Cold Weather

There are many different types of enviromental stresses that put pressure upon us as human beings. These stresses can also affect animals and plants. We do usually put ourselves into these living situations where we will be affected but some do not have a choice. The cold plays a major part on individuals and the way they live and survive in the cold weather. People living in the cold or just exposed to the cold temperatures for too long can experience hypothermia. The cold also increases the likely hood that these individuals will stay in side more than someone in warmer climates. These people living in the cold are going to be depleted from Vitamin D. When these people do go to sunnier, warmer areas, they are more likely to get sunburns or sun poisoning which will hurt their immune system. People who live in the cold will also experience their levels of oxygen to be affected. When these people work or play, their heart will be working harder due to these conditions. For people with heart problems, this could be very detrimental to their health. The types of food that are able to be grown in these conditions is also very different from sunny conditions or others. The people living in these enviroments will have different selections of foods and have to eat a lot more food with perservatives in order to get the food they want.

People have learned to adapt to the cold and actually a lot of people love to be in cold weathers such as the snow. 

A short term adapation to the cold weather is shivering. Shivering is a homeostatic function that our body employs to regulate our body temperature.  We shiver in an effort to keep ourselves warm. Shivering is something that just happens, we don't have to make ourselves shiver, our bodies realize that they are too cold and are trying to warm back up.

A facultative adaptation to the cold could be gaining weight to keep warmer. By eating very fatty foods and a large amount of food, the bodies Basal Metabolic Rate will increase which will produce body heat. If only everyone knew that increasing your muscle mass will increase your BMR, we would be a much healthier species. This is a biological function that would occur over time by eating more and more and doing less physical activity but it can also be reversed over time. This would require a diet change and workout regime but it could be done. If only everyone knew that increasing your muscle mass will increase your BMR, we would be a much healthier species.


According to Allen's Rule, developmental adaptations to the cold weather are such that of body size and shape. People with shorter, stubbier limbs are going to be able to maintain more body heat then people with longer bodies. The shorter limbs make the body more compact and then they have less surface area. With the less surface area compared to body mass, the body heat is not lost to the environment as easily. 

Cultural adaptations to the cold weather would be the change in the way people eat and their nutrition. The people living in colder climates are going to have different eating habits than those of in warmer areas. They are going to consume much more carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are complex organic compounds that are the main fuel source for the metabolic process. It takes carbohydrates a long period of time to be broken down since they are so complex. This gives the people long lasting energy and therefore body heat. 

Studying human variation helps us to understand why certain people or cultures live the way the do. It can help us to see why some cultures are larger than others and why some have a longer life span than others. If we studied a particular culture, we would be able to see how their lives differ from ours and what could be changed to either to improve the life span or way of life. 


I think that race could be used to understand the variation of adaptations in such a way just depending on skin tone and color. Skin color is controlled by melanin production. Melanin provides protection against solar radiation and solar vitamin D absorption is impeded by melanin. People living in colder climates will not be exposed to the sun as much as others in warmer climates and will be depleted of vitamin D. Their skin color is going to be lighter in areas where they get less vitamin D because people with lighter skin are able to generate more vitamin D. Environmental influences on adaptations are a better way to understand human variation rather than the use of race. Race is a vary specific topic and does not provide all the necessary evidence needed to study human variation but just for that race.