Myth - You Lose Most of Your Body Heat Through Your Head | Healthy Living India

We’re continuing our series of breaking 20 Health Myths. And today’s health myth that will be broken is the myth that “You lose most of your body heat through your head.” And already there are hordes of people going, “What do you mean myth? It’s true! I know it” Fact of the matter is that the reason we’re calling it a myth is that there’s documented evidence as to where the idea of losing most of your body heat through your head comes from and how that information was debunked and whom by and when…

Read the previous myth: Cold Weather Makes You Sick
Read the next myth: Cracking Your Knuckles Causes Arthritis

US Army Made a Mistake: Biiiiiig Surprise!
Turns out that this idea came from the US Army Survival Manual in 1970. It was an interpretation drawn from “scientific” experiments where the subjects were dressed in arctic survival suits but without hats and exposed to bitterly cold conditions. Then the body heat loss was measured and since every other part of the body was covered, they deduced that the heat loss must have been through the head.

Studies since then, that were actually scientific, debunked this idea saying that even if the subjects were dressed in bikinis – exactly, can u imagine Americans GI’s in bikinis in extreme cold conditions? Who writes this stuff? It’s wasted on medical journals – would have lost the same amount of heat through their head.

So What Do You Do
If it’s cold outside – cover up. Your body heat will be reduced proportionately to the outside temperature. Whether you wear a hat though is up to you – and the bikini wearing soldiers… wonder how the Iraq war would’ve turned out with them on the front…

Source: British Medical Journal: BMJ 2008;337:a2769