Hey, guys. I was feeling funky the other day, and wrote a little piece that I thought that I'd send to Fig Leaf. You get to be the Guinea Pigs.
Tell me what you think:
I was thinking the other day, and I came to the conclusion that the next time somebody asks me why it is that I think God created us with the intent to be nude, or at least nearly nude, I think that my response will be “because I sweat”. My inquisitor will probably give me a very strange look, but then I will be asked to explain, and I’ll be given the chance to state my case. And now, I’ll be able to give them a well thought-out, clinically sound, even logical reply.
The human body produces an enormous amount of heat. When you pile on all of those extra blankets in the winter, all you are actually doing is insulating yourself enough that the heat your own body generates isn’t lost into the surrounding cool air. The blankets don’t make you warmer. YOU make all the warmth, the blankets just keep it in. Think about it: were those bed sheets warm when you got in? No. They were cold. Real cold. But after you were in bed for a few minutes, it started to get cozy. You warmed the blankets.
When you exert yourself or find yourself in a warm climate, the body can become too warm, and it needs to cool itself off. That’s where sweating comes in. To cool itself off your body will route blood from the core areas out close to the skin. The skin is covered with sweat, which removes the excess heat from the blood through evaporation. That blood is then carried back deep into the body in an attempt to lower the core temperature. Easy, right?
But now, if you cover your skin with clothing all the time, you short-circuit that very efficient cooling mechanism. Your skin needs to be exposed to the air for your body to regulate it’s temperature properly. I know. I know. I can just hear them now: “When your clothes get wet with sweat the same thing happens.” Yeah, but how much and for how long has your body been over-heated before you can sweat through your clothes? A long time, right? And do you really think God would expect us to have to put up with those sticky, uncomfortable, smelly clothes that we’ve been sweating in all day? I just don’t see it.
If we were able to be nude when climate allowed, I think we would find that our bodies are more wonderfully able to adapt and protect us than we might ever imagine. We sweat to stay cool. We shiver to stay warm. When we tan slowly without burning, we even protect ourselves from skin damage and possible cancer from the sun (according to an article I just read). Why do we have to always think that we know better than the Designer? Leave the clothes in the drawer; we don’t need them. Leave the sun block at home; it just allows you to stay out in the sun longer, which increases your chances of burning. Just go outside, into nature, NATURALLY. Let your body tell you what it needs. It knows better than you do anyway.
My wife read it and said "Gee, you ARE smart." Not like a compliment, but like she just realized it.
Hi Kevin, Very good article. It makes much sense and is a point I have also thought about. And, I had already suspected you may be smart. BTW, What is the article you just read to which you referred?
Yes, it is an interesting line of thought...but don't run out and spend the money that comes with the Pulitzer just yet.
You're certainly right about clothing during hot weather interfering with the body's natural cooling system. When I'm nude at home during the summer, there's rarely a need for the air conditioning. If I just put on light summer shorts and a T-shirt it's not long before I realize that it's too hot in the house.
It's been a long time since I read about Darwin, but I think that one of the surprises on his voyage had to do with this very thing. At the tip of South America they encountered natives in that cold climate who wore nothing at all, or at least next to nothing. Their bodies had adapted to be comfortable without clothing.
While you do short circuit the natural cooling mechanism of the body, there are advantages to wearing the right type of clothing in hot weather.
I saw a tape made by a Civil War reinactor who was speaking to a historical scoiety. He mentioned that the typical soldier wore 2 wool uniforms because there was nowhere to carry the extra. Although hot, after the uniforms became soaked with sweat, they acted as evaporative coolers.
""I saw a tape made by a Civil War Re-enactor who was speaking to a historical society. He mentioned that the typical soldier wore 2 wool uniforms because there was nowhere to carry the extra. Although hot, after the uniforms became soaked with sweat, they acted as evaporative coolers.""
May I add to this information??
Whomever that Re-enactor may have been, he has never been in ANY Re-enactment that I've ever heard about or attended. Now, he may have been a historical 'presenter'. If so, his facts were a hair askew.
Confederate anbd Union Soldiers, did wear a heavy, heavy wool uniform. It was hotter than two blazing suns because it trapped heat very efficiently. They wore cotton underwear and woolen socks inside brogans.
Have you ever wondered why Infantry and Cavalry ALWAYS wore their full uniforms during combat?? Artillery and ancillary troops, for example, litter bearers, sometimes went without their Uniform coats during Summer combat. It had to do with the powder used and the shirts the soldiers wore. Soldiers wore linen shirts underneath their uniform jackets. Linen is cool, but very easily ignited. They used black powder, resulting in numerous sparks. It wouldn't take long before linen shirts would be ablaze, not a good option during combat.
During War Between The States Combat, particularly during the Summer, Soldiers overheated and sweated profusely. Linen shirts were relatively cool. Wool wicks persperation. Put these factors together. The cooler shirts allowed the sweat to escape to the wool Uniform jacket. The wool wicked the sweat to the outside of the jacket, providing evaporative cooling plus......
Wool is extremely difficult to ignite. Add in sweat, the jackets provided cooling and helped to extinguish sparks. It also functioned as a fire protection suit!! As a Medical Re-Enactor, I've seen the above occur.
A wonderful example of the above involved Union Infantry opposing Confederate Cavalry under General Forrest at Brice's Cross Roads, Mississippi. The Confederate Cavalry fought as dismounted troops. One-fourth of War Between The States Cavalry stayed with the horses while the others fought as Dismounted Infantry. Forrest rotated a few of his dismounted troops at a time so they could recuperate in the shade.
