Hot Aches Research Project
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Hot aches research project
IRAS ID
230453
Contact name
Jacob George
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Dundee
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 1 days
Research summary
Hot aches is a well-known phenomenon amongst winter climbers, a sport for which Scotland is famous. This common phenomenon occurs when a climber has been still for long enough that his/her hands have become very cold. When the climber starts climbing the body’s metabolism increases and this rewarms the body. However, the hands often remain above the climber’s head, in direct contact with snow. Usually, although not always, at the next rest point the climber’s hands return to their side and blood begins to flow back into the hands. This begins as a familiar throb, which most have experienced when cold hands rewarm, but it continues to increase in discomfort until causing hot aches. Initially it is assumed that the hot aches are driven by peripheral vasoconstriction, however, the symptoms are both centrally and peripherally experienced which makes the hot aches more complex than simply very cold hands. The systemic symptoms can include nausea, pin hole vision, muffled hearing and in extreme cases vomiting.
In 2016 we published a descriptive epidemiological study on 386 Scottish winter climbers. We have identified that 96% climbers experience hot aches. They generally last 1-5 min, and 75 % rate them as being 3-4 (out of 5) on a pain scale. The most common local symptoms are pain (87 %), throbbing (70 %) and tingling (52 %). The most common systemic symptoms are nausea (44 %), irritability (32 %) and dizziness (20 %)1.
The goals from this research are to recreate hot aches in a controlled environment on volunteers from the climbing community in a reproducible manor. Once this has been achieved, we will attempt to uncover the underlying mechanism.
REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 1
REC reference
18/ES/0037
Date of REC Opinion
10 Apr 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion