Lynne Cox is a
famed cold-water swimmer from
Manchester,
New Hampshire. Her
claim to fame is the
1987 feat of
swimming across the
Bering Strait (51
miles at its
narrowest point) without
aid of any kind. No
wet suit. No
lanolin. Nothing between her
skin and the
numb-
cold water except a
Speedo. It took her
two hours and
six minutes; I'm
assuming that she found a
way to
swim with the current.
Cox was poked and prodded by varied scientific implements after the swim; it was discovered that she could somehow unconsciously suppress the natural reaction to cold water. You see, when you are immersed in cold water, all the blood that circulates to your extremities will lose a great amount of heat, causing a massive drop in core temperature. And your body will give itself a shot of adrenaline to boost heart rate and open up the blood vessels every once and a while in the cold. Cox could somehow throttle blood flow to her extremities so that they got just enough oxygen to live. There were no adrenaline rushes, even after she sat (cheerfully) in 40 degree water for hours. She could stay out of hypothermic shock six times longer than a normal human being.