If you hear someone saying, ‘This is as hot as ice,’ you would be taken aback for a second and have a hard time processing it. However, the statement isn’t entirely wrong. We always perceive and associate coldness with ice. But the prevalence of a phenomenon might challenge this perception, which is, if you hold on to an ice cube or keep any body part in contact with an icy surface, you would start to feel a burning sensation after a point in time. It is wondrous to actually acknowledge that something as cold as ice, too, can induce a sensation of burning. But how is it possible? The answer lies in neurons and the basic transfer of heat. Anyone moderately versed with science knows that our body is only active because a highly complicated nexus of neurons is working to bring physicality to the term ‘feel.’ In addition, our body, to foster the life so precious, functions at an optimum temperature. It survives on a very balanced point between hot and cold. Let’s coagulate these two facts together.
When you hold an ice cube, there is an inevitable transfer of heat. Heat, as energy, moves from a region of high concentration to a region of low concentration. This causes your fingers to lose heat to the freezing block of ice. Neurons detect this transfer as soon as it happens. It directs other organs to behave according to this foreign phenomenon.
As a result, the body slows down the blood circulation at that particular ice-touching area. The slow down causes discomfort to that body part, although the process is beneficial for the body as it maintains the core temperature removing any hindrance. This coping-up procedure when the body is defending its core temperature by slowing down the circulation for a body part is called ‘Hypothermia.’
Hypothermia is the slowing down of the circulation, but when the contact between the body and the cold ice gets prolonged beyond a safe time period, it takes the face of frostbite. When the oxygen level in a body part stoops to extremely low levels, the body part gradually becomes dysfunctional and can be lethal. In extreme cases, it can lead to amputation of that body part or death.
It is interesting to note that the sensation induced by the body coming in contact with something as cold as ice or something as hot as fire is the same. Although, the biological consequences in both cases differ on many levels.
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