Drinking alcohol to stay warm is the worst idea

If you were a cartoon character, stuck in a pile of snow, what would almost certainly be coming to rescue at any moment? A St. Bernard with a small barrel of brandy attached to its collar, of course. A good swig should warm you to the core, right?

Wrong, say the researchers behind the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine's look into this very subject. Evidently, alcohol is just about the worst thing you can drink when you're cold, as it decreases the body's core temperature and increases the risk of hypothermia.

What's more, it also reverses the reflexes that control body temperature. By actually reducing the body's ability to shiver -- which is the body's natural way of creating warmth -- alcohol also increases blood flow to the skin, rather than to the organs.