Cooling our internal temperature by passing the blood through something cold
Posted by nobody_gah@reddit | CrazyIdeas | View on Reddit | 37 comments
You already have a liquid system inside you, if we can utilize that then we can bypass the need for any air conditioning. Idk if this is right but logically, our internals emanate the heat that we feel from our skin. So cooling our blood would be more energy efficient because only your body heat will taken away and not the heat from the surroundings.
Onto the problems, blood loss. Now obviously you can’t move around because it’s dangerous if you ever trip or something, so we create those plugs like from The Matrix but it’s a pathway to your arteries instead of nerves. And the hole closes when you take the plug out, which makes it impossible for blood to uncontrollably escape
pavilionaire2022@reddit
It would be most efficient if you divide it up into many tiny tubes to increase surface area. Add evaporative cooling to boost the effect.
Wait, I've just invented sweaty skin.
lightwate@reddit
Reminds me of elephant ears
NinjaBoyLao@reddit
Human body: world's worst least efficient evaporator coil
tads73@reddit
Toi much a shock on the system. You can warm yourself up by putting a heat patch near a major artery.
gsquaredbotics@reddit
Can cool yourself down by running water on your major arteries too!
tads73@reddit
Some reason I assumed they were talking about ice. But yes, space suits did this.
M-Tiger@reddit
An external version exists, using the heat transfer veins in our palms.
It's basically a liquid cooled heatsink inside a glove/mitt that presses against the veins, then a slight vacuum is applied to keep the veins from contracting, to force them to continue transferring heat.
https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2012/08/cooling-glove-research-082912
Ninja_Wrangler@reddit
Ok so this is actually legit.
I donate blood regularly and usually do a double unit of red blood cells. They send my blood through a centrifuge and take the red cells but give the rest back. It's a pretty decent volume of basically room temperature plasma being forcefully pumped back in (much faster than an IV drip, for example). It makes my whole body feel freezing cold
So I guess if you were to pump your blood through some kind of radiator and put it back in at room temperature, you would feel very cold, maybe even dangerously so if the flow is high enough
Ok-Palpitation2401@reddit
Fun fact: you can already do something like that.
Take a can of coke from the fridge, put it on the inside part of the elbow (where the veins are) and keep it there. Move to the other elbow when the first one gets uncomfortable.
It takes few minutes, but it works great on hot days.
ryebread91@reddit
Look up cooling systems they use for mascots and other costumes like for furry characters. I'd imagine something like that attached to our stomach, back or thigh.
8aller8ruh@reddit
Lower back & bottoms of feet are what they do for warming up cosplayers in skimpy outfits in Japan, there is a major artery in your lower back that makes it really good for transferring heat to the rest of your body in a discrete way. This Japanese product is essentially a big stick-on hand warmer but it should work for cooling as well…
Shot_in_the_dark777@reddit
Do we really need this kind of cooling? And if we had a tech to do this, wouldn't it be better to improve external cooling systems that are already in our houses?
WageSlaveEscapist@reddit
For motorcycling in the sun with full leather and pads i use a frozen water bottle on my stomach. It works. What I'd like to see is a plug in flexible pad that gets cold, that can be worn. Maybe it could have cold fluid pumped in coming off a peltier device powered by the alternator.
Sawfish1212@reddit
Just have it in contact with your skin and your amazing blood circulation system will do the rest of the job of spreading the cold.
I bought a new 01 car without an air conditioner because I lived in Maine. A few years later I got a job where it is much hotter and I needed AC.
I created a body chiller that was a cooler full of frozen juice bottles a gallon of water and a 12 volt water pump. The water went into pex ice maker water lines that were mounted to my seat back. It was so effective that I had to turn off the water pump, as I would go from hot and sweating to cold and clamy and then feel sick. A few minutes later I was sweating again and would plug the pump in again.
I was going to add a valve to control the flow rate, but then the car was replaced with one that had air conditioning. I gave away the body chiller to someone moving to Oklahoma with a car with no AC.
