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Old January 8th 15, 11:36 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
John B. Slocomb
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Posts: 606
Default Raise your glass ( AG: Watch your ankles)

On Thu, 08 Jan 2015 06:58:20 +0000, Phil W Lee
wrote:

John B. Slocomb considered Thu, 08 Jan 2015
07:47:25 +0700 the perfect time to write:

On Wed, 07 Jan 2015 10:00:49 -0500, dgk wrote:

On Tue, 06 Jan 2015 20:21:28 +0000, Phil W Lee
wrote:

Doc O'Leary considered Mon, 5 Jan
2015 17:38:06 +0000 (UTC) the perfect time to write:

For your reference, records indicate that
dgk wrote:

All interesting points. I complained about having cold toes and
fingers on bike forums and get told that I need to keep the core warm.
The core is warm and even sweating but the hands and toes freeze. So I
just figure that I have crappy circulation there, but maybe keeping
the ankles warmer would help.

No, you have to address the fundamental circulation issue. I, too, find
it relatively easy (especially with modern clothing) to keep my core warm
enough to get sweaty, but the circulation to my extremities is still cut
off. The solution is to combat the vasoconstrictor effect directly.

My method: alcohol. I’m a non-drinker in general, but I *will* drink when
I go exercising in cold weather. Not enough to get drunk, of course, but
enough to get my circulation into the “warm” phase. I *want* to lose
extra heat at the extremities.

It’s -7F (-22C) in Minneapolis right now (worse with wind chill), and I’m
biking today. It’s not as fun as it is in warmer weather, but it was far
more miserable before I realized how alcohol could improve things.

A slightly less controversial alternative to alcohol might be a mild
blood thinner, like aspirin 75mg (best taken with a snack, to avoid
stomach irritation).
Of course, if you prefer natural products, you could achieve the same
thing by chewing a bit of willow bark (which is what aspirin was
originally derived from), but it's VERY bitter, and controlling the
dose would be difficult.

I always kind of wondered about that. I knew that asprin came from
bark, but how many people went around chewing bark from various trees
until they found one that had the desired effect? And since it takes a
while to work, they could only chew one tree at a time until
sufficient time had passed to know whether it worked or not.


I've seen "dried willow bark" for sale in a Chinese apothecary shop. I
believe it is used as a "tea".


And once things like that are in regular use, people tend to notice
the effects.

I'm sure that in pre-history, some knowledge of that kind was actively
sought though. The real shame is how little of it we've retained.


I've seen willow bark tea mentioned in different countries so I'd
guess that it was pretty well known. But why bother with collecting
bark, carefully drying it and making tea when Bayer made all the
preparation redundant :-) But many herbal remedies were synthesized
and are use today. Foxglove, for example, (digitalis) was used in the
1700's to treat heart problems. Plain old charcoal was used for upset
stomachs, probably since pre-historic times, in fact I use it
occasionally, but I buy it in the store rather than chopping up my
wife's cooking fuel.
--
Cheers,

John B.
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