Drink alcohol to keep warm

Myth: Drinking alcohol increases your body temperature.

Truth: Are you nuts? It always amazes me that this nonsense is still around. It just won’t go away. “But, I hear drunks saying this all the time”…you say. Jeez…are you going to listen to some drunk? When you drink, you do feel warmer, but it’s only because blood moves to the surface of the skin due to dilation of blood vessels (vasodilation). You feel warmer for that reason, but your overall body temperature…your core temperature, goes down. This is the reason why these drunk idiots suffer from hypothermia in cold weather.”

Image used under a CC BY-ND 3.0 license