Red-Haired Ash Reads

Out Cold chronicles the history of using cold in medicine and hyperthermia. This covers experimentations, accidents, and all different kinds of medical marvels. This is a topic that is not really something that I have ever really thought of when it comes to medical history, but it ended up being a really fascinating one. 

I learned a lot about hypothermia and the use of cold in medicine from this. I never even heard of all the people who were mentioned in this book, so I was constantly captivated by the interesting, and sometimes horrific, experiments and cures they did with cold treatments. This even covers things like how to handle the cold of space for astronauts and possibilities of hibernation for long term space flights. 

Not only does this discuss medical marvels, but it also covers more modern things like cryonics and how people are freezing themselves after death in the hopes of being revived in the future. This goes over the origins of cryonics with Robert Ettinger, the first people put into cryogenic pods after death, the many controversies and failures, and its current outlook. I found this section so fascinating because while I have heard of cryonics, I never really done any research into it because I know it’s not something I want to do with my body when I die.  

Overall, this was a fascinating look at hypothermia, cold treatments, and how cold has been used throughout history and today. I learned a lot and want to do more research on some of the people and things discussed in this book now. 

TW: treatment and experiments that was basically torture; animal testing, abuse, and death;

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