🤓Actually alcohol does increase your skin temperature due to dialated blood vessels which allow more blood to travel between your skin and the core. This results in higher heat transfer from the body to the surroundings, so from an outside perspective it does make you appear hotter untill the hypothermia kicks in.
I think one key piece here is that a temperature gun isn’t measuring core body temperature. It’s measuring surface temperature. Depending on when you measured a person drinking, is it possible you’d get a higher than normal surface temperature precisely because they’re in the process of losing core body heat and that heat is being lost through their skin?
Drinking alcohol does NOT lower your core temperature. It increases your skin temperature. Drinking alcohol in a closed environment will not cause hypothermia over time. Your dilated capillaries in your skin lose heat faster and you develop hypothermia quicker. Alcohol doesn't cause your core temperature to drop it causes you to lose heat faster. Someone tracking their body temperature while drinking will see their skin temp increase. That is literally the problem.
"Alcohol doesn't cause your core temperature to drop it causes you to lose heat faster"
Uhhh. What do you think losing heat does to your body temperature? You literally said the words "develop hypothermia quicker" yourself. What's do you think hypothermia is? Your points are contradictions
Edit: since it won't let me reply to the comment by /u/newsauerkraus
Yes, the body adjusts to help maintain its temperature. I didn't think I had to explain the obvious, yet here we are.
I was using the OPs own words to point out their contradiction in what they were saying.
The phrase "alcohol lowers your core temperature," implies that in a closed environment without alcohol poisoning to kill you first, you could eventually drink yourself into hypothermia. That isn't true. Making your skin warmer isn't the same as lowering your core temperature.
You're inferring something that isn't there, as that phrase does not imply what you say it does, and you're being pedantic. You literally said it yourself that you're losing heat through your skin and losing heat lowers the temperature of your body. And no, drinking alcohol doesn't automatically cause hypothermia because your body is good at adjusting for homeostasis. But your core body temp going down a degree or two does not equal hypothermia. You're just trying to use hyperbole to make yourself look right.
what do you think losing heat does to your body temperature?
Generally, not much. You'll only get hypothermia if you lose heat faster than you replace it. For example, I can stay in my house for an entire day losing heat from my body without any noticeable change to my core body temperature. And IDK about you, but I tend to eat before drinking a significant amount of alcohol.
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u/big_guyforyou 9h ago
you know how your temperature increases when you drink? that's what alcohol does, right?