Frostbite and frostnip facts

It's one degree fahrenheit tonight and I just left a party wearing a light windbreaker, no hat or gloves. But on a dangerously frigid night like tonight, it's just plain foolish not to dress warmly. To make my point, one double-digit below zero evening when I was a teenager, my family left a professional tennis match and walked to the car. Our station wagon started up, but hundreds of other fans' cars did not crank over. In just a few minutes, many frustrated fans sustained frostbite while trying to start their car.

Julie's Health Club shares ten frostbite facts you might not know. Here are a few:

• At zero degrees fahrenheit with a breeze, skin can freeze in ten minutes -- wet skin or children's skin freezes even faster.
• Don't massage a frostbitten area, it can be painful and damage the tissue. There are quite a few self-care treatment tips to consider -- check them out here, compliments of eMedicineHealth.
• You cannot get frostbite on your lungs -- your nose and throat warms inhaled air, while circulating blood warms the lungs.
• Babies can't shiver (the body's natural way to produce heat and warm itself). Beware, they can also develop frostbite faster as they lose heat more quickly due to a higher skin surface area (fat rolls), a lack of stored fat under the skin and the inability to shiver.
• Dehydration and low blood sugar hasten frostbite -- stay hydrated and carry snacks in frigid weather.

With frostnip, you may feel numbness and tingling, but the skin tissue has not frozen or been injured. The symptoms are caused by a narrowing of the blood vessels due to the cold, occuring at temperatures around 59 degrees fahrenheit. Rewarm the area as quickly as possible, but refrain from warming the skin by rubbing as you could injure the cold tissue.