Just 6 1/4" pex lines running between my back and the seat back could cool me down to the point I wasn't sweating on a 90 degree day with the car windows open, in 10 minutes or so.
only_a_jest@reddit
We could make little backpacks the size of a transfusion bag! They might not need coolant if they act like rabbit ears do.
Bonus points if the tubing is lined with, or has an inline filter with, stuff that will remove the bad cholesterol.
rasputin6543@reddit
We could skip the backpacks and just install bunny ears.
Also, I think Rogan is shilling some service now that takes the bad stuff out of your blood, so that's great too.
Polypterus-in-Dub@reddit
I want it in a rooster comb design.
only_a_jest@reddit
Customizable high surface area appendages! Perfect for health and self-expression!
Satire-V@reddit
Frozen water bottle between the legs is a pretty effective blood cooler
madcowbcs@reddit
Pads on the wrist, neck, or arm pit without having to make an internal circulation device would be more acceptable and less dangerous.
poly_arachnid@reddit
They've got this already without the punctures. It's neat. You hold your hand around a shaft inside a sort of plastic rounded box filled with ice water. Then a small motor pumps the water in a loop around your hand. Since your blood is close to the surface in your hands it cools easily and as it's pumped back through your body you get your own internal cooling system.
MrAdequatePenis@reddit
Specifically, your palms and soles are Glabrous Skin.
It is hairless, has extra sweat glands, and specialized blood flow. They are effectively the bodies radiators. Part of why a lot of people stick a foot out from the covers when we're in bed. Helps to dump heat and keep the body cool for sleep.
cleveraccountname13@reddit
Imagine putting icepacks on places where a lot of blood is moving relatively close to the surface.
Now stop imagining and try it.
Wow.
HaphazardFlitBipper@reddit
Air conditioned vests are a thing that exists.
E8P3@reddit
Try donating platelets sometime. They put a needle in each arm. One needle pulls blood into a machine that filters out the platelets and then it goes back into the other arm. It's not actively cooling the blood, but just being outside your body in an air conditioned room cools it enough that I need a heating pad and a couple blankets every time. Note that it hurts to move with the needles in, so you'd have to be very careful about a mobile solution.
Liraeyn@reddit
Plasma, too
Liraeyn@reddit
Army Basic: dunking our arms into ice water for 30 seconds then wave them around like lunatics to lower core temperature
SudburySonofabitch@reddit
Your body does this naturally.
Bubs_McGee223@reddit
This in reverse was what they did in an episode of MASH. Dude was dying of hypothermia so they literally pumped his blood out, thru some warm water, then back into him
Dry-Manufacturer7761@reddit
The problem is that you would be shocking the cells with super cooled blood.
Like, you wouldn’t be able to regulate your own body temperature.
LPNMP@reddit
I've donated plasma. It's bad enough the place is medical-grade freezing, but when the first return starts, you can tell the blood has cooled a lot. I bring a blanket and still end up shivering.
Ubockinme@reddit
Ice water for me thanks.
czj420@reddit
Just put icepacks in the armpits and groin.
FreedomsLastBreathe@reddit
Blood moving thru our bodies is like a hydraulic system. Seems the reason we need convective cooling to our skin is that the organs that the blood supply may not operate properly with cold blood.
B2k-orphan@reddit
The military, and any sports agency worth their salt, already essentially do this. If you place your arms into an ice water tub, it will begin circulating that cold blood through your body and cooling you off.
Additionally, a lot of comments suggest putting heating/cooling on the chest or back. Those are not the heat exchange points of the body, you’d want to put heating/cooling in the groin and armpits to effect rapid change in core body temperature.
herejusttoannoyyou@reddit
Our bodies literally do this to an extent. More blood is pumped through our fingers and toes when we are hot, allowing the blood to cool from the environment. When we are cold the blood is restricted to our fingers and toes so we don’t lose as much temp.
I suppose we could use your idea but instead of putting the blood outside our body we could just put our toes in ice water.
Disastrous_Ad1260@reddit
Cold blood does cool you fast. They warm blood before transfusions.