoV-2 infections.

4 Sep 2022

Adding erythropoietin to cooling therapy shows no added benefits for newborns with birth asphyxia

Adding erythropoietin to cooling therapy for term newborns with birth asphyxia has no benefit over cooling therapy alone, a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

14 Jul 2022

Natural immunity weak and short-lived in unvaccinated after Omicron infection

In a recent study posted to the journal Nature, researchers showed that the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron infection without SARS-CoV-2 vaccination conferred poor cross-variant neutralizing capacities.

20 May 2022

Research may lead to more effective interventions for hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy

One of the most common causes of disability or death in newborns is a lack of oxygen or blood flow in the brain during labor or delivery.

11 May 2022

Women recommended to wait for at least two years after bariatric surgery before trying to conceive

Women who have had weight loss surgery should wait at least two years before trying for a baby, new research presented at the European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Maastricht, the Netherlands (4-7 May), suggests.

8 May 2022

Aggressively warming patients during surgery offers no benefit, study says

Patients kept at a body temperature of 37 C during major surgery had no fewer cardiac complications than patients kept at 35.5 C, according to data presented at the American College of Cardiology's 71st Annual Scientific Session.

4 Apr 2022

Prolonged unconsciousness is common in COVID-19 patients, recovery often takes days or even weeks

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, many patients in intensive care units did not recover consciousness after their breathing tubes were removed and their sedation was stopped, leaving clinicians and families with difficult decisions about whether to continue life-sustaining therapy.

16 Mar 2022

Recovery of consciousness may take weeks for most COVID patients on respirators

Most patients with severe COVID who are put on ventilators regain consciousness after removal of respiratory support, but recovery may take weeks after the period of mechanical ventilation has ended, according to a new study by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Harvard Medical School, NewYork-Presbyterian and Massachusetts General Hospital.

15 Mar 2022

Impact of DNA clearance on mortality in patients with severe COVID-19 infections

In a new study, researchers conducted activity-based proteomic profiling of patients who had severe SARS-CoV-2 infections to understand the impact of DNA clearance on mortality.

28 Jan 2022

Study finds Omicron infection effectively induces immunity against itself and enhances protection against other variants in vaccinated individuals

Researchers investigated the effectiveness of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron-variant induced immunity, whether it is cross-protective against other variants, and if earlier infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant offers protection against Omicron.

20 Jan 2022

Rewarming after cooling therapy increases the odds of seizures in oxygen-deprived newborns

Oxygen-deprived newborns who undergo cooling therapy to protect their brains are at an elevated risk of seizures and brain damage during the rewarming period, which could be a precursor of disability or death, a new study by a team of researchers led by a UT Southwestern pediatrician suggests.

19 Oct 2021