Union troops five miles away were called into the battle. They 'quick-marched' for two miles. Then, on their own, desperate to help their brother Federal troops, those troops broke into 'a dead-run' for the last three miles. By the time they reached the open battlefield, they were so overheated that many fell onto the ground unconscious or dead. In this, and a few other battles, the woolen suits so efficiently trapped the heat that some Soldiers suffered heat-exhaustion or heat-stroke.
It's true that wool that does help to cool the wearer. However, two Uniforms would have killed the Soldier during any Season except coldest Winter. Also, the Troops did indeed have ways to keep up with extra clothing. They were called Baggage Trains, amongst several.
KuzeN, thank you for an informative post. I didn't think the originally posted "two-uniform" idea could possibly be true.
I'm not questioning any of your facts, because I know that this is an area that you have studied. But you seem to present two contrary conclusions:
"In this, and a few other battles, the woolen suits so efficiently trapped the heat that some soldiers suffered heat-exhaustion or heat-stroke.
It's true that wool that does help to cool the wearer"
The heat effects of heavy wool uniforms come up time and again in the history of various wars. There were summer battles during the Revolutionary War in which the heavy uniforms worn by the English and Hessian troops were a great disadvantage.
So I think the conclusion that the woolen suits effeciently trapped the heat is the correct one. If your clothing has become saturated with sweat, then a breeze blowing across the wool will feel cooler. But the breeze will feel cooler still if you are sweating and not wearing any clothes at all.
It is interesting that in the Australian outback where the summers reach temperatures of over 40 degrees Centagrade, sheep are shorn in late winter or early spring. This is so they can have a good covering of wool before the heat comes for insulation. The interesting aspect of this is that the sheep also change their behaviours as the heat comes. The hotter the weather the slower and more sedentary the sheep, the cooler the weather the more frisky the sheep. Sheep which are herded in summer suffer more from heat if covered in wool. Sheep in pens in summer suffer more from heat if shorn. Message is if you want to be active when hot don't wear wool, if you want to sleep when hot where wool!
Tevita
As I said, pull on two sets of bulky clothes, identically the same size, shape, and so on. Such would effectively destroy your ranges-of-motion. Then, try to accomplish much of anything. It would be hard at best, much less under extremes.
Also, at least some of the time, the Troops had woolen, not cotton, socks. Try to stick your foot inside a brogan with two of those thick socks on.
Who knows?? I surely don't. His facts will have to 'stand on their own two feet'. In the meanwhile, I ain't wearing woolies today!!
Hallo everybody,
just my two cents to the subject.
The human body usually runs at a very constant core temperature. The possible reduction of the core temperature (before irreversible damage happens)is much larger than the possible increase in temperature.
The comfortable skin surface temperature is around 82F. If the surounding temperature increases the body takes measures as KuzeN described.
Now there is another problem which sometimes indicate that clothing keeps the person cooler. It is the difference in heatload of just the surrounding air and the sun (beams). That is why you never get a sunburn while in the shade. The extrem high heatload that the direct sun puts onto the skin makes it - at high air temperatures, when the body already has problems to get keep its core temperature by sweating - impossible for the body to handle this additional heat (energy). That is why the sheep in Australia get along in summer quite well with the wool. But there is an important difference between sheep an humans. Sheep can not sweat (I hope I do not tell you nonsens ). So the human body always has to have the change for evaporative cooling through sweating. Unfortunately the human body can compensate the reduction of this evaporative cooling due to clothing over a wide range (especially through reduced activity) otherwise everybody would run around naked in summer.
Unfortunately there are no statistics about how many people die or get seriously sick each year due to overheating, especially older people. They are usually diagnosed with heart attack or ?collapsing blood circulation? (not sure about the right expression). I estimate that these numbers would beat most of the popular diseases and a change in attitude towards nudity would save public health care billions of $$ each year....now I am becoming speculative...
Jack
I'd tell where you read the article and maybe a little bit more about what it says.
Maybe research whether any study has been done regarding sweat as a sun protector.
I know my own body secretes oil along with the sweat. Wonder what SFP that oil has?
I've always maintained that if you put enough foreign substance (e.g. sun tan oil) on your body that you may be causing it to develop cancer because of the oil's effect on the skin. Certain oils in petroleum do develop cancer. These are mostly the aromatic compounds similar to benzene.
I agree completely with your article. The only thing that I would add is the reality that if we're nude and hot, we're more likely to pop in the shower or stream to cool off and it doesn't take much time. When I'm dressed, I have to consider removing all clothing, then bathing, then redressing. Now that I'm a nudist, if I'm hot or dirty I just pop in and out of the shower in 2 minutes and carry on with my day. It's not such an ordeal any more.
Sounds great to me! I've been finding myself doing better without clothing in the sun than with a pair of shorts on in the sun. Even one article of clothing seems to hamper the rest of the body.
But I would still advise people to be careful in the sun, even while nude. You can still get way too much. But to sit out under a shade tree in the nude is awesome.
Camping in a wooded area with some sun, a lake, hiking trails, a little rock climbing, is great in the nude! I find myself able to hike and work longer nude than with even one light pair of shorts on.
). So the human body always has to have the change for evaporative cooling through sweating. Unfortunately